Double Book Review: Divorce and Remarriage

Instone-Brewer, David. Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities. Wheaton, Ill: IVP, 2006, paperback, 212 pages. $15.00

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Instone-Brewer, David. Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2002, paperback, 366 pages. $28.00

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Subjects: Christian Living, Divorce & Remarriage, Counseling

David Instone-Brewer is Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House, a research library in biblical studies located in Cambridge, England. He previously served as a Baptist minister. He is now engaged in a five-year project to identify and explain rabbinic traditions before A.D. 70.

Introductory Comments

After a recent Christianity Today article on David Instone-Brewer and his position on divorce and remarriage, a discussion thread produced enough debate that it caused me to wonder about a few details of my own position. Since it was clear to me that nobody in the thread (with the possible exception of Mike Harding) seemed to have read Instone-Brewer’s book yet, I decided to order it. I was only in the preface when I found to my surprise that there was an earlier work intended for a more scholarly audience. That, too, I quickly ordered. Having read both works, I found them to be compelling and thorough. Many of the misgivings expressed in the discussion thread are addressed. Though only time, thought, and careful research will determine if Instone-Brewer’s conclusions stand the test of time, his work is worthy of consideration and answers many questions that have nagged at the collective mind of fundamental and evangelical scholarship regarding this issue. His work is more than just a theory, but the result of years of careful research. I strongly recommend both works, with suggested reading in the order the titles are given above.

Review

David Instone-Brewer was a Bible scholar first and a pastor only afterward. After completing his doctorate in First Century Rabbinic Judaism, he became the pastor of a Baptist church and began to deal with all of the divorce and remarriage issues with which any pastor would be familiar. Like all of us, he had always found the issue of divorce and remarriage in the Bible a thorny problem. As he puts it, a surface reading of the material raises these questions: Why did Jesus sometimes say no to divorce and sometimes allow it? Why did Jesus allow divorce only for adultery while Paul allowed it only for desertion? Why was remarriage equivalent to adultery, even though it was after a divorce for adultery? As he turned back to the Scriptures on divorce and remarriage for the first time in many years, he discovered that the passages said something entirely different to him in light of his recently acquired knowledge of the culture and thought of the time of our Lord.

Accessing the latest data, including Dead Sea Scrolls dealing with divorce, recently discovered Jewish Divorce Certificates, and rabbinic evidence recently dated to the first century A.D., Instone-Brewer builds a powerful case that the familiar passages on divorce and remarriage in the Gospels are purely and only addressing one issue—Who is right, Rabbi Hillel or Rabbi Shammai?

Most of us are already familiar with the debate. Rabbi Hillel taught that the unusual wording of Deuteronomy 24:1 allowed two grounds for divorce—immorality and “any cause.” The resulting “any cause” divorces had gained favor in first century Judaism and were accepted by most authorities. Rabbi Shammai taught that Deuteronomy 24:1 authorizes only immorality as a cause for divorce. So far, this argument is not so different from what many of us would preach. Here is where Dr. Instone-Brewer goes beyond what many of us have understood. He asserts that the only question Jesus answers is whether Deuteronomy 24:1 authorizes divorce for adultery alone or for any cause. Thus the answer should be applied only to the meaning of Deuteronomy 24:1, not as a universal teaching on the limits of divorce and remarriage as a whole.

Going backward from this point, he returns to the Pentateuch and unfolds the teaching of Moses on marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the context of the ancient cultures of the Jews and surrounding people, in such a way that it makes perfect sense (to me, for the first time). An important support to his argument is that all of the passages in the prophets in which God’s marriage and divorce with Israel or Judah are discussed actually make more sense when viewed through the lens of His cultural analysis. Having established rather well that Deuteronomy 24:1 is only one part of the complex biblical material on divorce and remarriage, he moves forward to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 7.

The Pauline material has always been troublesome. How do we reconcile what many of us would consider Paul’s exception (abandonment by a lost spouse) with what most of us would consider to be Jesus’ exception (fornication)? Many forced interpretations exist. Applying his Pentateuch-driven formula, Instone-Brewer demonstrates that the entire structure of 1 Corinthians 7 is built on Paul’s proceeding through the same material with the same understanding that he has brought to the Pentateuch material. Paul’s outline in chapter 7 is revealed to be driven by the actual marriage contract language of biblical times and how it would have been viewed by the Corinthian audience.

The most important part of Instone-Brewer’s theory is internal consistency. For the first time, using his theory, all biblical material on divorce and remarriage makes sense and hangs together in one unified structure. Even some internal conflicts of which I was previously unaware are resolved. His interpretation also removes one of the most troubling aspects of how we in Fundamentalism have dealt with divorce and remarriage: all too often our interpretation of the biblical material on this matter has forced us to insist that women stay in abusive marriages and to give aid and comfort to men who have no interest in loving their wives as Scripture demands.

I need to say almost nothing about the second book, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, except to note that if you had any doubts about Instone-Brewer’s theories, this book unfolds all of his research materials, both pro and con, and provides many hours of useful study for those who wish to dig into this topic, either to confirm or to question Dr. Instone-Brewer’s conclusions.

I encourage everyone to read these books. The information Instone-Brewer provides begs to be certified by a lengthy process of analysis by all of us. Has he missed something? Has he forced an interpretation? Has he been inconsistent with other passages in subtle ways that neither he nor this reviewer noticed? I strongly urge you all to read and post your comments. I further ask that you not post comments critical to Dr. Instone-Brewer’s conclusions without first reading at least one of the books. Such a debate already has occurred, and the thread for that is still open.

As you read, please remember that “holding the line against the tragically high-incidence of divorce in America” is not our calling. Our calling is to faithfully interpret and apply God’s Word. If that in the end requires us to throw out some interpretations that have become comfortable to us, so be it.

Mike Durning is the pastor of Mt. Pleasant Bible Church (Goodells, MI), where he has served for 14 years. He earned a B.S. in Bible from Bob Jones University. Mike has worked as a cook, an architectural designer, and asbestos inspector, a computer consultant, and a minister of the gospel. He now provides free service to his congregation in all of these areas except cooking, though he likes ministering to them in matters of faith most of all.

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