Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 9 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down  /  Chapter 24, How Christ's Teachings Disappeared  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 9
The divorce section describes adopting Levitical marriage restrictions “wholesale” and expecting divorces/annulments for prohibited degrees of kinship (with Henry VIII as an example); what does this reveal about how the hybrid decided which Old Testament laws to import, and how does it expose inconsistencies in modern Christian appeals to “biblical marriage”?
Another way to ask: What does the divorce section show about how the hybrid chose which Old Testament marriage laws to bring into the Church? How does that reveal mixed messages in how Christians today talk about “biblical marriage”?

Direct Answer It reveals the hybrid imported Old Testament laws selectively but heavily whenever they supported the new Old Testament-based model—bringing Levitical marriage rules “wholesale” while not adopting Jewish ceremonial and dietary laws. The transcript doesn’t directly critique modern “biblical marriage” debates, but it does show how people can appeal to “the Bible” selectively depending on what fits their desired model.

Support from Transcript:

  • Their guiding principle: “if something had been lawful for the Jews, it now was considered lawful for Christians.”
  • On divorce, the Church allowed divorce only for “porneia,” interpreted in the West as violating “Levitical laws” on forbidden degrees.
  • “Since the Old Testament had now become the model for the Church, the Church brought most of these Levitical laws on marriage wholesale into the hybrid.”
  • If a marriage violated these laws, a man “was expected to divorce his wife”—what we’d call “an annulment.”
  • Yet the system looked like Israel “but without the Jewish ceremonial and dietary laws,” showing selectivity.
Discussion Follow-ups What makes Christians decide some Old Testament commands are timeless but others are not? When people say “biblical marriage,” are they carefully following Scripture’s context—or borrowing whichever texts support their preferred outcomes?

Jumpstarter 9 of 10
Back Questions Next