ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – UNDIVORCED – SHEVAQ  שבק  Shin Beth Qop 

Matthew 19:9 “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery. “  NIV.

This verse has caused a lot of heartache and misery among Christians. A woman or even a man can find themselves in an abusive marital relationship and according to the way this verse reads the only way out is if the abusive mate commits adultery, but if not you have to stick it out no matter how troubling, fearful or dangerous it is to live in that relationship.

In reading this verse in the Aramaic I find something a little different and I offer it to you just for you consideration.

In Greek the word used for divorce is apolyse which means divorce, release or dismiss.  The way the Greek text reads is “And marries another commits adultery and whoever marries another who is divorced (apoleimenen) commits adultery.”  Many modern translations simply put the two anothers and the who is divorced together making it clear that any remarriage (except in cases of adultery) is in itself adultery. 

However in the Aramaic text it is a little more detailed and very difficult to translate into Greek.  Actually, Aramaic is very difficult to translate into any language.  Still the text in the Aramaic reads, whoever divorces his wife without a charge of adultery.  You see they had no fault divorce in those days also.  

Now here is where the rubber meets the road linguistically speaking.  In our English and Greek text is says and marries another.  However in the Aramaic text the word married is not used, instead it is the word  nasav which is delicately rendered as take but really refers to a sexual relationship. If used in a Pael form it would mean rape.  However, in this case it is in a simply Qal form and would mean consensual sex.

The thinking in that day is much like today.  A man is separated from his wife and planning a divorce so he feels that he can now sleep around.  Jesus is saying, “no such luck, you do not have sex outside the marriage vows.”   This takes it even further, Jesus is saying, “even if you are divorce you cannot have sex until you have made vows to that woman.” Premarital sex is apparently forbidden.

But we are not finished yet.  Look what else Jesus says: “If you marry a divorced woman you are committing adultery.”  The Aramaic says almost the opposite of what the Greek text says.  The word divorce in Aramaic is shrita but the word Jesus used in the Aramaic and what is found in the Pershitta, the Aramaic text, is the word shevaq which means a woman who is not yet divorced or an undivorced woman.   There was the belief in that day as today that if a woman was separated from her husband you could sleep with her while her husband worked out the divorce.  That is what Jesus was forbidding. 

In the Aramaic text, Jesus was not declaring that once divorced you cannot remarry as indicated in the Greek text, but once divorced you cannot sleep around.  Jesus was preserving the sanctity of marriage and that sex is to only take place within the context of marriage vows.  If a man is not willing to take on marriage vows with the woman he is sleeping with, he is committing adultery.  If man is sleeping with a woman who is still bound by the vows of marriage to another man, he is committing adultery.  This does not mean that the vows cannot be terminated.  Under the Mosaic and ancient laws as well as the laws of our land, if two people mutually agree to break a contract, it can be broken. If one party refuses to break that contract, you’re stuck. When two parties sign a divorce decree, they are no longer bound to their vows to each other either on earth or in heaven. God does not like it, but like Jesus said, Moses gave a law of divorce because of the hardness of man.  God did provide a way of dissolving a marriage but only if agreed by both parties.

The Jewish faith, of which Christianity has its roots, does allow for divorce and remarriage and I believe Jesus would have been stoned on the spot if He really said what our Greek and English translations render His words as.

Oh and just one more thing I would like to offer just for your consideration only. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”   If a woman is a very strict legalist and feels she must wait for an abusive husband to commit adultery before she can divorce him let me just offer this, there are few men who have not committed adultery  according to Jesus’s definition in Matthew 5:28.