NT Text: Matthew 5:31
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression + Contrast
Significance: The third antithesis cites Deuteronomy 24:1, which regulated the practice of divorce in Israel by requiring a written certificate (sepher keritut, "bill of cutting off") when a man dismissed his wife. Jesus does not overthrow this Mosaic concession but explains that it was given "because of the hardness of your hearts" (Matthew 19:8) — a temporary accommodation to human sin within the Mosaic covenant, not God's creational ideal. Jesus's authoritative response points back behind Deuteronomy 24 to Genesis 1-2 (the one-flesh union in creation) as the norm from which Moses permitted deviation. This antithesis illustrates a key hermeneutical pattern in Jesus's teaching: he honors the full canonical context of the law and adjudicates between what was accommodated due to sin and what represents the eschatological standard of the kingdom. The new Moses restores the primordial order that the old covenant's concessions had obscured.