It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. The third antithesis addresses the divorce tradition rooted in Deuteronomy 24:1. The certificate of divorce was a Mosaic provision that regulated what was already happening — providing legal protection for divorced women by formally terminating the marriage and freeing the woman to remarry. The Pharisaic tradition had developed extensive debates about what constituted legitimate grounds for divorce; Jesus will address this more fully in Matthew 19:3–9. The tradition being addressed here understood Deuteronomy 24 as a permission for divorce.

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