Mark 10 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

1618 1619hers will marry another, she is sexually immoral.”1617(...continued)It is changed to the noun gunh, gune, “a woman,” by Alexandrinus, Bezae, Theta(with a different word-order), Family 13 of Minuscules, the “Majority Text,” the entire Latintradition, the Peshitta Syriac and the Harclean Syriac.The variant reading does not change the meaning of Mark, but is simply a slightlydifferent way of saying the same thing.1618The phrase avpolu,sasa to.n a;ndra auvth/j gamh,sh| a;llon, apolusasa ton andraautes gamese allon, “releasing (or ‘sending away’) the husband of hers, may marryanother,” is read by Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi Rescriptus (see), L, Delta (see), Psi(see), Minuscules 892, 2427, a few other Greek manuscripts and the Coptic tradition.It is changed to read avpolu,sh| to.n av ,ndra auvth/j kai. gamh,sh| av ,llw, apoluse tonandra autes kai gamese allo, “should send away the husband of hers, and should marryanother,” by Alexandrinus, the “Majority Text,” the Old Latin Manuscripts f, l, the LatinVulgage, the Peshitta Syriac and the Harclean Syriac.It is changed to read evxe,lqh| avpo. tou/ avndro.j kai. av,llon gamh,sh| ekselthe apo touandros kai allon gamese, literally, “may go out from the husband and another may marry,”by Bezae, Theta (see), Family 13 of Minuscules, Minuscules 28 (see), 565, 700 (see) anda majority of the Old Latin witnesses.Neither of these two variants changes the meaning of Mark; both say the same thingin slightly different ways, except that the original text is very emphatic concerning the roleof the woman in “sending away” or “releasing” her husband, while the last variant onlymentions “going out from him.”Jewish legal tradition did not consider the possibility of what Jesus envisions here--that a woman could exercise the same role as a man in "sending away" a mate, andmarrying another. Here, according to Mark, Jesus treated women as "equals" with men inthis matter of separation and remarriage.The first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, states in his Jewish Antiquities(XV, 259), "Some time afterwards Salome had occasion to quarrel with Costobarus [herhusband] and soon sent him a document dissolving their marriage, which was not inaccordance with Jewish law. For it is (only) the man who is permitted by us to do this, andnot even a divorced woman may marry again on her own initiative unless her formerhusband consents. Salome, however, did not choose to follow her country's law but actedon her own authority and repudiated her marriage, telling her brother Herod that she hadseparated from her husband out of loyalty to Herod himself."1619 The entire passage from the fourth word in verse 11 to the end of verse 12, o]j a'navpolu,sh| th.n gunai/ka auvtou/ kai. gamh,sh| a;llhn moica/tai evpV auvth,n\ kai. eva.n auvth.(continued...)899