Aorist vs. present infinitive in Matt 5:32

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Oct 19 06:51:54 EDT 2002


Forwarded for George Somsel <Polycarp66 at aol.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 00:48:12 EDT

In a message dated 10/18/2002 9:09:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
emory2oo2 at hotmail.com writes:

>Jeff:
>
>You wrote:
>
>---
>She is adulterated by the next man who takes her, but the
>>husband is the one who put her in the position of being adulterated by
>>sending her out with a document that claimed she was available.
>----
>
>This may be a technicality, but in this passage the woman is not
>adulterated by the next man; she is adulterated by the first man/husband.
>
>What does happen is that the next man becomes adulterated when he
>marries the woman (who has already been adulterated by the divorce).
>


If I understand your comment correctly, you are stating that ** by the very
act of divorce ** aside from whether the woman ever remarries she is
adulterated.  This is surely not correct.  It is the cohabitation with
another partner which is the adultery, not the divorce.  The point of the
saying is that the woman is expected to commit adultery by entering into
another relationship but that the onus is borne by the spouse who has
effected the divorce in the first place.

Sirach 23.22, 23 is somewhat instructive on this.  I will give the English
and a snippet in Greek

22 So it is with a woman who leaves her husband and provides an heir by a
stranger.   
23 For first of all, she has disobeyed the law of the Most High; second,
she has committed an offense against her husband; and third, she has
committed adultery through harlotry and brought forth children by another
man.

KAI TO TRITON EN PORNEIA EMOICEUQH KAI EX ALLOTRIOU ANDROS TEKNA PARESTHSEN.

Note that while Mt 5.32 uses the infinitive and Sir 23.23 uses the
indicative, both use the aorist passive.  It is the use of POIEI which
transfers the responsibility to the one effecting the divorce.

As a mildly theological note -- why is it that he causes her to commit
adultery?  "It is not good that man should be alone."  Otherwise, Paul's
injunction in 1 Cor 7.10 ff would lead to the conclusion that the party
whose unbelieving spouse divorces them becomes guilty of adultery by the
divorce even though he admonished them to remain single.

gfsomsel



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