Marriage and Divorce in the New Testament V: The Romans Analogy

The next installment in our study of divorce and remarriage in the New Testament brings us to Paul’s analogy in Romans 7:1-6. The passage reads as follows:

Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were [aroused] by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Now, again, it must be noted that Paul is not addressing the issue of divorce here. His point is to use the concept of divorce as an analogy. If we have died, the law no longer has jurisdiction over us. That’s his point.

However, if what he says in the analogy is not true, then his point falls apart. So let’s look at what the analogy actually says.

Paul argues that the law binds (deō again) a wife to her husband while he lives. By “law,” one must ask, “To what law does Paul refer?” I would argue that he is referring to Genesis 2, since the law nowhere else binds the married woman until death. The word “law” many times refers to the entire Pentateuch and therefore can refer to the Book of Genesis. Paul also uses Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Mark quite a bit, so he is likely interpreting Genesis through the lens of what Jesus stated in Mark 10:6-12. Hence, he is likely referring to the “one flesh” union that is interpreted by Christ to be binding for life. He cannot be referring to Graeco-Roman law, as it is not binding to death, nor is there any other law in the OT that binds a man and a woman together for life. He could be referring to law in a loose sense of the oral law, but even then, there are numerous disagreements in the oral law, and the most common views that hold to an exception of adultery, or various other lesser exceptions, would break the analogy apart. Hence, it must be that he is referring to the law of Genesis 2, reflecting but not limited to the adultery laws in the Mosaic law, through the grid of Jesus’ interpretation and subsequent command, “What God has joined together, no man is to separate.” This is the same law that is considered by Paul to be “good” (v. 12, 17), just, holy, and spiritual (v. 14). And the fact that this particular law is read through the grid of Jesus’ teaching makes it something the believer ought to seek to glorify God in love for Him, his or her spouse, and others.

So the law is actually Scripture (Genesis read through the Gospel of Mark). Paul is arguing that the Scripture argues this way, not just some customary law. So what does the Scripture say about someone who is divorced and remarried?

For the married woman is deō ("bound") by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Notice, the application of the principle that the wife is bound to her husband while he is alive automatically makes her an adulteress if she is joined to another man. There is no exception clause here. If there was an exception clause, the analogy no longer carries any weight. After all, if marriage can be dissolved in some other way besides death, and the jurisdiction of the law is only dissolved by death, then the two are not alike. On the other hand, if the jurisdiction of the law is not really that binding in life, to where we can set it aside in certain circumstances, then one does not really need to die in order to remove its punishments. The whole analogy goes awry unless there is no exception to the principle that binds a husband and wife together for life, even if a civil divorce occurs. It is not while a decree is in force, the wife is bound to her husband, but it is his living that binds her as one to him until death do they part in the eyes of God. If he dies, Paul tells us here, it is then that she is free to remarry. The passage simply makes no sense otherwise. 

The attempt by commentators, such as Moo (413 fn. 24) to say that the argument retains its force, even if divorce and remarriage are possible is an empty assertion, and an attempt to salvage a tradition among Protestants that allows for the breaking of the covenant for other reasons beside death. The truth is that the analogy is false unless death is the only “way out.” If it isn’t, then it is not true that while her husband lives and she is joined to another she is an adulteress (the phrase genētai andri heterō clearly refers to being married to another man, as the verse indicates when it says she will not be considered adulteress if her husband dies and she is genomenēn andri heterō)— something that would not be said if the phrase merely referred to having an affair with a man as opposed to marrying him; and remarriage is only legal in the empire if a divorce has been first secured.

Paul, therefore, assumes the legitimacy of his analogy. As he has taught before in 1 Corinthians 7, only death separates the one flesh union that is bound by the covenant of marriage. When one of the parts of the “flesh” union dies, the union is broken, as flesh/the body is the only binding covenant connection.

As a side note, this is why the Sadducees think they can get Jesus in a bind with their argument concerning the resurrection. If the body returns, and that body was bound to another body, who’s wife is the woman who was married to seven brothers? Jesus counters this by saying that, in the resurrection, marriage no longer holds. Death has broken it forever. The glorified body is no longer bound to other bodies.

Similarly, the law ends at death. It does not come back because one is raised. As with the law of anything, so is the law of marriage to which Paul refers here. Death, and only death, breaks it.