The Early Church on Remarriage after Divorce

The Shepherd of Hermes 

 I say to him, “Sir, permit me to ask thee a few more questions.” “Say on,” saith he. “Sir,” say I, “if a man who has a wife that is faithful in the Lord detect her in adultery, doth the husband sin in living with her?” “So long as he is ignorant,” saith he, “he sinneth not; but if the husband know of her sin, and the wife repent not, but continue in her fornication, and her husband live with her, he makes himself responsible for her sin and an accomplice in her adultery.” “What then, Sir,” say I, “shall the husband do, if the wife continue in this case?” “Let him divorce her,” saith he, “and let the husband abide alone: but if after divorcing his wife he shall marry another, he likewise committeth adultery.” “If then, Sir,” say I, “after the wife is divorced, she repent and desire to return to her own husband, shall she not be received?” “Certainly,” saith he, “if the husband receiveth her not, he sinneth and bringeth great sin upon himself; … For this cause ye were enjoined to remain single, whether husband or wife; for in such cases repentance is possible.

Justin Martyr
All who have been twice married by human law are sinners in the eye of our Master.

Clement of Alexandria
"That the Scripture counsels marriage and allows no release from the union is expressly contained in the law, "You will not put away your wife, except for the cause of fornication." And it regards as fornication the marriage of those separated while the other is alive . . . "He who takes a woman who has been divorced commits adultery."

Mark Minucius Felix
We gladly abide by the bond of a single marriage. In the desire of procreating, we know either one wife or none at all.

Cyprian
A wife must not depart from her husband. Or, if she should depart, she must remain unmarried.

Lactantius
He who marries a woman who is divorced from her husband is an adulterer.

The Apostolic Constitutions
And the Lord says, "What God has joined together, no human is to separate." For the wife is the partner for life, united by God into one body from two. However, he who divides back into two that body that has become one--he is the enemy of the creation of God and the adversary of His providence . . . If a layman divorces his own wife and takes another --or if he marries one divorced by another--let him be excommunicated.

Tertullian
Being a heretic by his very nature . . . he holds to the view of remarriage.

Origen
But now, contrary to what was written, even some of the rulers of the church have permitted a woman to marry--even when her husband was living, doing what is contrary to what was written. For it is said, "A wife is bound so long as her husband lives."

Jerome

I find joined to your letter of inquiries a short paper containing the following words: ask him, (that is me,) whether a woman who has left her husband on the ground that he is an adulterer and sodomite and has found herself compelled to take another may in the lifetime of him whom she first left be in communion with the church without doing penance for her fault. As I read the case put I recall the verse they make excuses for their sins. We are all human and all indulgent to our own faults; and what our own will leads us to do we attribute to a necessity of nature. It is as though a young man were to say, I am over-borne by my body, the glow of nature kindles my passions, the structure of my frame and its reproductive organs call for sexual intercourse. Or again a murderer might say, I was in want, I stood in need of food, I had nothing to cover me. If I shed the blood of another, it was to save myself from dying of cold and hunger. Tell the sister, therefore, who thus enquires of me concerning her condition, not my sentence but that of the apostle. Do you not know, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.Romans 7:1-3 And in another place: the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.1 Corinthians 7:39 The apostle has thus cut away every plea and has clearly declared that, if a woman marries again while her husband is living, she is an adulteress. You must not speak to me of the violence of a ravisher, a mother’s pleading, a father’s bidding, the influence of relatives, the insolence and the intrigues of servants, household losses. A husband may be an adulterer or a sodomite, he may be stained with every crime and may have been left by his wife because of his sins; yet he is still her husband and, so long as he lives, she may not marry another. The apostle does not promulgate this decree on his own authority but on that of Christ who speaks in him. For he has followed the words of Christ in the gospel: whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commits adultery.Matthew 5:32 Mark what he says: whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.Whether she has put away her husband or her husband her, the man who marries her is still an adulterer. Wherefore the apostles seeing how heavy the yoke of marriage was thus made said to Him: if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry, and the Lord replied, he that is able to receive it, let him receive it. And immediately by the instance of the three eunuchs he shows the blessedness of virginity which is bound by no carnal tie. Matthew 19:10-12

. . . it is commanded that when the first wife is dismissed a second may not be taken while the first lives"


Ambrose
"No one is permitted to know a woman other than his wife. The marital right is given you for this reason: lest you fall into the snare and sin with a strange woman. 'If you are bound to a wife do not seek a divorce'; for you are not permitted, while your wife lives, to marry another."

"You dismiss your wife, therefore, as if by right and without being charged with wrongdoing; and you suppose it is proper for you to do so because no human law forbids it; but divine law forbids it. Anyone who obeys men ought to stand in awe of God. Hear the law of the Lord, which even they who propose our laws must obey: 'What God has joined together let no man put asunder"'

Augustine
“Neither can it rightly be held that a husband who dismisses his wife because of fornication and marries another does not commit adultery. For there is also adultery on the part of those who, after the repudiation of their former wives because of fornication, marry others. This adultery, nevertheless, is certainly less serious than that of men who dismiss their wives for reasons other than fornication and take other wives. Therefore, when we say: ‘Whoever marries a woman dismissed by her husband for reason other than fornication commits adultery,’ undoubtedly we speak the truth. But we do not thereby acquit of this crime the man who marries a woman who was dismissed because of fornication. We do not doubt in the least that both are adulterers. We do indeed pronounce him an adulterer who dismissed his wife for cause other than fornication and marries another, nor do we thereby defend from the taint of this sin the man who dismissed his wife because of fornication and marries another. We recognize that both are adulterers, though the sin of one is more grave than that of the other. No one is so unreasonable to say that a man who marries a woman whose husband has dismissed her because of fornication is not an adulterer, while maintaining that a man who marries a woman dismissed without the ground of fornication is an adulterer. Both of these men are guilty of adultery”

There are countless other examples, as well as councils that say the same.

The church's position seems to be the same as that held by the modern scholars Gordon J. Wenham and William E. Heth in their book, Jesus and Divorce. In their view, the exception clause in Matthew refers only to divorce, allowing the innocent party to be separated from one committing unrepentant adultery. The clause does not, however, appear after the phrase "and marries another." Hence, it was concluded that divorce is only permissible in the case of unrepentant adultery, but remarriage to another is never permitted while the previous spouse lives. This is a legitimate interpretation of the clause that does not violate five objections in the previous post.However, it is in tension with two of the seven: the response of the Pharisees is concerning divorce, not remarriage. They are shocked and are arguing that Moses allowed them to divorce at least for some reason. Likewise, Jesus' statement concerning the one flesh union is that it is inseparable because God has now made the two one and they are no longer capable of being divided into two. Hence, His command that no human is to separate what God has joined together is contrary to the idea that one can divorce a legitimate union for some reason because this would allow a human to separate what God has joined together.