Commentary on Deuteronomy (passages on divorce and remarriage) (complete)
Authorship disputed: These scholia on the Pentateuch historical books and Samuel are printed under Ephrem's name in Assemani's edition. Only the commentaries on Genesis and Exodus are generally accepted as his; whether the others come from Ephrem's school or from a later compilation is disputed.
Source: Assemani 1737 (Latin translation: J. S. Assemani (1737), public domain).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Route 3: the Syriac original is not in hand in readable form; the source is Assemani's Latin translation (1737), translated by Claude with a note; the Latin is never shown.
Chapter 22
22.13Assemani 1737 1
Translated by Claude from J. S. Assemani (Latin translation of the Syriac)'s Latin translation (1737) of the Syriac; neither is shown
"If a man takes a wife and says, 'I did not find in her the signs of virginity'": from this he would be seeking a pretext for accusing the woman. If the defilement is proved, the woman shall be stoned; but if, on the contrary, it is found that the woman was accused of a false charge, the slanderer shall be punished and fined a hundred shekels of silver. So if he is rich, he shall be stripped and pay the fine; if he is poor, he shall be stripped as well and give himself as a pledge. And if the accuser, once dismissed, goes on harassing his wife, since he cannot divorce her, the judges shall avenge the injury. Moreover, so that husbands would not kill wives they hated, whom they could not crush by invented charges, the bill of divorce was granted. Yet the Lord taught that Moses allowed it to the Hebrews because of the hardness of their hearts, so that they put away their wives even apart from the cause of fornication.
Deut 22:13 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 22:14 (allusion, high confidence) · Deut 22:19 (allusion, high confidence) · Deut 24:1 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 19:8 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 5:32 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: On the law of the slandered bride (Deut 22:13–19): the slanderer is punished and may not divorce her; the bill of divorce was granted so that hated wives would not be killed, and the Lord taught that Moses allowed it for hardness of heart.
- Translated from Assemani's Latin version (Rome, 1737) of the Syriac commentary transmitted under Ephrem's name; the Syriac is not used here, so this is a translation of a translation (route 3), and the Latin is not shown.
- The commentaries on the books after Exodus in the Roman edition come from a catena; their attribution to Ephrem is disputed.
- "Since he cannot divorce her": Deut 22:19 forbids the slanderer to put his wife away all his days.
- "Apart from the cause of fornication": an allusion to Matt 5:32 and 19:9.
Topics: Marriage, Divorce and remarriage
Cite (SBL): Ephrem, Comm. Deut. 22.13 (Assemani 1737 1; trans. Sophia Scriptura from the Latin of J. S. Assemani (Latin translation of the Syriac), 1737, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ephrem-commentarius-deuteronomium/22-13). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ephrem-commentarius-deuteronomium/22-13
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Translation: Translated by Claude from Assemani's Latin version (Rome, 1737) of the Syriac (route 3: the Latin intermediary is not shown); no public-domain English exists, so the translation was re-read against the Latin.
Chapter 24
24.1Assemani 1737 1
Translated by Claude from J. S. Assemani (Latin translation of the Syriac)'s Latin translation (1737) of the Syriac; neither is shown
"If a man takes a wife and sleeps with her, and if afterwards, divorced, she goes out of his house, he shall not take her back nor receive her into his house." This is so that, by visiting the house of her former husband, she does not give the second man, whom she married after being put away, occasion to suspect that both, having changed their minds, are returning to the camp they had abandoned. Again, it is so that the woman, sprinkled with such suspicion, does not remain abandoned like an uninhabitable and uncultivated country. For the first husband would not want to take back a woman whose company and life together had become hateful to him, nor would the second want to keep one whose faithfulness had begun to be suspect to him.
Deut 24:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 24:2 (allusion, high confidence) · Deut 24:4 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: On Deut 24:1–4: a divorced wife who has remarried may not return to her first husband, lest the second husband suspect them both and she be left abandoned by both.
- Translated from Assemani's Latin version (Rome, 1737) of the Syriac commentary transmitted under Ephrem's name (route 3); the Latin is not shown. Attribution disputed (see 22.13).
- The lemma condenses Deut 24:1–4; the commentator reads the prohibition as protecting the second marriage and the woman.
Topics: Marriage, Divorce and remarriage
Cite (SBL): Ephrem, Comm. Deut. 24.1 (Assemani 1737 1; trans. Sophia Scriptura from the Latin of J. S. Assemani (Latin translation of the Syriac), 1737, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ephrem-commentarius-deuteronomium/24-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ephrem-commentarius-deuteronomium/24-1
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-ephrem-commentarius-deuteronomium-24-1) · Report an error
Translation: Translated by Claude from Assemani's Latin version (Rome, 1737) of the Syriac (route 3: the Latin intermediary is not shown); no public-domain English exists, so the translation was re-read against the Latin.