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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, May 23, 1980
Page 3
So it is in the case in which Jesus used the Greek word porneia.
The translators of the King James Bible in 1611 knew that Jesus intended
the definition "fornication'' as an act prior to marriage.
Consider what Jesus said in Matthew 5:32, "But I say unto you, That
whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is
divorced committeth adultery."
Consider that! If in this case porneia should have been translated
''adultery" instead of premarital fornication, then, in English look how
absurd would be Jesus' statement. He would have said, whosoever shall
put away his wife, saving for the cause of adultery, causeth her to
commit adultery. In other words, he divorced her for the sin of adultery,
and causes her to commit again the same act for which he divorced her.
THAT WOULD NOT MAKE SENSE!
Further, same sentence (verse 32): "whosoever shall marry her" (thc1t
is put away for adultery) "committeth adultery." Ile who would marry this
particular divorced woman would be committing adultery ONLY BECAUSE SHE
IS STILL THE WIFE of the man who divorced her!
To say that Jesus gave ADULTERY as grounds for divorce introduces
CONFUSION, and misrepresents what Jesus said to be RIDICULOUS!
The only way that a man marrying a divorced woman commits adultery
is if the woman is STILL the bound wife of the man who divorced her.
But when Jesus gave the ONLY grounds as premarital FORNICATION, that can
mean ONLY that the marriage WAS NOT BINDING--God had never BOUND that
marriage in the first place. The woman had committed fornication prior
to marriage, had not told the man, and therefore HE WAS DEFRAUDED--the
marriage was never binding! WHY? Because GOD KNEW, but the man did not.
God NEVER BOUND that marriage. The man was unknowingly defrauded. If
she had told him, and he forgave and married her anyway, then the marriage
would have been BOUND by GOD. In that case if he divorced her he did not
do so legally in God's sight, and he CAUSED HER, by marrying another, to
commit adultery.
In both Matthew 5 and Matthew 19, both the translated English words
"fornication" and "adultery" are mentioned.
In the original Greek the
word translated "fornication" was porneia, and a different Greek word
was used for adultery, rnoicheia. If Jesus had meant "adultery" to be t-he
only grounds for divorce and remarriage, he would have used the word
moicheia instead of porneia. The very fact He did use the Greek porneia
in the same sentence with moicheia shows definitely he did not intend��
porneia to mean adultery--unfaithfulness after marriage.
In other passages on the subject, such as Mark J0:5-9, we find
Mark's version of the same conversation recorded in Matthew 19.
There
Jesus gave NO grounds for divorce, once bound in marriage--"What there
fore God hath joined (bound) together, let not man put asunder."
Here Jesus spoke of a marriage BOUND BY GOD. He gave NO grounds
whatsoever for divorce or remarriage. In Matthew 19 He was speaking of
a case where God had NOT �OUND.