Mt 19:3-12
3Some Pharisees approached [Jesus], and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” 4He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ 5and 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’? 6So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” 7They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss [her]?”
8He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” 10[His] disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” 11He answered, “Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted. 12Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
Hardness of Heart: The Hebrew leb, literally “heart,” connotes the “inside” of the human being in a far wider sense. The heart is the source of emotional activity and the seat of intelligence and decision.
The expression “hardness of heart” (Greek sklerokardia) refers to the willful refusal to listen to and obey the word of God. It was the attitude of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who would not let God’s people go. The rebellious Israelites were constantly warned against it. The psalmist invites the people to be more faithful than their ancestors: “Oh, that today you would hear his voice; do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert” (Ps 95:7-8). After the Babylonian exile, Trito-Isaiah makes a confession of the people’s sins and asks the Lord to once more visit his people: “Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants” (Is 63:17).
The Jews do not take marriage lightly. They are not in favor of divorce because it is something that God hates (Mal 2:16). Here, the Pharisees test Jesus by drawing him into the controversial issue of divorce. They cite the teachings of Moses in an attempt to make him declare publicly that he rejects the Law. But Jesus recalls teachings that antedate even those of Moses. Jesus points out that Moses allowed divorce (Dt 24:1) only to control the consequences of sinfulness, of “hardness of heart.”