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cure4divorce -> RE: Remarriage After Divorce - One Stop Thread (3/9/2010 8:11:59 PM)
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What Paul meant when he said the woman is bound to "the law of the husband" Romans 7:2-3.
Romans Chapter 7
Paul wrote a letter to the believers, both Jews and Gentiles, living in Rome. He started off saying to the Jews “Indeed you are called a Jew and rest on the law, and make your boast in God…you who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law” Rom 2:17-24. Then speaking to them again on the issues of the Law of Moses saying…
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
They were committing spiritual “adultery”. Paul uses a physical truth “For…” Rom 7:2, to bring a physical conclusion “So then…” Rom 7:3, to explain the spiritual truth “So…” Rom 7:4. Old wine skins filled with new wine.
The term had by “another” (Greek) was usually used by the Jewish language to mean another man married her Jer 3:1 from the example of Deut 24:2 (married to the second man). And latter said in Rom 7:4 Greek “becoming another” speaking of being married to “Another” that of Jesus.
Paul spoke to the Jews concerning the Law, that they should have already known, “Or don’t you know brethren…” Rom 7:1a. That is, when you are bound of “Law” you cannot leave that bondage but only by death. Rom 7:4 saying “but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress though she has married another man” vs. 3.
“Under-man, woman”
Rom 7:2 this sentence says in Greek, “The for (for the) under-man (husband under) woman to the living man (husband), having been (has been) bound (of) law.”
This sentence could better be translated: “For the woman who is under a husband has been bound of law to the living husband.”
The proper word used in Rom 7:2 could be translated “bound of law” instead of “bound by law.”
Paul says “under-husband” woman “to” the “living (“as long as lives”) husband” she is bound Rom 7:2. Thus we can see Paul was making the point that upon becoming married she is bound under his rule and cannot separate from his rule to marry “another”. The Jews were trying to obey the Law of Moses and Christ, at the same time (Rom 2:23).
The “under-husband” used in Rom 7:2, states two facts. First, this woman upon becoming married under a husband is bound of law. And secondly, the reason she is bound to a law to him is because she was put “under” him. Paul uses a known subject (husband/wife) to explain a further truth (spiritual).
Although a man is never under the “law” of his wife (put under her in marriage) he is said to be “bound” 1 Cor 7:27 to her also when married. So, though they are both said to be “bound” to each other but only woman is said to be bound of “law” 1 Cor 7:39, Rom 7:2.
The principle of under-man is also shown in the first part of the Greek word “(under-) submission (appointed, set)” Eph 5:23-25 and Col 3:18 showing the premise of the “head”. At one point the woman was under her father, but now is under her husband Num 30:2-16.
This was to express her general or specific position to the man in submission (to establish the “lords over” rule in Rom 7:1b). This was taken from Paul’s concept when he said sin “lords over” a man while “under law”. As “under law” and “under grace” is being used in Rom 6:15, so we can understand the use of “under-man”.
The “under” word in Greek is also used in the first part of the word “under-officers” or “ministers” to show submission to another. The ‘under’ was to establish order, position, or rank in these usages. Under was nothing more than to be understood in general as under something else.
Paul does not focus in Rom 7:1-2 or 1 Cor 7:39 on the covenant as to why she is ‘bound’ to her husband, or the marriage itself, but puts the focus on the “law” of the husband.
“Law of-the”
Paul also used the words “law of-the” or “law of” to point something other than the Law of Moses as we might say the “law of Nature”, the “law of Gravity”, or the “law of Physics”. Or as said in Old Testament “law of the sacrifice”, “law of leprosy” or “law of defilement” (Footnote 29).
This “law” is to be something of known unmovable parameters that binds us under a rule. By Paul stating in Rom 7:1, the principle of law, Paul states anytime something falls “under” something else (in its entirety) if falls under a principle ‘law’ to it for life.
Paul further spoke of this principle of “law” from Rom 7:1 to state a known fact or order in the rest of this chapter 7-8 i.e. “another law”, “law of the sin”, “I find a law that is evil is present with me”, “law of the mind”, “law of the Spirit”, “law of the sin and of the death”. And likewise was the “law of the husband” used Rom 7:2b.
The “law of the husband” was a principle law referenced to the Law of the husband in Deut 24:4 stating she was “defiled” when she married her second husband.
Paul also uses the word “law” without speaking about the Law of Moses when he said the Jews are not saved by the “law of works” but through the “law (of) faith”. And Paul referenced the “Law of God” and the “Law of Christ” in 1 Cor 9:21 though he was not speaking about the “Law of Moses” either. Also James spoke about the “law (of) liberty” in James 1:25 and 2:12.
The “law of the husband” was a play-on-words, which Paul used to show when you become “under” a “law” of something (as of The Law of Moses) the law “lords-over” you Rom 7:1, in which you “were held by,” until a “death” frees you from ‘what’ you are bound to. This was a law by principle.
“Law of the husband”
Rom 7:2b “But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband...”
“This is the law of the...”
As Paul being studied under the strictest of the Law would have been very familiar with the different Laws in the Old Testament (the Ancestral Law). Many of the Old Testament Laws were broken down by Moses and after giving the parameters said “This is the law of the...” then stated that Law. Such as “the law of jealousy” Num 5:29, “law of burnt offering” Lev 6:9, “law of grain offering” 6:14, “law of sin offering” 6:25, “law of the sacrifice of peace offerings” 7:11, “law of the burnt offering” 7:37, “law of leprous plague” 13:59, “law of the one who had a leprous sore” 14:32, “law of leprosy” 14:57, and “law of one who has a discharge” 15:32.
By Paul saying she is released from the “law of the husband” this was not Paul referencing an Old Testament Law but since Paul just declared she is “bound of law” to her living husband, she, in a since, is now given the “law of the husband”. Paul does not make this 'law' based on his own assumptions but based on Scriptural principles that were laid down before in Scripture Gen 3:16, Deut 24:4 (she was defiled by her second marriage), and shown in Num 30:1-16 because man is the “head” of woman 1 Cor 11:3-4.
Paul also said in 1 Cor 7:39 (approximately one year BEFORE the book of Romans) when a woman marries a man she becomes “bound of law, 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.” Paul was not teaching against polygamy (having another man) as in Rom 7:1-6, but still Paul said a woman was “bound of law”. Paul is clearly teaching the woman (mainly coming from a Gentile Culture) two things: first, she is bound to her husband by a law as long as he lives, and secondly when her husband “sleeps” she may marry again. If a woman divorces her husband being under the “law of her husband” she must “remain unmarried or reconcile” to him 1 Cor 7:10-11a.
The women in the Corinthian church had a hard time excepting that she was to be submissive to her husband in “all” things 1 Cor 11:9-10 “man was not made for the woman, but woman for man”. And the trouble they were having in the Church service from the “husband’s” vs 35 wife 1 Cor 14:34. Clearly Paul had to teach the women of this Gentile civilization that they were under their husband and this limited them freedoms in regards to marriage and Church participation (the women thought they had the same freedoms as the husband had).
Why did Paul say a woman is bound to the “law of her husband” for life and Jesus did not? Jesus was focusing on the sin of those who were “putting away” their spouse improperly and marring another. Paul was focusing in Romans 7:2 on the woman’s limitations in the marriage from marrying another (how she is bound) 1 Cor 7:39.
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