Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 16:18

"Every one that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth one that is put away from a husband committeth adultery." — Luke 16:18 (ASV)

Whosoever putteth away his wife.—On the special points involved, see Notes on Matthew 5:31-32; Matthew 19:3–9. Here, again, the explanation that has been given of the parable of the Unjust Steward offers the only satisfactory explanation for the introduction of a topic apparently so irrelevant. The doctrine and discipline of divorce which the Pharisees taught, lowering the sacredness of home life and ministering to the growing laxity of men’s morals, was precisely what was meant by the steward’s instructing the debtors to take their bill and write fifty, or eighty measures, instead of the hundred. (See Note on Luke 16:6-7.)