Divorce or mere Separation?
Does "apoluo" mean "divorce"? The correct answer's yes and no. It means divorce in some texts and it doesn't mean it in others. The basicidea of the word is some kind of loosing, freeing or separating from a given place, condition or circumstance. Apoluo is used of numerouskinds of separations or releases. It's used of the release of Barabbas, of a man being loosed from his illness or of people forgiving each other (releasing them) and Timothy freed from prison. In marital contexts in the Gospels it is the word of choice to speak of the separation that is divorce. In the NT the word doesn't occur outside the Gospels in a marital/separation/divorce context.
In a marital context in the Gospels it is correct to say apoluo means divorce but it's the marital context that gives apoluo the meaning of divorce—it doesn't have it otherwise! This word, like every other generic word, means in a given text what the author intends for it to mean.
Does aphiemi mean divorce? The correct answer's yes and no depending on what texts you have in mind. If you had many texts in mind like the 5th century BC Herodotus (Histories, 5.39) the answer would be yes. He tells us that Anaxandridas refused to "put away" his childless wife and marry another. This use comes all the way down to Paul who uses it of divorce in 7:11 and 13. All of this is uncontroversial, as the scholars show us.
Of course, the word is used of many kinds of separations and it's repeatedly used of sins being (so the speak) "sent away"—that is, forgiven, which is how it is rendered over and over again in the NT.
Does chorizo mean divorce? The correct answer's yes and no depending on what text you have in mind. If you had numerous ancient marital-contract documents in mind the answer would be yes because the scholars tell us that's how chorizo is used in them. The answer would be no if you had Acts 1:4 or Hebrews 7:26 in mind where the apostles were told not to leave the temple and where Jesus is said to beseparated from sinners.
The answer would be yes in Matthew 19:6 and Mark 10:9 where Jesus, speaking of divorce, said what God joined together man must notseparate."
The answer would be yes in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11. In addressing a Christian woman Paul says he has a word from God through the Lord Jesus rather than one that comes from God through Paul. The word from the Lord Jesus in the gospels is about divorce and not mere separation. If the women are contemplating divorce Paul says the word from Jesus Christ is "me chorizeto"—do not put asunder (Matthew 19:6 and Mark 10:9). Jesus was talking about the destruction of a one-flesh union in a divorce section (see the texts) and he uses "chorizo" to cover it.
It isn't the mere use of the word "chorizo" that matters here, it's the fact that Paul takes the Lord's teaching on divorce and applies it in this 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 situation. To paraphrase loosely (but I think accurately) the teaching here we might say, "To married Christians I give this command. [The truth is, I'm only repeating what Jesus Christ himself taught us earlier so the command is from him. He has already spoken on the matter.] A wife must not divorce her husband."
It's legitimate to translate the word chorizo here as "separate" because that's what it means! The translators were uncertain about Paul's meaning so they give "separate," the undoubted and basic meaning, rather than "divorce" which is a specific kind of separation. It's also legitimate to translate the word chorizo as divorce because divorce is a marital separation, which is how it is used by early writers as the scholars show us. The matter is not settled by which word is used but by the context, which gives the generic word its specific content.
David Daube (368, see below) takes the word of Christ in Matthew 19:6, "What God has joined let not man put asunder" to mean: "What therefore God hath married into one let not man divorce." He speaks of chorizo as having a general and narrower use.
In applying the Lord's personal ministry teaching on divorce in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 Paul uses the word chorizo. What does that tell you? It tells me two things: 1) This is a divorce section and 2) chorizo is being used of a separation that is a divorce.
David Daube in The NT and Rabbinic Judaism (363) speaks of Paul's use of chorizo in 1 Corinthians 7 saying, "No special justification is here needed, the verb being a proper term for divorce." This is typical of scholarship! Daube goes on to show relative to Roman and Greek sources that all manner of words are used to refer to divorce. Ekballein, apopempein (cast out and send away) and others like them are used.
To say these don't "really" mean divorce is silly. You can "separate" from a husband or a group of fellow-tourists but it's the context that gives "separate" its content. You can "throw out" a wife or a pair of old shoes and you can "send away" a husband or a ill-smelling piece of fish. Ekballein doesn't "mean" divorce but in a marital context it's a proper word to express the nature of the action in divorce.
Maybe 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 has nothing to do with divorce (though I don't believe that) but it's silly to base that conclusion on the fact that the word used is chorizo and not apoluo.
Such words are generic and they're given their specific "meaning" by the context in which they appear. In a marital context they are a specific illustration of the generic meaning. These words all have something basic in them, that is, some kind of loosing, freeing or separating from a given place, condition or circumstance and that basic idea remains even in the text where the rupture of a marriage is in view. Divorce is a severing, sending away, loosing, separating or casting out experience. In a discussion of marriage being ruptured we knowapoluo speaks of divorce rather than someone being commissioned for a task (as in Acts 13:3) but we know it not because the word apoluois used but because it is a marital context in which apoluo is being used.
No, the reason we debate the meaning of the word chorizo in 1 Corinthians 7 is due to our views on the biblical teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage. To render the word "divorce" generates difficulties that need to be worked out. In my view, to render it "separate," meaning merely separation as opposed to divorce generates greater problems.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
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