Aramaic Word Study – Bill of Divorcement  – Gett – Gimmel Teth

Matthew 19:9 “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”  NIV

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Note: this is a summary of the second In Depth Study this week in our series on Divorce and Remarriage.  To read the full article on this consider joining us on our All Access subscription site at www.hebrewwordstudy.com

In Matthew 19:9 Jesus said that whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.  This is how it is read in the Greek text.  The word divorce in the Greek is apolyse meaning divorce, release, or dismiss.  The Greek text really reads “And marries another (Greek: allen) commits adultery and whoever marries another who is divorced (apoleimenen) commits adultery. “Many modern translations, like the NIV, simply put  another and one who is divorced together making it clear that any remarriage after divorce is adultery. 

The Aramaic reads a little different and seems to allow a little wiggle room. The Aramaic text reads “Whoever divorces his wife that is in the Aramaic  dala’ gavara’ and nasav (translated as marries commits adultery.  Dala’ gavara’ means without a charge of adultery.   Note, Jesus does not say marries another, but nasav another.  The word nasav is a colloquial expression, literally translated as take but means simply to have sex with another.  

But look at what else Jesus say.  In the Greek it says: “if you marry a divorced woman you are committing adultery.” The Aramaic says almost the opposite.  The word divorced in Aramaic shrita.  That word is not used here; instead, the word shavita is used.  This means a woman who is not divorced or an undivorced woman.  If you marry a woman who is not yet divorced, you are committing adultery. 

Now we are approaching something that Christians who are not familiar with first century Judaism can easily overlook.  There were among many Jews two levels of divorce. There is the divorce decree you can receive from a civil court signed by an earthly judge, but this is not recognized by God. Mark 10:9: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”  The Jews recognize, as the New Testament confirms, that no human being can separate or grant a divorce from a couple God has joined together. That is why a civil divorce is not recognized by the Catholic church and a divorced couple can never remarry in the Catholic church or take communion unless the church grants an annulment which is basically saying there was never a marriage in the eyes of God. The Orthodox church grants an ecclesiastical divorce which is a little different but still it is acknowledging that God has granted this separation. The Jews require two or three rabbis who are in agreement that the marriage is beyond hope to grant a divorce. What is bound on earth, as in a religious marriage ceremony, is bound in heaven and what is released on earth by two or three who are in agreement is released in heaven. We find Jesus confirming this rabbinical authority in Matthew 18:18. 

It was and is very difficult to get a religious divorce both in the Orthodox, Catholic and Jewish faith than it is to get one from a civil court, as it was among the Jews during Jesus’s day. The religious divorce among Jews is a twelve line document in Aramaic called a gett. It is not easy to get. The Talmud teaches that if a woman burns her husband’s dinner just out of spite or causes him to eat unkosher food without telling him, then that is grounds or proof that such a marriage is irreconcilable when the couple live only to make each other’s lives miserable.  Such a marriage destroys the holiness of the union and the picture that was meant from the beginning to illustrate God’s relationship to us. In Matthew 19:7-8 Jesus said divorce was never God’s intention but the hardness of the heart made it necessary.  The word hardness in Aramaic is qasheyuth which is the word for stiff neck. Someone with a stiff neck can see only in one direction.  We would call such a person narrow minded, one who is not open to any suggestion of change in themselves nor the world around them.  In a divorce decree this is known as irreconcilable differences. That means that there is no hope of any change for the better in that relationship, it will only get worse. 

Because a gett was so hard to obtain many Jewish men went to a civil court to get a divorce and considered themselves good to go with another woman. Not so according to Jesus. A civil court does not have the power to release what has been bound in heaven therefore in the eyes of God that guy with a civil divorce is still married in the eyes of God and if he marries another woman he commits adultery and causes the woman to commit adultery as well. 

In fact, rabbis make it so difficult to obtain a gett, that if a divorce is granted by God there is no going back. If the woman marries another man and if that man divorces her or if she is widowed the first husband cannot remarry her. It is a one way door. That only remarriage that Jesus indicates that is forbidden is one where a gett has not been granted or a husband seeks to remarry the wife he divorced. The gett is literally declaring the first marriage was not the will of God in the first place and to remarry is out of the will of God. 

Note Isaiah 50:1 God is asking: “Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away?” Maybe we might seek a divorce from God, but God doesn’t seek one from us. He will not obtain a gett to be separated from us.  If he did grant us a divorce from our marriage to Him it would be impossible to return to Him as it is impossible for the former husband to return to his former wife if she were remarried and divorced or widowed. This might be the picture Paul is painting in Hebrews 6:4-6; ‘For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (5) And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, (6) If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

If one person in the marriage does not want the divorce, a gett cannot be granted. We may seek to divorce ourselves from God by seeking other gods, but God will seek every avenue to bring us into restoration. His heart is not hardened and thus He will never sign a gett to divorce Himself from us. Be glad he doesn’t because if He did, there would be no hope of reconciliation. 

Note: this is a summary of the second In Depth Study this week in our series on Divorce and Remarriage.  To read the full article on this consider joining us on our All Access subscription site at www.hebrewwordstudy.com

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