by Dr. Neil Chadwick
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During the past few years I have been brought into contact with several situations where women have been mistreated by their Christian husbands. Some times this represents physical and emotional abuse, and at times what could well be called "spiritual abuse". This happens when a husband attempts to control his wife by using threats to her spiritual well being, her relationship with God and even her eternal salvation. A favorite weapon of course is the "submit" doctrine, husbands insisting that if their wives do not obey their every command, that disobedience represents sin against God. These women are also told that if they consider divorce, even when there is infidelity and abuse, they will be living in sin for the rest of their lives, especially if they were ever to remarry. Now it is very difficult for anyone to speak up about this for fear of being accused of "getting soft" on divorce. So the women suffer in silence, and the church seems content to continue to neglect, and even join in with accusations against these women. Having no where else to turn, they begin to align themselves with feminist "anti men" groups. Not only do these abused wives exit from the church, but their children follow right behind them. Unfortunately, translators and interpreters of Scripture have not helped the situation. While Biblical injunctions concerning divorce were intended to assist women who in ancient times often had little more value than slaves, these same texts have been used by men to add to the burden of women rather than give them some protection. The fact of the matter is that the word translated "divorce", in the text where Jesus is said to disallow it, should have been translated "put away" as it was translated in every other place in the New Testament. "Put away" is also the meaning of the Hebrew word found in Malachi 2:14-16, "For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth 'putting away'". The Greek word is "apoluo", and refers to something different than "divorce". According to the Old Testament Law, a written divorce was allowed when a marriage relationship could no longer be maintained. This provided legal standing for the woman, and permitted her to remarry without being guilty of adultery (Deuteronomy 24:1,2). In the prevailing culture, even among the Jews, men who were dissatisfied with their wives would merely "put them away". By not actually divorcing the woman, she would be kept around to be used as desired or needed for gratification or to do slave labor. The divorce law (this is a distinctly different word in both Greek and Hebrew) was provided by Moses to provide protection for the woman. When a man "put away" his wife rather than divorcing her, he was following a very common but cruel custom, one which was also contrary to the law of Deuteronomy 24. When a woman was "put away", and if she were to go and be with another man, she would be guilty of adultery, as would also the man who took her in. It must not be maintained then that a woman (or man) who has been divorced is living in continual sin because she (or he) has remarried. It would do well for the church to be more caring and supportive for the abused women of our day, and determine to give more careful attention to a more correct interpretation of the Scripture on this important subject.
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