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31 It was said, “Whoever would divorce his wife must give her a written notice.” 32 But I say to you that any man who divorces his wife, except for reasons of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery, and any man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 Again, you heard that it was said to your ancestors, “Do not swear falsely, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.” 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: not by heaven, which is God’s throne, 35 nor by the earth, which is God’s footstool, nor by Jerusalem, which is the great king’s city. 36 Do not swear by your head, because you can not make one white hair black. 37 Your yes should mean yes, and your no should mean no. Anything beyond those words is from the Evil One.
Comments
The passages in Mt 5.20-48 are sometimes called the Antitheses. Jesus offers teachings which begin with the formula, “You heard that it was said x, but I say to you y,” where x is a quotation from the OT and y is Jesus’ expanded understanding of the spirit of the quote. In 5.21 he quotes Ex 20.13 (“You will not murder.”), and in 5.27 he quotes Ex 20.14 (“You will not commit adultery.”).
In 5.31, Jesus is quoting Dt 24.1, which requires a man divorcing his wife to give her a written notice. In the patriarchal world of ancient Israel, women were dependent on their husbands. If a man divorced his wife, decency demanded that he give her written documentation of the divorce so she could prove she was single and marry another man.
In 5.33, Jesus gives a loose quotation of Lev 19.12, who prohibits swearing falsely. Jesus instructs his disciples not to swear at all, since, if they were consistently honest, swearing would be unnecessary. In both 5.31 and 5.33, Jesus refers to regulations from the OT that were meant to mitigate social evils: Sometimes men abandon their wives, so they must give their wives the freedom to find new husbands. Sometimes people lie, so when they swear to prove their truthfulness, they must not do so falsely. Jesus calls his followers to a higher morality: instead of mitigating these social evils, they are simply to avoid them.
