"God hates divorce." Three words. Malachi never wrote them.
What the Hebrew says God hates is shalach, "putting away": throwing a woman out of the house while refusing her the legal Bill of Divorcement - the document that would set her free. He hates bondage and abandonment dressed up as faithfulness. Somewhere between the Hebrew and your English Bible, that got reversed, and the fundamentalist church has been punishing the wrong person ever since.
Look at what it sadly produced...
John Piper: "I don't think the Bible allows divorce and remarriage ever while the spouse is living. That's my radical, crazy, conservative, narrow, hard-nosed, very needed view."
John MacArthur: "Without exception, divorce is a product of sin, and God hates it. He never commands it, endorses it or blesses it."
One writer at The Gospel Coalition permits only temporary separation, even where the abuse is severe and repeated. A woman with a broken face is sent home to pray harder. Someone who escaped a spouse who was slowly killing him is told he may never love again.
That theology is not in the Bible. It is a terrible misunderstanding of ancient Jewish culture backed by mistranslation that hardened into a fundamentalist's doctrine.
Biblical Hebrew has no single word for divorce. It has two separate acts, and English flattens them into one. And underneath every word Jesus said about marriage sits an ancient Jewish argument over the agunah, the chained wife, a debate almost no Christian has ever heard of. Recover it and the contradiction disappears. Jesus never overturned Moses. He was defending the very women Moses set out to protect.
Christian and Divorced is short, direct, and built on the original languages. It hands you back the verses that were used against you. We’ll of course spend considerable time examining the relevant biblical passages, including Genesis 2, Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 24, Matthew 5 and 19, and 1 Corinthians 7.
If you are divorced, in the middle of one, trapped inside an abusive marriage, or already remarried and quietly afraid that God hates you and counts your marriage as adultery, read this book. By the last page, you will know that God never asked you to stay and be destroyed, and never once called your second chance a sin (and yes, I know the verses; the book doesn't skip any of them). He built the way out Himself (Exodus 21:10-11). It is still open.
About the author
Dr. Eitan Bar, a Jewish-Christian scholar with advanced degrees in Bible and theology, is a unique combination. As a native Hebrew speaker and a Jewish Bible scholar, he combines his Jewish background with his Christian education and faith to offer a fresh perspective on various biblical topics.
A Pastor's Recommendation:
"I’ve probably read a dozen books regarding the subject over the past few decades. Most prefer to focus on a traditional, “approved” interpretation of a handful of verses while ignoring the many others that simply don’t fit with or contradict their paradigm. This one is the best I’ve read, reconciling all the verses and going into detail regarding the Hebrew & Greek words, along with the cultural conditions in both the Old and New Testaments. If you were to read just one book on the topic, I’d recommend this one." (James P. Balson Jr., Author and Pastor)
