Mark 10:1-12

Mark 10:1-12. He cometh into the coasts of Judea, &c. This paragraph is explained at large in the notes on Matthew 19:1-11. From the beginning of the creation Therefore Moses, in the first chapter of Genesis, gives us an account of things from the beginning of the creation of this lower world. Does it not clearly follow from hence, that there was no creation here below, previous to that which Moses describes? Whosoever shall put away his wife, &c. Though this discourse of Christ be originally about divorce, yet all polygamy is also condemned by it, as the reader may see in the note on Matthew 19:4-6. And if a woman shall put away her husband, &c. “This practice of divorcing the husband, unwarranted by the law, had been (as Josephus informs us) introduced by Salome, sister of Herod the Great, who sent a bill of divorce to her husband Costobarus; which bad example was afterward followed by Herodias and others. By law, it was the husband’s prerogative to dissolve the marriage. The wife could do nothing by herself. When he thought fit to dissolve it, her consent was not necessary. The bill of divorce which she received was to serve as evidence for her, that she had not deserted her husband, but was dismissed by him, and consequently free.” Campbell.