But
from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.
Mark 10:6-9
Mark 10 [4.] They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”
Mark 10 [5.] But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
Mark 10 [10.] In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her. If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Meaning:
The Pharisees had asked Jesus whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, and he had answered that Moses permitted a certificate of divorce “for your hardness of heart” (Mark 10:2-5). Now Jesus goes behind the law of Moses to the first pages of the Bible. Instead of debating the grounds on which a man may send his wife away, as the teachers of his day did, he asks what God intended when he made man and woman. He quotes two verses from the creation account, one from Genesis 1 and one from Genesis 2, and then draws his own conclusion: what God has joined, no human being should separate. The conversation took place in Judea and beyond the Jordan, in lands under Herod Antipas, whose own divorce and remarriage had cost John the Baptizer his life (Mark 6:12-20). These words were not spoken in safety.
- “From the beginning of the creation”
The Pharisees started with Moses; Jesus starts with creation. The law of divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 was given to a people already marked by sin, to limit the harm done when a marriage broke down. It required a written certificate, it left the woman free to remarry, and it forbade the first husband to take her back after she had become another man’s wife. But a rule that manages failure is not the same as God’s purpose. By appealing to “the beginning”, Jesus teaches that the original design is the true measure of marriage, and that later concessions must be read in its light. Matthew records the same answer: “from the beginning it has not been so” (Matthew 19:8).
- “God made them male and female”
The first quotation comes from Genesis 1:27: “male and female he created them.” Man and woman both bear the image of God, equal in dignity, and they were made different so that each might complete the other. Marriage is therefore not a human invention or a contract to be redrawn whenever a society chooses; it rests on the way God made humanity. In the second creation account God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18). The union of husband and wife belongs to the world that God looked on and called “very good”.
- “The two will become one flesh”
The second quotation comes from Genesis 2:24. A man “will leave his father and mother”. In Israel a son usually stayed within his father’s household, so this “leaving” describes a new first loyalty: the wife now comes before the parents. He “will join to his wife”, a word that means to cling or hold fast, the language of loyal, lasting attachment. And “the two will become one flesh”: a new family, a shared life and a physical union so close that husband and wife belong to each other like members of one body. Jesus underlines it: “so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.” Paul quotes the same verse and calls it a great mystery that points to Christ and his people (Ephesians 5:31-32), and he uses it to show how seriously God regards sexual union (1 Corinthians 6:16).
- “What therefore God has joined together”
Jesus’ conclusion is that God himself is the one who joins a husband and wife. The couple make their promises, but God witnesses them and makes the union. The prophet Malachi rebuked the men of Judah who were divorcing their wives: “Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth” (Malachi 2:14). In Jesus’ day the rabbis argued about the grounds for divorce. The school of Shammai allowed it only for serious sexual sin, while the school of Hillel allowed it for almost any cause. Jesus steps outside the debate. The real question is not “On what grounds may I leave?” but “Will I honour what God has done?” The words “let no man separate” apply to the husband and wife themselves, to anyone who would come between them, and to every court or ruler who claims the power to undo what God has joined. His disciples found the teaching so demanding that they asked him about it again in private (Mark 10:10-12).
The Significance of Mark 10:6-9
- Marriage is God’s work
Because God joins husband and wife, marriage is holy ground. Couples are called to guard their union with faithfulness, patience and forgiveness, and the church is called to honour and support marriages rather than treat them lightly.
- A word against hard hearts, and a promise of new ones
Jesus traced divorce to “hardness of heart”. The answer to a hard heart is not only a stricter rule but a new heart, which God promised to give his people (Ezekiel 36:26). Those whose marriages have broken can still find forgiveness, healing and a fresh start in Christ, who did not come to crush the bruised but to restore them.
- A picture of Christ’s love
The one-flesh union of husband and wife points beyond itself to the love of Christ for his people. Husbands are told to love their wives “as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it” (Ephesians 5:25-27). Every faithful marriage becomes a small picture of that self-giving love.
Cross-References:
Genesis 1:27: "God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them." The first verse Jesus quotes, showing that man and woman together reflect God’s image.
Genesis 2:24: "Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh." The founding statement of marriage in Scripture.
Malachi 2:14: "Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant." God witnesses the marriage covenant and calls faithlessness in it treachery.
Ephesians 5:31-32: "“For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.” This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly." Marriage as a picture of Christ and his people.
Conclusion: When the Pharisees asked how a man might lawfully divorce his wife, Jesus took them back to creation. God made humanity male and female, and in marriage a man leaves his parents, holds fast to his wife and becomes one flesh with her. Since God himself joins husband and wife, no one should separate them. Jesus’ words set the original design above every concession made for hard hearts, and they invite husbands and wives to see their marriage as God’s own work, to be guarded with faithful love.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible