Jumpstarter 7 of 10

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Question 7

In Mark 10 Jesus includes, “If a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery,” and David connects that to Roman law; what does that detail reveal about how the early church had to live as a minority culture under pagan legal structures, and where do you see parallels with Christians adapting to modern legal norms?

Another way to ask: What does Jesus mentioning a woman divorcing her husband (Mark 10) show about Christians living under Roman laws that weren’t Christian? Where do you see similar pressure for Christians to fit today’s legal or cultural rules?

Direct Answer David treats Mark 10 as evidence that Christians were living under Roman legal realities where women could divorce, even though Jewish law didn’t allow it; Jesus still calls such remarriage “adultery.” The early church, then, had to obey Christ against the grain of normal legal permissions—much like Christians today face laws that make divorce easy and reshape headship and home authority.

Support from Transcript:

Mark 10: “If a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
David notes this was “not” allowed “under Jewish law,” but “allowed under Roman law for a woman to divorce her husband.”
He points out Mark gives “no exception,” and Luke likewise: “Whoever divorces… commits adultery… no exception is given.”
Earlier he remarks modern law is “topsy-turvy” compared to the Old Testament—often “the wife sends the husband out… essentially become the head of the home.”
He also quotes Tertullian describing Roman society where women “long for” divorce “as though it were the natural consequence of marriage.”

Discussion Follow-ups What legal “permissions” today pressure Christians to behave like everyone else? How do church members subtly treat what is legal as what is moral?

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Jumpstarter 7 of 10