Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 19:4

"And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made [them] from the beginning made them male and female," — Matthew 19:4 (ASV)

Have you not read...? —The answer to the question is found not in the words of a code of laws, but in the original facts of creation. That represented the idea of man and woman as created for a permanent relationship to each other, not as left to unite and separate as appetite or caprice might prompt.