Mark 10:10 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Ver. 10-12. Matthew 2:32; Matthew 5:9, interprets this passage of Mark, by adding those words, except it be for fornication. None but Mark alone hath what is in Mark 10:12, which concerneth the woman; which hath made some doubt whether the woman, in case of the husband's adultery, may sue a divorce from him, but the most judicious interpreters say there is an equal right on both sides. I am sure the reason is equal on both sides. The adultery of the husband dissolves the tie and covenant of marriage, as well as the adultery of the wife. It is yet a more groundless and unreasonable opinion of some from the words of this and the parallel texts, that persons divorced may not marry again; as if God's end in the law of divorce in case of adultery were merely to separate the wife from the husband's bed. Whether the person that hath given the cause for the divorce may marry again, may be more disputed, not only because such persons are dead persons in the law of God, but because such a liberty granted would open a flood gate to iniquity of that kind, while persons weary of their correlates should by this means gratify their lusts, and also obtain their desires. But I shall not determine it. Certain it is our Saviour here speaketh only of divorces for trivial causes, which the law of God doth not warrant; and in such cases the person marrying again must necessarily commit adultery, because the band of the former union holds. As to the question, whether divorces be lawful in no cases but that of adultery; See Poole on "Matthew 5:31", See Poole on "Matthew 5:32". See Poole on "Matthew 19:3", and following verses to Matthew 19:11.