John Gill Commentary Mark 10:12

"and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery." — Mark 10:12 (ASV)

And if a woman shall put away her husband
Not that there was the same law, or the same sufferance by the law of Moses, for a woman to put away her husband, as for the husband to put away the wife; nor was it practised among the Jews, unless it came to be in use about this time, in their declining state, having taken it from the Gentiles; of whom they say^F19 that they divorce one another: says R. Jochanan, (wtvrgm wtva), "his wife divorces him", and gives him the dowry." So Salome, the sister of Herod the Great, sent a bill of divorce to her husband Costobarus; and in this she was followed by Herodias, the daughter of Aristobulus, as Josephus^F20 relates; and which his own wife also did.

And by such examples the practice might prevail among the Jews: and we have a story told us^F21 of a holy man, and a holy yeoman, who were married, and had no children, (hz ta hz wvrgw), "and they divorced one another"; and the one went and married a wicked woman, and she made him wicked; and the other went and married a wicked man, and she made him righteous. But I do not find that this practice was approved, or established by any rule, or canon.

They allow^F23 a woman indeed to write her husband's divorce of her, with proper witnesses; and they also oblige one who was espoused in her minority, and refuses her husband when adult, to write a bill of refusal; the form of that, and the rules about it, take as follows^F24:

``they do not allow one to marry a minor; he who marries a minor that is fatherless, and she is not pleased with her husband, she may refuse, and go away, and she has no need of a divorce from him, because the espousals of a minor are not perfect espousals, as we have explained: and so a minor, whom her father marries, and she becomes a widow, or is divorced while she is a minor, she is as one fatherless, in, her father's life time; and if she marries while she is a minor, she may refuse--how does she refuse? she says before two witnesses, I do not like such a one my husband; or I do not like the espousals with which my mother or my brother forced me, and married me, or espoused me, and I, a minor, to such a one, the son of such a one; and now I reveal my mind before you, that I do not like him, and I will not abide with him: and we have searched such a one; and this is manifest to us, that she is yet a minor, and we have written, sealed, and given this to her, for her justification and a clear proof;'' ``Such a one, the son of such a one, witness. Such a one, the son of such a one, witness.''

And such a writing was called, (Nwaym jg), "a bill of refusal", and sometimes (Nynwaym yrjv), "letters of refusal"^F25, but a bill of divorcement given by a married woman to her husband, I have not met with. Justin Martyr speaks^F26 of a Christian woman who (repoudion) (dousa), "gave a bill of divorce" to her husband: Such things, therefore, have been done, and might be done in Christ's time, to which he refers; and concerning which he says that if a woman does so,

and be married to another, she committeth adultery ;
with the man she marries, and against, and to the injury of her former husband, unjustly left by her.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F19: Bereshit Rabba, sect. 18. fol. 15. 3.
• F20: Antiqu. l. 15. c. 11. & 18. 7.
• F21: Bercshit Rabba, sect. 17. fol. 14. 4.
• F23: Misn. Edict. c, 2. sect. 3.
• F24: Maimon. Hilch. Gerushim, c. 11. sect. 1, 8, 9, 11.
• F25: Misn. Bava Metzta, c. 1. sect. 8.
• F26: Apolog. 1. p 42. Yid. Euscb. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 17.