Tertullian — Against Marcion 34
But Christ prohibits divorce , saying, Whosoever puts away his wife, and marries another, commits adultery ; and whosoever marries her that is put away from her husband, also commits adultery . Luke 16:18 In order to forbid divorce , He makes it unlawful to marry a woman that has been put away. Moses , however, permitted repudiation in Deuteronomy: When a man has taken a wife, and has lived with her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he has found unchastity in her; then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand, and send her away out of his house. Deuteronomy 24:1 You see, therefore, that there is a difference between the law and the gospel — between Moses and Christ? To be sure there is! But then you have rejected that other gospel which witnesses to the same verity and the same Christ.
There, while prohibiting divorce , He has given us a solution of this special question respecting it: Moses , says He, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to give a bill of divorcement; but from the beginning it was not so Matthew 19:8 — for this reason, indeed, because He who had made them male and female had likewise said, They two shall become one flesh; what therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder. Matthew 19:4, 6 Now, by this answer of His (to the Pharisees ), He both sanctioned the provision of Moses , who was His own (servant), and restored to its primitive purpose the institution of the Creator, whose Christ He was. Since, however, you are to be refuted out of the Scriptures which you have received, I will meet you on your own ground, as if your Christ were mine.
When, therefore, He prohibited divorce , and yet at the same time represented the Father , even Him who united male and female, must He not have rather exculpated than abolished the enactment of Moses ? But, observe, if this Christ be yours when he teaches contrary to Moses and the Creator, on the same principle must He be mine if I can show that His teaching is not contrary to them. I maintain, then, that there was a condition in the prohibition which He now made of divorce ; the case supposed being, that a man put away his wife for the express purpose of marrying another.
His words are: Whosoever puts away his wife, and marries another, commits adultery ; and whosoever marries her that is put away from her husband, also commits adultery , Luke 16:18 — put away, that is, for the reason wherefore a woman ought not to be dismissed, that another wife may be obtained. For he who marries a woman who is unlawfully put away is as much of an adulterer as the man who marries one who is un- divorced . Permanent is the marriage which is not rightly dissolved; to marry, therefore, while matrimony is undissolved, is to commit adultery . Since, therefore, His prohibition of divorce was a conditional one, He did not prohibit absolutely; and what He did not absolutely forbid, that He permitted on some occasions, when there is an absence of the cause why He gave His prohibition.