Matthew 19:9: “And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committed adultery: and whoso married her which is put away doth commit adultery.” KJV
Matthew 19:9 “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.” NIV
When I was a child I was taught the King James Version was the Bible. We were not to trust the few other versions of the Bible out there. Even the Catholic Bible, the Douay Rheims version was a perverted version simply because it said things differently than the King James Version. In fact, I remember when our church welcomed a new pastor I heard that he was specifically instructed to never say: “In the Greek this word means…” We had our King James Version and to suggest that the Greek might offer a different word was almost blasphemous. Today with over 150 modern English translations of the Bible, the internet, Christian radio and television people realize that the King James Version is only a translation like any other and even the KJV has gone through a number of revisions. I still have Christians, however, who come to me and ask: “Hebrew? Is that what the Old Testament was written or was it Greek?”
Now recent Archaeological discoveries and collaboration with scholars we have come to recognize that Jesus did not speak Greek or the language in which the inspired portion of the New Testament was written. Jesus spoke Aramaic, in fact a Northern Old Galilean dialect of Aramaic which had to be translated into the Greek. In fact many scholars are coming to believe that the Gospels may have been written in Aramaic and translated into Greek twenty years later. Thus, I believe there is value in studying the New Testament in the Aramaic. The Aramaic is after all a Semitic language unlike the Greek. The poetic flow of the language, the freedom of the language and its flexibility is unlike the hard, exacting, scientific nature of the Greek language. Aramaic is a language of love and relationships. Greek is a language for mathematicians and scientist. I could picture Jesus speaking this language with its many colorful metaphors, words plays, and pictures. The Northern dialect of Aramaic, also known as the Old Galilean dialect is filled with many idioms and colloquialisms.
When I read the Gospels in the Aramaic I find little that contradicts my Greek New Testament, I simply find a richer and deeper understanding and appreciation for the Words of Jesus. The Eastern Church believes that the Gospels were originally written in Aramaic and later translated into Greek. We really can’t be sure one way or the other. I believe the Gospel writers wanted to preserve the rich poetic quality of the teachings of Jesus. The Eastern Church also retained its Semitic influence and the influence of the Jews where Constantine in the Western Church bumped the Jews out of the church with his pagan influence and therefore lost its Semitic nature.
As I said, I find little contradictions between the Aramaic text and the Greek text; it is just that God’s loving nature is so much better reflected in Jesus as he spoke His words in Aramaic rather than Greek. However, on occasion I do run across some issues that fly against the Greek text. In most cases they are not major issues, but this one really is and I would like to address it and let you decide for yourself and let the peace of God rule your hearts as to which version you will accept (Colossians 3:15).
In Matthew 19:9 Jesus said that whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery. This is how it is read in the Greek text. The word divorce in the Greek is apolyse meaning divorce, release, or dismiss. The Greek text really reads “And marries another (Greek: allen) commits adultery and whoever marries another who is divorced (apoleimenen) commits adultery. “ Many modern translations, like the NIV, simply put the two another and one who is divorced together making it clear that any remarriage after divorce is adultery.
The Aramaic reads a little different and seems to allow a little wiggle room. The Aramaic text reads “Whoever divorces his wife dala’ gavara’ and nasav commits adultery. Dala’ gavara’ means without a charge of adultery. Yeah, they had no fault divorce in those days also. But note, Jesus does not say marries another, but nasav another. The word nasav is a colloquial expression, literally translated as take but means simply to have sex with another. The thinking of Jesus’s day was not unlike that of today. A man cannot have sex with another woman while married, but if he is divorced, he is allowed to sleep around until he gets married. After all, no harm done, no broken hearts, just sleeping around, testing the waters so to speak to find someone that satisfies you. Jesus is saying: “Just because you are divorced does not give the right to sleep around, you have sex with someone outside vows of marriage then you are committing adultery.
But look at what else Jesus say. In the Greek it says: “if you marry a divorced woman you are committing adultery.” The Aramaic says almost the opposite. The word divorced in Aramaic shrita. That word is not used here; instead, the word shvikta is used. This means a woman who is not divorced or an undivorced woman. If you marry a woman who is not yet divorced, you are committing adultery. There is the belief today as in that day that if a woman was just separated from her husband, you could sleep with her while the husband was working out the details of the divorce. Again the word that is used is nasav which simply means to have sex with, and does not necessarily imply marriage.
In the Aramaic text, Jesus was not declaring that once divorced you cannot remarry as indicated in the Greek text, but once divorced you do not have the right to sleep around. Jesus was preserving the sanctity of marriage, that sex only takes place within marriage vows. Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 allowed for divorce. He did not forbid remarriage. Jesus ratified Deuteronomy 24:1-4. He did not like divorce but due to man’s hardness of his heart, He allowed it. He did however, set some pretty strong rules in the interim between marriages and that is you do not play around, particularly with a woman who is still within the vows of a marriage.
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