Mark 10:1,2 - Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

10:1

We now move into chapter 10, and start with a controversial topic, marriage and divorce. Jesus entered the region of Judea, crossing the Jordan. As usual crowds of people came to him, so the growing opposition of the religious leaders was not deterring the people from seeking Jesus. “As was His custom, He taught them. I know I keep going on about this, but the repeated emphasis that Mark puts on the fact that Jesus taught the people is so important. We need to learn from Jesus, the people in our societies need to learn from Jesus. Without Jesus we are following foolish ways. Teaching and preaching are fundamental parts of the church's mission and task, both to church members and to society as a whole.

10:2

Again, as usual, some Pharisees came to test Jesus. They asked Him “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Then, as now, the issue was contentious, the Pharisees were trying to drive a wedge between Jesus and the people. At the time there were two main schools of thought. The school of Shammai, probably  the minority view, allowed divorce only for serious cases of immorality. The Hillel school allowed divorce for almost any reason. My view is that to properly interpret Jesus’ teaching we need to realise that many followed the Hillel line, and used it as justification for trading in their current wife for a younger and prettier model! They would do so claiming they were following the Law of Moses, and were good Jewish boys. Note that this line devalues women. When a society has lax morals it is women and children who suffer the most.