Bible verses that the Early Church usually quoted...
Matthew 5:31-32 – It was said, “Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Matthew 19:3-12 – Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”
Luke 16:18 – Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
Mark 10:11-12 – And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Romans 7:2-3 – For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.
Malachi 2:15-16 – “Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 – Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:18-19 – Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 7:8:16 – But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
1 Corinthians 7:39 – A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
Breaking a covenant doesn’t release you from it:
Jeremiah 31:32 – “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 3:1 – If a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man’s wife,
will he return to her?
Would not that land be greatly polluted?
You have played the harlot with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
says the Lord.
Jeremiah 3:8 – And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
Jeremiah 3:14 – “Return, O faithless sons,” declares the Lord; “For I am a master to you.”
Galatians 3:15 – To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
Jeremiah 14:21; Leviticus 26:44; Zechariah 11:10; Jeremiah 11:10; Jeremiah 31:32; Deuteronomy 31:16; Deuteronomy 31:20; Leviticus 26:15; Ezekiel 44:7; Genesis 17:14; Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 33:20; Isaiah 33:8; 1 Kings 15:19; 2 Chronicles 16:3; Ezekiel 17:15; Ezekiel 17:16; Ezekiel 17:18;
Early Church Quotes:
The Shepherd of Hermas:
“And I said to him, Sir, if any one has a wife who trusts in the Lord, and if he detect her in adultery, does the man sin if he continue to live with her?
And he said to me, As long as he remains ignorant of her sin, the husband commits no transgression in living with her. But if the husband know that his wife has gone astray, and if the woman does not repent, but persists in her fornication, and yet the husband continues to live with her, he also is guilty of her crime, and a sharer in her adultery.
And I said to him, What then, sir, is the husband to do, if his wife continue in her vicious practices?
And he said, The husband should put her away, and remain by himself. But if he put his wife away and marry another, he also commits adultery.
And I said to him, What if the woman put away should repent, and wish to return to her husband: shall she not be taken back by her husband?
And he said to me, Assuredly. If the husband do not take her back, he sins, and brings a great sin upon himself; for he ought to take back the sinner who has repented. But not frequently. For there is but one repentance to the servants of God. In case, therefore, that the divorced wife may repent, the husband ought not to marry another, when his wife has been put away. In this matter man and woman are to be treated exactly in the same way. Moreover, adultery is committed not only by those who pollute their flesh, but by those who imitate the heathen in their actions. Wherefore if any one persists in such deeds, and repents not, withdraw from him, and cease to live with him, otherwise you are a sharer in his sin. Therefore has the injunction been laid on you, that you should remain by yourselves, both man and woman, for in such persons repentance can take place. But I do not,
said he, give opportunity for the doing of these deeds, but that he who has sinned may sin no more. But with regard to his previous transgressions, there is One who is able to provide a cure; for it is He, indeed, who has power over all.”
(The Shepherd, Hermas, 150 AD,
Book II.Commandment 4)
Justin Martyr:
“In regard to chastity, [Jesus] has this to say: ‘If anyone look with lust at a woman, he has already before God committed adultery in his heart.’ And, ‘Whoever marries a woman who has been divorced from another husband, commits adultery.’ According to our Teacher, just as they are sinners who contract a second marriage, even though it be in accord with human law, so also are they sinners who look with lustful desire at a woman. He repudiates not only one who actually commits adultery, but even one who wishes to do so; for not only our actions are manifest to God, but even our thoughts” – (First Apology 15 [A.D. 151]).
Athenagoras:
“For we bestow our attention, not on the study of words, but on the exhibition and teaching of actions, — that a person should either remain as he was born, or be content with one marriage; for a second marriage is only a specious adultery. For whosoever puts away his wife, says He [Christ], and marries another, commits adultery; not permitting a man to send her away whose virginity he has brought to an end, nor to marry again. For he who deprives himself of his first wife, even though she be dead, is a cloaked adulterer, resisting the hand of God, because in the beginning God made one man and one woman, and dissolving the strictest union of flesh with flesh, formed for the intercourse of the race.“ – (Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, 178 AD, Chapter 33)
Athenagoras is saying, “If anyone severs himself from his wife – that’s the Greek word – and marries another woman, he’s an adulterer, even if his previous wife has died. The fact is, the husband severed himself from his first wife and married another, so he remains an adulterer even after his first wife dies. He doesn’t automatically cease to be an adulterer upon his first wife’s death.
Irenaeus:
And not only so, but the Lord also showed that certain precepts were enacted for them by Moses, on account of their hardness [of heart], and because of their unwillingness to be obedient, when, on their saying to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement, and to send away a wife?” He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he permitted these things to you; but from the beginning it was not so;” thus exculpating Moses as a faithful servant, but acknowledging one God, who from the beginning made male and female, and reproving them as hard-hearted and disobedient. And therefore it was that they received from Moses this law of divorcement, adapted to their hard nature. Irenaeus (A.D. 180) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.1 pg.480
That erring Samaritan woman—who did not remain with one husband, but committed fornication by [contracting] many marriages… Irenaeus (A.D. 180) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.1 pg.445
Clement of Alexandria:
“That Scripture counsels marriage, however, and never allows any release from the union, is expressly contained in the law: ‘You shall not divorce a wife, except for reason of immorality.’ And it regards as adultery the marriage of a spouse, while the one from whom a separation was made is still alive. ‘Whoever takes a divorced woman as wife commits adultery,’ it says; for ‘if anyone divorce his wife, he debauches her’; that is, he compels her to commit adultery. And not only does he that divorces her become the cause of this, but also he that takes the woman and gives her the opportunity of sinning; for if he did not take her, she would return to her husband” – (Miscellanies 2:23:145:3 [A.D. 208]).
Theophilus:
And concerning chastity, the holy word teaches us not only not to sin in act, but not even in thought, not even in the heart to think of any evil, nor look on another man’s wife with our eyes to lust after her. Solomon, accordingly, who was a king and a prophet, said: Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you: make straight paths for your feet.
Proverbs 4:25 And the voice of the Gospel teaches still more urgently concerning chastity, saying: Whosoever looks on a woman who is not his own wife, to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Matthew 5:28 And he that marries,
says [the Gospel], her that is divorced from her husband, commits adultery; and whosoever puts away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery.
Matthew 5:32 Because Solomon says: Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goes in to a married woman shall not be innocent.
Proverbs 6:27-29 – To Autolycus, book 3, chapter 13
Tertullian:
But grant that these argumentations may be thought to be forced and founded on conjectures, if no dogmatic teachings have stood parallel with them which the Lord uttered in treating of divorce, which, permitted formerly, He now prohibits, first because from the beginning it was not so,
like plurality of marriage; secondly, because What God has conjoined, man shall not separate,
— for fear, namely, that he contravene the Lord: for He alone shall separate
who has conjoined
(separate, moreover, not through the harshness of divorce, which (harshness) He censures and restrains, but through the debt of death) if, indeed, one of two sparrows falls not on the ground without the Father’s will.
Therefore if those whom God has conjoined man shall not separate by divorce, it is equally congruous that those whom God has separated by death man is not to conjoin by marriage; the joining of the separation will be just as contrary to God’s will as would have been the separation of the conjunction.
So far as regards the non- destruction of the will of God, and the restruction of the law of the beginning.
But another reason, too, conspires; nay, not another, but (one) which imposed the law of the beginning,
and moved the will of God to prohibit divorce: the fact that (he) who shall have dismissed his wife, except on the ground of adultery, makes her commit adultery; and (he) who shall have married a (woman) dismissed by her husband, of course commits adultery. A divorced woman cannot even marry legitimately; and if she commit any such act without the name of marriage, does it not fall under the category of adultery, in that adultery is crime in the way of marriage? Such is God’s verdict, within straiter limits than men’s, that universally, whether through marriage or promiscuously, the admission of a second man (to intercourse) is pronounced adultery by Him. For let us see what marriage is in the eye of God; and thus we shall learn what adultery equally is. Marriage is (this): when God joins two into one flesh;
or else, finding (them already) joined in the same flesh, has given His seal to the conjunction. Adultery is (this): when, the two having been — in whatsoever way — disjoined, other — nay, rather alien — flesh is mingled (with either): flesh concerning which it cannot be affirmed, This is flesh out of my flesh, and this bone out of my bones.
For this, once for all done and pronounced, as from the beginning, so now too, cannot apply to other
flesh. Accordingly, it will be without cause that you will say that God wills not a divorced woman to be joined to another man while her husband lives,
as if He do will it when he is dead;
whereas if she is not bound to him when dead, no more is she when living. Alike when divorce dissevers marriage as when death does, she will not be bound to him by whom the binding medium has been broken off.
To whom, then, will she be bound? In the eye of God, it matters nought whether she marry during her life or after his death. For it is not against him that she sins, but against herself. Any sin which a man may have committed is external to the body; but (he) who commits adultery sins against his own body.
But — as we have previously laid down above — whoever shall intermingle with himself other
flesh, over and above that pristine flesh which God either conjoined into two or else found (already) conjoined, commits adultery. And the reason why He has abolished divorce, which was not from the beginning,
is, that He may strengthen that which was from the beginning
— the permanent conjunction, (namely), of two into one flesh:
for fear that necessity or opportunity for a third union of flesh may make an irruption (into His dominion); permitting divorce to no cause but one — if, (that is), the (evil) against which precaution is taken chance to have occurred beforehand. So true, moreover, is it that divorce was not from the beginning,
that among the Romans it is not till after the six hundredth year from the building of the city that this kind of hard-heartedness
is set down as having been committed. But they indulge in promiscuous adulteries, even without divorcing (their partners): to us, even if we do divorce them, even marriage will not be lawful. – On Monogamy, chapter 9
(Describing pagan society in general) Where is that happiness of married life ever so desirable that distinguished our earlier manners as the result of which for about 600 years there was not among us a single divorce? Now, women have every member of the body heavy laden with gold; wine-bibbing is so common among them, that the kiss is never offered with their will; and as for divorce, they long for it as though it were the natural consequence of marriage. Tertullian (A.D. 198) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.3 pg. 22-23
DECEPTIVELY USED QUOTE:
You have been bound to a wife, seek not loosing; you have been loosed from a wife, seek not a wife.
But if you shall have taken to (yourself) a wife, you have not sinned;
because to one who, before believing, had been loosed from a wife,
she will not be counted a second wife who, subsequently to believing, is the first: for it is from (the time of our) believing that our life itself dates its origin. – On Monogamy, chapter 11
But Tertullian (and the Scriptures) are explicitly clear that being “loosed” comes through death, not from divorce, in the following sentences:
So, then, in the very same passage in which he definitely rules that each one ought permanently to remain in that calling in which he shall be called;
adding, A woman is bound so long as her husband lives; but if he shall have fallen asleep, she is free: whom she shall wish let her marry, only in the Lord,
he hence also demonstrates that such a woman is to be understood as has withal herself been found
(by the faith) loosed from a husband,
similarly as the husband loosed from a wife
— the loosing
having taken place through death, of course, not through divorce; inasmuch as to the divorced he would grant no permission to marry, in the teeth of the primary precept. – On Monogamy, chapter 11
Mark Minucius Felix:
But we maintain our modesty not in appearance, but in our heart we gladly abide by the bond of a single marriage; in the desire of procreating, we know either one wife, or none at all. Mark Minucius Felix (A.D. 200) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 4, pg. 192
Origen:
“Just as a woman is an adulteress, even though she seem to be married to a man, while a former husband yet lives, so also the man who seems to marry her who has been divorced does not marry her, but, according to the declaration of our Savior, he commits adultery with her” – (Commentaries on Matthew 14:24 [A.D. 248]).
“A wife is bound for so long time as her husband lives, but if her husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord,” was said by Paul in view of our hardness of heart and weakness, to those who do not wish to desire earnestly the greater gifts and become more blessed. But now contrary to what was written, some even of the rulers of the church have permitted a woman to marry, even when her husband was living, doing contrary to what was written, where it is said, “A wife is bound for so long time as her husband lives,” and “So then if while her husband lives, she shall be joined to another man she shall be called an adulteress,” not indeed altogether without reason, for it is probable this concession was permitted in comparison with worse things, contrary to what was from the beginning ordained by law, and written.” Origen (A.D. 246), Commentary On Matthew, Book XIV, Chapter XXIII
But perhaps some Jewish man of those who dare to oppose the teaching of our Saviour will say, that when Jesus said, “Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress,” He also gave permission to put away a wife like as well as Moses did, who was said by Him to have given laws for the hardness of heart of the people, and will hold that the saying, “Because he found in her an unseemly thing,” is to be reckoned as the same as fornication on account of which with good cause a wife could be cast away from her husband. But to him it must be said that, if she who committed adultery was according to the law to be stoned, clearly it is not in this sense that the unseemly thing is to be understood. For it is not necessary for adultery or any such great indecency to write a bill of divorcement and give it into the hands of the wife; but indeed perhaps Moses called every sin an unseemly thing, on the discovery of which by the husband in the wife, as not finding favour in the eyes of her husband, the bill of divorcement is written, and the wife is sent away from the house of her husband; “but from the beginning it hath not been so.” After this our Saviour says, not at all permitting the dissolution of marriages for any other sin than fornication alone, when detected in the wife, “Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress.” But it might be a subject for inquiry if on this account He hinders any one putting away a wife, unless she be caught in fornication, for any other reason, as for example for poisoning, or for the destruction during the absence of her husband from home of an infant born to them, or for any form of murder whatsoever. And further, if she were found despoiling and pillaging the house of her husband, though she was not guilty of fornication, one might ask if he would with reason cast away such an one, seeing that the Saviour forbids any one to put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication. In either case there appears to be something monstrous, whether it be really monstrous, I do not know; for to endure sins of such heinousness which seem to be worse than adultery or fornication, will appear to be irrational; but again on the other hand to act contrary to the design of the teaching of the Saviour, every one would acknowledge to be impious. I wonder therefore why He did not say, Let no one put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication, but says, “Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress.” For confessedly he who puts away his wife when she is not a fornicator, makes her an adulteress, so far as it lies with him, for if, “when the husband is living she shall be called an adulteress if she be joined to another man;” and when by putting her away, he gives to her the excuse of a second marriage, very plainly in this way he makes her an adulteress. But as to whether her being caught in the act of poisoning or committing murder, furnishes any defence of his dismissal of her, you can inquire yourselves; for the husband can also in other ways than by putting her away cause his own wife to commit adultery; as, for example, allowing her to do what she wishes beyond what is fitting, and stooping to friendship with what men she wishes, for often from the simplicity of husbands such false steps happen to wives; but whether there is a ground of defence or not for such husbands in the case of such false steps, you will inquire carefully, and deliver your opinion also in regard to the difficult questions raised by us on the passage. And even he who withholds himself from his wife makes her oftentimes to be an adulteress when he does not satisfy her desires, even though he does so under the appearance of greater gravity and self-control. And perhaps this man is more culpable who, so far as it rests with him, makes her an adulteress when he does not satisfy her desires than he who, for other reason than fornication, has sent her away,—for poisoning or murder or any of the most grievous sins. But as a woman is an adulteress, even though she seem to be married to a man, while the former husband is still living, so also the man who seems to marry her who has been put away, does not so much marry her as commit adultery with her according to the declaration of our Saviour. – Origen, From the Second Book of the Commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew, Book 14, Chapter 24
Methodius:
So much, then, for [Paul’s] regulations with regard to those men and women who are with one spouse and whose marriage is continuing. But next we must again scrutinize closely the Apostle’s message for whatever inspired word it may contain with regard to men who have already lost their wives and women who have already lost their husbands. “But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them to continue, even as I. But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than be burnt.” Here again he consistently gives his preference to chastity. For holding himself up as the greatest example, he challenges his hearers to emulation in this state of life, teaching it is better for one who had been married to one spouse to remain single, just as he himself did. If, however, anyone should find this difficult by reason of his surging carnal passion, Paul would allow one in such a condition to contract a second marriage by indulgence; he does not declare that a second marriage is a good thing, in itself, but merely states that it is his opinion that it is better than to burn. Methodius, (A.D. 290), A Treatise On Chastity, Discourse III, Chapter XII
Lactantius:
“Lest anyone think that he can circumscribe the divine precepts, there are added those that take away all calumny and occasion of fraud; he is an adulterer who marries a divorced spouse, and he who dismisses his wife commits adultery for God is unwilling to dissociate the body.” – LACTANTIUS, “THE DIVINE INSTITUTES” BK. 6, CHAP. 23
“Therefore let it be observed in all the duties of life, let it be observed in marriage. For it is not sufficient if you abstain from another’s bed, or from the brothel. Let him who has a wife seek nothing further, but, content with her alone, let him guard the mysteries of the marriage-bed chaste and undefiled. For he is equally an adulterer in the sight of God and impure, who, having thrown off the yoke, wantons in strange pleasure either with a free woman or a slave. But as a woman is bound by the bonds of chastity not to desire any other man, so let the husband be bound by the same law, since God has joined together the husband and the wife in the union of one body. On this account He has commanded that the wife shall not be put away unless convicted of adultery, and that the bond of the conjugal compact shall never be dissolved, unless unfaithfulness have broken it.” – LACTANTIUS, “EPITOME” 66
“Whoever marries a woman who has been divorced by her husband is an adulterer, as is the man who divorces his wife in order to marry another woman. For God does not want the body to be separated and torn apart.” – LACTANTIUS, “THE DIVINE INSTITUTES” 6.23 (CSEL 19:569-570)
BEWARE OF FAKE QUOTE:
“Whoever marries a woman who has been divorced by her husband is an adulterer, as is the man who divorces his wife in order to marry another woman, except if she is guilty of adultery. For God does not want the body to be separated and torn apart.” – LACTANTIUS, “THE DIVINE INSTITUTES” 6.23 (CSEL 19:569-570)
The portion of this quote that reads “except if she is guilty of adultery” is a forgery made by some deceiver. It’s not in Lactantius’ writings! This is how desperate the Orthodox and Catholics are to make you a partaker of their wickedness. They resort to lying and slander of the early church. Here is the original Latin, which makes no mention of an exception allowing remarriage:
Sed tamen ne quis divina præ cepta circumscribere se putet posse, adduntur ilia, ut omnis calumnia, et occasio fraudis removeatur, adulterum esse, qui a marito dimissam duxerit, et eum qui præ tercrimen adulterii uxorem dimiserit, ut alteram ducat; dissociari enim corpus et distrahi Deus noluit.
Translation: Lest anyone think that he can circumscribe the divine precepts, there are added those that take away all calumny and occasion of fraud: He is an adulterer who marries a divorced spouse, and he who dismisses his wife commits adultery; for God is unwilling to disassociate the body.
Apostolic Constitutions:
“If a layman divorces his own wife, and takes another, or one divorced by another, let him be suspended.” – APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS, CANON 48
“For you ought to know this, that once marrying according to the law is righteous, as being according to the will of God; but second marriages, after the promise, are wicked, not on account of the marriage itself, but because of the falsehood. Third marriages are indications of incontinency. But such marriages as are beyond the third are manifest fornication, and unquestionable uncleanness. For God in the creation gave one woman to one man; for they two shall be one flesh.
But to the younger women let a second marriage be allowed after the death of their first husband, lest they fall into the condemnation of the devil, and many snares, and foolish lusts, which are hurtful to souls, and which bring upon them punishment rather than rest.” – Apostolic Constitutions, book 3, chapter 2
Council of Elvira (304):
“Likewise, women who have left their husbands for no prior cause and have joined themselves with others, may not even at death receive Communion” (Canon 8 [A.D. 300]).
“Likewise, a woman of the faith [i.e., a baptized person] who has left an adulterous husband of the faith and marries another, her marrying in this manner is prohibited. If she has so married, she may not receive Communion—unless he that she has left has since departed from this world.” (Canon 9)
“If she whom a catechumen [an unbaptized person studying the faith] has left shall have married a husband, she is able to be admitted to the fountain of baptism. This shall also be observed in the instance where it is the woman who is the catechumen. But if a woman of the faithful is taken in marriage by a man who left an innocent wife, and if she knew that he had a wife whom he had left without cause, it is determined that Communion is not to be given to her even at death.” (Canon 10)
Council of Arles (314 AD):
11 (10). Concerning those who apprehend their wives in adultery, and the same persons are faithful youths and are prevented from marrying (again), be it resolved that, as much as is able, they be counseled not to take other wives while their own wives are still living, even if the latter are adulterous.
Council of Neocaesarea (315 AD):
Concerning those who fall into many marriages, the appointed time of penance is well known; but their manner of living and faith shortens the time. – Canon 3
A presbyter shall not be a at the nuptials of persons contracting a second marriage; for, since the digamist is worthy of penance, what kind of a presbyter shall he be, who, by being present at the feast, sanctioned the marriage? – Canon 7
John Chrysostom:
For not merely did He bring the woman to the man, but also commanded to leave father and mother. And neither did He make it a law for him merely to come to the woman, but also to cleave to her,
by the form of the language intimating that they might not be severed. And not even with this was He satisfied, but sought also for another greater union, for the two,
He says, shall be one flesh.
Like then as to sever flesh is a horrible thing, so also to divorce a wife is unlawful. And He stayed not at this, but brought in God also by saying, What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder,
showing that the act was both against nature, and against law; against nature, because one flesh is dissevered; against law, because that when God has joined and commanded it not to be divided, you conspire to do this.
But I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication, and marry another, commits adultery.
For since he had stopped their mouths, He then gives the law with His own authority, like as touching the meats, like as touching the Sabbath.
For now they understood the saying more than before. Therefore then indeed they held their peace, but now when there has been gainsaying, and answering, and question, and learning by reply, and the law appeared more clear, they ask Him. And openly to contradict they do not dare, but they bring forward what seemed to be a grievous and galling result of it, saying, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
For indeed it seemed to be a very hard thing to have a wife full of every bad quality, and to endure a wild beast perpetually shut up with one in the house. And that you may learn that this greatly troubled them, Mark said, Mark 10:10 to show it, that they spoke to Him privately.
3. But what is, If such be the case of a man with his wife?
That is, if to this end he is joined with her, that they should be one, or, on the other hand, if the man shall get to himself blame for these things, and always transgresses by putting away, it were easier to fight against natural desire and against one’s self, than against a wicked woman. – Homily 62 on Matthew
Basil the Great:
“A woman whose husband has gone away and disappeared, and who marries another, before she has evidence of his death, commits adultery.” – Letter 199, canon XXXI
“The woman who has been abandoned by her husband, ought, in my judgment, to remain as she is. The Lord said, If any one leave his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, he causes her to commit adultery; thus, by calling her adulteress, He excludes her from intercourse with another man. For how can the man being guilty, as having caused adultery, and the woman, go without blame, when she is called adulteress by the Lord for having intercourse with another man?” – Letter 199, canon XLVIII
“A man who marries after another man’s wife has been taken away from him will be charged with adultery in the case of the first woman; but in the case of the second he will be guiltless” (Second Canonical Letter to Amphilochius 199:37 [A.D. 375]).
[In other words, if a man marries another man’s wife, he will have committed adultery against his first wife, but it’s not possible for him to be considered an adulterer against his second wife, because it’s an unlawful marriage to begin with.]
Ambrose of Milan:
“No one is permitted to know a woman other than his wife. The marital right is given you for this reason: lest you fall into the snare and sin with a strange woman. ‘If you are bound to a wife do not seek a divorce’; for you are not permitted, while your wife lives, to marry another” (Abraham 1:7:59 [A.D. 387]).
“You dismiss your wife, therefore, as if by right and without being charged with wrongdoing; and you suppose it is proper for you to do so because no human law forbids it; but divine law forbids it. Anyone who obeys men ought to stand in awe of God. Hear the law of the Lord, which even they who propose our laws must obey: ‘What God has joined together let no man put asunder’” (Commentary on Luke 8:5 [A.D. 389]).
Jerome:
“Do not tell me about the violence of the ravisher, about the persuasiveness of a mother, about the authority of a father, about the influence of relatives, about the intrigues and insolence of servants, or about household [financial] losses. So long as a husband lives, be he adulterer, be he sodomite, be he addicted to every kind of vice, if she left him on account of his crimes, he is her husband still and she may not take another” (Letters 55:3 [A.D. 396]).
“Wherever there is fornication and a suspicion of fornication, a wife is freely dismissed. Because it is always possible that someone may calumniate the innocent and, for the sake of a second joining in marriage, act in criminal fashion against the first, it is commanded that when the first wife is dismissed, a second may not be taken while the first lives” (Commentaries on Matthew 3:19:9 [A.D. 398]).
Pope Innocent I
“[T]he practice is observed by all of regarding as an adulteress a woman who marries a second time while her husband yet lives, and permission to do penance is not granted her until one of them is dead” (Letters 2:13:15 [A.D. 408]).
Augustine:
“Neither can it rightly be held that a husband who dismisses his wife because of fornication and marries another does not commit adultery. For there is also adultery on the part of those who, after the repudiation of their former wives because of fornication, marry others. This adultery, nevertheless, is certainly less serious than that of men who dismiss their wives for reasons other than fornication and take other wives. Therefore, when we say: ‘Whoever marries a woman dismissed by her husband for reason other than fornication commits adultery,’ undoubtedly we speak the truth. But we do not thereby acquit of this crime the man who marries a woman who was dismissed because of fornication. We do not doubt in the least that both are adulterers. We do indeed pronounce him an adulterer who dismissed his wife for cause other than fornication and marries another, nor do we thereby defend from the taint of this sin the man who dismissed his wife because of fornication and marries another. We recognize that both are adulterers, though the sin of one is more grave than that of the other. No one is so unreasonable to say that a man who marries a woman whose husband has dismissed her because of fornication is not an adulterer, while maintaining that a man who marries a woman dismissed without the ground of fornication is an adulterer. Both of these men are guilty of adultery” (Adulterous Marriages 1:9:9 [A.D. 419]).
“A woman begins to be the wife of no later husband unless she has ceased to be the wife of a former one. She will cease to be the wife of a former one, however, if that husband should die, not if he commit fornication. A spouse, therefore, is lawfully dismissed for cause of fornication; but the bond of chastity remains. That is why a man is guilty of adultery if he marries a woman who has been dismissed even for this very reason of fornication” (ibid., 2:4:4).
“Undoubtedly the substance of the sacrament is of this bond, so that when man and woman have been joined in marriage they must continue inseparably as long as they live, nor is it allowed for one spouse to be separated from the other except for cause of fornication. For this is preserved in the case of Christ and the Church, so that, as a living one with a living one, there is no divorce, no separation forever” (Marriage and Concupiscence 1:10:11 [A.D. 419]).
“In marriage, however, let the blessings of marriage be loved: offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond. Offspring, not so much because it may be born, but because it can be reborn; for it is born to punishment unless it be reborn to life. Fidelity, but not such as even the unbelievers have among themselves, ardent as they are for the flesh. . . . The sacramental bond, which they lose neither through separation nor through adultery, this the spouses should guard chastely and harmoniously” (ibid., 1:17:19).
Council Of Mileve (416 AD)
According to the evangelical and apostolic discipline it is decreed that neither a man who is put away by his wife, nor a woman put away by her husband, may marry another, but that they must either abide so, or be reconciled to each other