Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 5:31

"It was said also, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:" — Matthew 5:31 (ASV)

It has been said—The better manuscripts give, "But it was said," as if stating an implied objection to the previous teaching. Men might think that they could avoid the sin of adultery by taking the easy course of divorcing one wife before marrying another.

Whosoever shall put away...—The quotation is given as the popular Rabbinic explanation of Deuteronomy 24:1, which, as our Lord teaches in Matthew 19:8, was given because of the hardness of men’s hearts to prevent even greater evils. The words of the precept were vague—If she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her—and the two schools of casuists took opposite views of its meaning.

The stricter party of Shammai held that the “uncleanness” meant simply unchastity before or after marriage. The followers of Hillel, on the other hand (like Milton among Christian teachers), held that anything that made the wife’s company distasteful was a sufficient ground for repudiation.

Even a moralist generally as pure and noble as the son of Sirach took the laxer view in this matter: If she does not go as you would have her, cut her off from your flesh, and give her a bill of divorce, and let her go . It is noteworthy that our Lord, whose teaching on other matters (especially the Sabbath) might have been largely claimed by the school of Hillel, on this matter of divorce gives His definitive approval to the teaching of Hillel's rival.