• Matthew 5:32, 19:9 Exception Clause/Innocent Woman
• Does Deuteronomy 24 / The Law of Moses Prohibit Returning To The First Spouse?
• Look At The Betrothal View
• Romans 7 - Paul was talking about the Law not Marriage
• 1 Corinthians 7:15 - But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound
• 1 Corinthians 7:9 - It is better to marry than to burn It is not good for man to be alone
• 1 Corinthians 7:27-28 - But If Thou Marry Thou Hast not sinned
• 1 Corinthians 7:24 - Remain As You are Called
• Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
• Herod & Herodias
• 1 Corinthians 6:16 - Does Sex=Marriage? He which is joined to an harlot is one body?
• John 4 - Jesus & The Woman With 5 Husbands
• What about David & Bathsheba?
• What about Esther & King Ahasuerus?
• Hosea & Gomer
• Ezra Chapters 9 & 10 - Putting Away Unlawful Marriages
• Jeremiah 3 - God Divorced Israel
• "Put Away" Does Not Mean Divorce/A Divorce Certificate Dissolves A Marriage
• You Can’t Compare Homosexual Unions with Remarriage
• What About Abusive Marriages?
• What About The Children Of Remarriage?
• Divorce & Remarriage is Not the Unforgivable Sin
• Do Not Judge/Where Are Grace & Mercy?
• Divorce & Remarriage Before Salvation
• Men Can Divorce, Women Cannot?
• Unequally Yoked Marriages/Believers & Unbelievers
• Is Remarriage Adultery A One Time Act or Continuous Adultery?
• Does God Join All First Marriages?
• God Hates Divorce! Divorcing From A Remarriage Would Be A Sin?
• Were Remarriages In The Early Church?
• 1 Corinthians 7:11 - "Unmarried" Means The Divorced Is Free To Remarry
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
• Divorce, Remarriage, Churches, Ministries, Christian Leaders, Teachers & Divorce Rates
• Are Remarriages Blessed By God?
• Polygamy & Remarriage
• General Questions & Comments

"Look at the legalized adultery we call divorce. Men marry one wife after another and are still admitted into good society; and women do likewise. There are thousands of supposedly respectable men in American living with other men's wives, and thousands of supposedly respectable women living with other women's husbands." - R. A. Torrey From R.A. Torrey's book How to Pray, pages 94-95

R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) was a very well-known Christian writer, evangelist, pastor, graduate of Yale University, and was also the superintendent of Moody Bible Institute for 19 years.

TRINITY BARS THE DIVORCED.; No Remarriage in the Church or Any of the Chapels.

The clergy of Trinity Church announced yesterday that under no circumstances will divorced persons be married by any of the clergy of that Episcopal parish, nor will such marriages be permitted either in the church at Wall Street and Broadway or in any one of the parish's eight chapels. The announcement was as follows:
View full article New York Times
December 7, 1904, Wednesday

Frequently Asked Questions, Comments and Arguments about Marriage Divorce & Remarriage

Herod & Herodias

Comment/question
Herodias was the "guilty" spouse who left her husband Phillip with no reason to. Therefore her marriage to Herod was not a ligitimate one. I agree. However I believe Phillip would have been free to remarry.
Response
What do you do with Romans 7:2-3? Paul very clearly taught that even in the face of adultery, only death dissolved the marriage bond. Not one time in all of his teachings on marriage will you find that divorce dissolves a marriage. In Romans 7:2-3 his use of an adulterous wife is not by "accident". It is very purposeful and reaffirms his other teachings on the permanency of marriage (I Corinthians 7:39) as it also reaffirms Jesus' teachings that to enter into another marriage AFTER a divorce (for any reason) would be to commit adultery and as Paul says, to be called an adulteress/adulterer.

Comment/question
I suppose you will always have to believe this is a passage regarding remarriage when it's not at all. There is a law they broke and John said what it was and we find it in Scripture. John the Baptist said it was unlawful to have his brother's wife.

Leviticus 18:16
You may not have sex relations with your brother's wife, for she is your brother's.

It wasn't that Herod could not have married any other divorced woman or vice versa, but that he was married to his brother Philip's wife! That was the sin.
Response
It doesn't matter if they broke incest laws or he was committing adultery------either way their divorces and marriage to each other did NOT make them married in the sight of God. Herodias belonged to PHILIP----in spite of a divorce, in spite of a new marriage. She did NOT belong to Herod. God does not acknowledge(nor join together) ILLICIT marriages-----incestual, adulterous, or homosexual.

Comment/question
You can play a John the Baptist (by The Holy Spirit) was addressing points much deeper than of the adulator in the marriage between Herod, and Herod’s brother’s wife, making Herodias the wife of two uncles of Salome. John had been telling him, "It's not lawful for you to have her!" John addressed Herod yet Herodias was convicted.
Do you think if Herodias had divorced her husband John would not have lost his head, by that conviction? If Herod had been “lawful”.?
After all Herod Antipas appeased the Jewish people by openly observing their law.
Response
John specifically addressed Herodias as the wife of Philip. She DID divorce Philip----see Josephus' antiquities of the Jews (Book 18, chapter 5, section: 1, 4). She openly defied the laws of her country by divorcing her husband and marrying another man. Marriage while one had a living spouse was not allowed (Rom. 7:2-3). She not only was living as an adulteress, but Herod and she broke Jewish law as well by Him taking his brother's wife.

Do I think Herod would have cut off John's head anyways? Who knows, but we do know WHY his head was taken............rage.........rage by a woman who is rabidly protective of her sinful life.

Comment/question
If Herodias repented and became a believer (she was not a Christian) ... she would have to look at her situation carefully. If she would have decided to leave Herod to go back to Phillip (if he would take her back) I am not convinced she would be expected to before God. She was wrong to marry another man for sure. However playing musical marriages and possibly uprooting your children after you have been remarried for a number of years is not something I see the Lord wanting either.

Simply put ... I am not convinced that the Lord expects His people to leave their new spouse and family (kids) to go back to their former spouse. Were they wrong? Yes for sure they were ... however I am not so sure that staying in the marriage and raising the kids in a stable Christian home is something the Lord would judge as wrong.
Response
You don't sound too convinced.  Either in the case of Herodias, her 1st marriage is dissolved or it is not in the sight of God. We see by John's comments that it is NOT dissolved, that she and Herod are actually involved in an adulterous relationship, not a lawful marriage. If Herodias wanted out of that sin, her ONLY option would be to forsake her adultery.

You say the Lord would not want to uproot families, yet I gave you scripture that shows EXACTLY that due to disobedience. The act of repentance for the men in Ezra 9-10 WAS to leave their families (children and wives).

Comment/question
I guess the question is ... Does someone continue to commit adultery if they stay in the marriage even after they have confessed their sin to the Lord and admitted how wrong they were and that they should have stayed with their first spouse? ... I am not so sure they do continue to live in adultery.
Response
Again, you don't sound very convinced of your position. If the Lord has said that He does not recognize the divorce in the first place, then the "marriage" is not recognized either because in the Lord's eyes, the persons involved are STILL married to their covenant spouses-not to their new "spouses". To then say they should STAY in those relationships is to tell people to stay in their sin.........very dangerous counsel.

Comment/question
The Bible says Philips wife, John the Baptist could have simply said Philips Wife because Herod and Phillip were half-brothers, making their marriage wrong. Herodias was also Philips niece making that marriage wrong also...

The point is you can't use that example to make a blanket statement on divorce and remarriage....
Response
Like I asked someone else today..........who was Herodias' husband in the eyes of the Lord according to John?

You are saying that a new vow dissolves a previous one, this particular example in scripture shows that not to be the case as does Rom. 7:2-3.

Comment/question
As for the case of Herodias and Herod. It is clear that Herod somehow got Herodias to leave her husband and marry him.

Here is the crucial point -- Herodias' marriage to her husband Phillip was never subject to marital infidielity on the part of Philliip her husband. Herodias left Phillip and married Herod.

Had her husband cheated on her she would have had Biblical grounds to get divorced and remarry. That was not the case so yes her marriage to Phillip was still a valid and binding marriage in the sight of God.
Response
So it is your contention that if one WANTS their marriage, (Philip for example), then the marriage is still intact, though the other person is remarried. In that case of adultery(remarriage), adultery does not dissolve the original covenant. Do you believe then that it is up to the innocent on whether the marriage is valid or not? If they want their covenant partner back, they can stand and wait----causing their spouse to be in a continual state of adultery. If they don't want that partner, they can "release" them and then they wouldn't be in a constant state of adultery?

Comment/question
Ok so then we are the Phillips, did Phillip have the right to marry again?
Response
No, John clearly said that she was PHILIP's wife.........her divorce of him and subsequent remarriage to Herod did NOT dissolve her marital bond to Philip...........so if the bond was intact for her, it was for him as well...........

Comment/question
Herodias/Philip - The issue was the relationship was prohibited in the OT law i.e. his brothers wife, not that it was a second marriage.
Response
It doesn't matter whether it was incest OR adultery. The fact remains that she DID divorce Philip, DID marry Herod, and that marriage was STILL not lawful. Your belief that a remarriage/new vows/adultery nullifies the previous LAWFUL marriage, cannot be supported by scripture.

Comment/question
I'm confused. Since Philip was still alive, their marriage was illegal. That means that:

~Her abandonment of Philip to live with Herod didn't end her marriage - but doesn't the "Pauline Privilege say something different?
~Her relations with Herod didn't end her marriage - but wouldn't that consistute the adultery that Jesus and Shammai both said ends a marriage?
~Her divorce didn't end her marriage - which is supposedly what Deut. 24 says

That says to me that the sole determinant of the validity of a second marriage is whether or not the original spouse is living.

But that's crazy talk. I must've lost my head or something to believe that.
Response
I'm right with you, brother!

Here is the writing by Josephus about Herod/Herodias illicit marriage: http://library.untraveledroad.com/Ch/Josephus/Antiquities-Jews/Book18/Herod-Tetrarch.htm

Here's the footnote: "1This Herod seems to have had the additional name of Philip, as Antipus was named Herod-Antipas: and as Antipus and Antipater seem to be in a manner the very same name, yet were the names of two sons of Herod the Great; so might Philip the tetrarch and this Herod-Philip be two different sons of the same father, all which Grotias observes on Matthew 14:3. Nor was it, as I with Grotias and others of the Philip the tetrarch, but this Herod-Philip, whose wife Herod the tetrarch had married, and that in her first husband’s lifetime, and when her first husband had issue by her-; for which adulterous and incestuous marriage John the Baptist justly reproved Herod the tetrarch, and for which reproof Salome, the daughter of Herodias by her first husband Herod-Philip, who was still alive, occasioned him to be unjustly beheaded.' 

Comment/question
This footnote is just one more source that identifies the difficulty that John the Baptist had with the marriage being related to the fact that he married his brother's wife while his brother was still living.
Response
The footnote identifies Herod and Herodias' marriage as both incestuous AND adulterous. The simple fact of the matter is that even though they "married" each other, their marriage was unlawful. It is no different today when people commit adultery. They may think they are married, but what does Jesus say, "they commiteth adultery".................

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