Divorce

Separation and dissolution of marriage, including grounds for it. Part of Marriage.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.10 (29.10)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Separated spouses must stay unmarried because repentance is possible.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.4 (29.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks: does a husband sin by living with an adulterous wife?
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.5 (29.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A husband who knowingly stays with an unrepentant adulterous wife shares her sin.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.6 (29.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The husband should separate but not remarry; remarriage is adultery.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.7 (29.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks whether a repentant wife may return.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.8 (29.8)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The husband must take back a repentant wife; this is why he must not remarry. The rule applies equally to both.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.9 (29.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Idolatry is also adultery; do not live with one who persists in it.
• First Apology 15Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christ's teaching on purity, divorce, celibacy, repentance, love of enemies, generosity, and trust in God.
• Second Apology 2Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · A Christian wife who divorced her dissolute husband is denounced by him; her teacher Ptolemaeus and two others are executed under Urbicus simply for confessing the name of Christ.
• To Autolycus 3.13Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Scripture forbids unchastity even in thought; the Gospel forbids lustful looks, marrying a divorced woman, and divorce except for sexual immorality.
• A Plea for the Christians 33Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians marry only for children, many remain celibate, and marriage is for life: divorce and remarriage, and even remarriage after a spouse's death, are condemned as adultery.
• Miscellanies 2.23.145Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage must be kept pure like a sacred image, with prayer morning and night and decency in word and deed; Scripture forbids divorce except for sexual immorality and counts remarriage adultery while the other spouse lives.
• Miscellanies 2.23.146Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A wife is beyond suspicion through modesty, prayer, and care of her home; whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery, and the man who divorces her makes her an adulteress, as does the one who receives her, since otherwise she would return to her husband.
• Miscellanies 3.15.97Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “Better to marry than to burn” preserves mutual marital duty; “hate father, mother, wife” means not to be led by irrational impulses, since the same Scripture commands honoring parents; the married should not divorce, and the one vowed to celibacy should stay unmarried.
• Miscellanies 3.18.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul, citing the Lord, forbids divorce, requiring a separated wife to remain unmarried or be reconciled; he also makes good household management a qualification for bishops; this refutes those who say marriage belongs only to the old law.
• Miscellanies 3.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The seed of the sanctified is holy, and spouses sanctify each other; Christ forbade divorce except for sexual immorality, citing “the two shall be one flesh”; that there is no marriage after the resurrection, like the end of food, does not license indulgence now.
• Miscellanies 3.6.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's saying about eunuchs followed the disciples' question about divorce: they asked whether a man could remarry after putting away an adulterous wife; even pagan athletes and musicians practiced sexual abstinence.
• On Patience 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience makes peace and forgiveness possible, waits for the repentance of sinners (even a separated spouse), and is the source of the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.
• Against Marcion 1.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion baptized only the celibate and those who divorced, condemning marriage; Tertullian answers that marriage is good, blessed by the Creator, and that celibacy is better only as a free choice, while abolishing marriage would destroy both holiness and the human race.
• Against Marcion 4.34Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian argues that Christ's saying on divorce and remarriage forbids putting away a wife in order to marry another, allows divorce for adultery as Moses did, and was aimed at Herod's unlawful marriage; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus likewise upholds Moses and the prophets.
• Against Marcion 5.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 1 Corinthians 4–10 Tertullian finds the Creator's judgment, his festivals fulfilled in Christ, the resurrection of the body, the regulation (not abolition) of marriage, the one Father from whom are all things, and the law of the ox and the rock in the wilderness as figures of Christ.