Ehescheidung und Wiederheirat in der neutestamentlichen Überlieferung

Abstract

The New Testament tradition on divorce and remarriage shows a number of significant variations due to altered cultural settings, different legal necessities and actual demands in early Christian communities. The New Testament texts under scrutiny in this paper testify to the early Christian writers’ great faithfulness to Jesus’ prohibition of divorce (and maybe remarriage as well) and at the same time, their willingness to adapt this prohibition to new situations. The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, Michael Theobald, and William Loader reflect three different approaches to the topic of divorce and remarriage in the New Testament. In this article, I compare and provide a critical analysis of these approaches, focusing on the specific exegetical decisions as well as the crucial elements of interpretation. I argue for the possibility of divorce and remarriage in the case of adultery, as presented in the Gospel of Matthew (and maybe going back to Jesus himself).