Matthew 5:27-32

Matthew 5:27 f. Adultery. Jesus again extends the scope of the prohibition from actions to thoughts. There is so mething more here than the seventh or even the tenth commandment, where the coveting is only a matter of property (cf. Job 31:1; Job 31:7). The papyri show that a married woman is probably meant in Matthew 5:28.

Matthew 5:29 f. The Right Eye and Hand (cf. Matthew 18:8 f. Mark 9:43 *).Right eye is an assimilation to right hand; the two eyes are really of equal value. The eye is the member that should keep a man from stumbling, instead of being a stumbling-block. To go into Gehenna implies the destruction of the material body; it is the opposite of entering the Kingdom, or life, or the joy of the Lord.

Matthew 5:31 f. Divorce (Luke 16:18; cf. Matthew 19:9; Mark 10:11 f.*). These passages should be considered together. In Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:5 the condemnation of divorce is emphasized by reference to God's purpose in the Creation. The change in the formula (Matthew 5:31) suggests that the passage was not originally part of the Sermon. On the strength of Deuteronomy 24:1 (really the restriction of a custom taken for granted, not a law prescribing divorce), divorce was practised on very trivial pretexts (cf. Matthew 19:3; Matthew 19:7). Jesus declares that, according to the true intention of God, divorce is sinful. The saving clause (except for fornication, i.e. unchastity) is absent from Mk. and Lk. (cf. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:10 f.); probably it is due not to Jesus but to the early Church's desire to meet a pressing ethical need which has not yet ceased. Jesus, in view of the near approach of the Kingdom laid down principles without reference to any limitations which the complexity of life now demands. It is taken for granted that the woman will re-marry, but since divorce is sinful and the first marriage still holds, the new marriage is sinful.