Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 10:11

"And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her:" — Mark 10:11 (ASV)

Mark records no response of the Pharisees to Jesus’ teaching about divorce. Instead he moves directly to Jesus’ private teaching of the Twelve, who wanted a clarification of the teaching Jesus had just given. Jesus gave them a straightforward answer: divorce and remarriage by husband or wife is adultery. Jesus did what the rabbis refused to do: he recognized that a man could commit adultery against his wife. In rabbinic Judaism a woman by infidelity could commit adultery against her husband; and a man, by having sexual relations with another man’s wife, could commit adultery against that other man. But a man could never commit adultery against his wife. Jesus, by putting the husband under the same moral obligation as the wife, raised the status and dignity of women.

Furthermore, Jesus went on to recognize the right of a woman to divorce her husband (v.12), a right not recognized in Judaism. Matthew, writing for Jews, omits v.12; but Mark, writing for Romans, includes it.