Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 10:2-12

"And there came unto him Pharisees, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away [his] wife? trying him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. But Jesus said unto them, For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of the creation, Male and female made he them. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh: so that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house the disciples asked him again of this matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her: and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery." — Mark 10:2-12 (ASV)

And the Pharisees came to him. (See Notes on Matthew 19:3-12). We are not surprised to find St. Mark omitting the “hard saying” about the eunuchs of Matthew 19:12. It was hardly likely, even if he knew it, to seem suitable to him for the Gentile readers for whom he wrote his Gospel. Probably, however, for this reason, it was not part of the current teaching of the Church and was recorded by St. Matthew as something exceptional.

And in the house. St. Mark’s narrative is, on the whole, much shorter than St. Matthew’s; but this detail of the question coming from the disciples after they had entered the house is given by him only.

And if a woman shall put away. This is also peculiar to St. Mark, and it is noteworthy as the only passage in our Lord’s teaching that distinctly states the case referred to, and passes sentence on the wife who divorces her husband and marries again, as well as on the husband who divorces his wife, and the wife who is so divorced. All three cases are dealt with on the same grounds:

1. That the marriage relationship ought to be indissoluble, and that only one cause justifies or permits its dissolution.
2. That any further permission of divorce is merely a concession to the hardness of men’s hearts, for the avoidance of greater evils.