"PUTTING ASUNDER" MEANT SEPARATING SLAVES IN LOVE IN ORDER TO PUNISH THEM Who exactly was it that Jesus was talking to when, in Mark 10:9, he said, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder"? Of course, what we're typically told by so many (especially, Neo Evangelical) preachers and teachers, is that Jesus was talking about anyone who would try to convince what we would today call a married couple, that's it's OK for them to get a divorce. But was this really the case back in Jesus' day? Well, for the sake of argument, let's just say that what we today call "marriage," a legally recognized domestic partnership between two people in which both persons, of their own free will, agreed to lived together in a sexual relationship. If this was what people did in Jesus day, was he warning people who were, apparently, running all over Galilee and Judea, trying to break up married couples? Who were these guys anyway! Clearly, he had just got through saying in the previous verse Mark, Chapter 9, quoting from Genesis 2:24, that in the beginning, things were DIFFERENT! The way people, girls and women in particular, were recognized by the law and society as sexually together was no longer the way God had originally intended! "In the beginning," Jesus contrasted, men and women MUTUALLY found each other attractive, would begin having sex and, as a result, discover a deep, emotional bond so intense, from then on, they just WANTED TO BE TOGETHER, what the author of Genesis called becoming, "one flesh." Alright then, so what was the situation in his day that he was contrasting God's original plan with? And what did it have to do with whoever these guys were that he next said, should NOT be trying to break up these couples, who were truly in love? Well, the answer is the sex slave owners of women, most of them, purchased, while they were young girls, without any consideration for what they wanted, and after purchasing them as if they were mere cattle, would routinely rape them! In other words, in Jesus day, a "husband" was nothing more than raping sex slave owner. A "wife" was nothing more than a sex slave, and a "marriage" was nothing more than the legal contract which allowed men to buy girls and, subsequently, do with them as they pleased! OK, so what was the issue that started this conversation? Well, Jesus was approached by some religious legalists who were trying to ensnare him into a religious debate about WHEN was it OK, according to Mosaic Law for a sex slave owner to PUNISH one of his female sex slaves by BANISHING her. Was he allowed to banish her for any reason, or only if she was caught with someone else besides her sex slave owner? Interestingly, Jesus was on to them, and came back with a surprising answer--"Never!" To understand his answer, though, we first need to understand Moses' law with regard to the PUNISHMENT of BANISHMENT, or Putting Away. Tragically, many modern Bibles mistranslate this term as "divorce," as if to say it was not a punishment, but a legal termination of a completely voluntary sexual union, that can be initiated by one or both parties, as divorces are conducted today. But before Moses' Law was decreed, a sex slave owning man, for any reason, could punish one of his female sex slaves by simply throwing her out of the house with nothing but the clothes on her back! Sometimes, just to teach her a lesson for whatever it was she did that got him angry. Unfortunately, because she was still, legally, his property, she had few options to survive. If another man wanted to take her in, he couldn't, or else be accused of "theft"! Not unlike the crime of "cattle rustling." Most of these women ended up begging on the street or forced into prostitution. But Mosaic Law helped, just a little, to ease the suffering of women who were banished, by requiring their sex slave owners to legally free them from his ownership, in writing! In so doing, women who were banished could, at least, be re-purchased by another man and have a roof over their heads, food and clothing...even though they would be considered "used goods," and re-purchased at bargain rates! This is why, in that same conversation Jesus had with those religious legalists, he said, "Moses only gave you that law FOR THE HARDNESS OF MEN'S HEARTS." In other words, these guys were really missing the point--that the real problem was not about WHEN it was OK to punish a female sex slave, but that the real evil was the SEXUAL ENSLAVEMENT ITSELF! Forcing girls and women to one's bed was wrong! Now, Jesus did not begin a political effort to end female sex slavery, even though his stance laid the groundwork for eventual change centuries later, though it goes on STILL in many countries around the world! But he did introduce a standard that represented the first step in that direction, which was, "Any man who is trying to break up a couple that has found true love, has to stop it!" So, we're back to the first question--"Who was Jesus talking to?" Well, let's recall, the question put to him had to do with WHEN it was OK for a sex slave holder to banish one of his sex slaves, with the clear implication that, some of these poor girls were resisting their sexual enslavement by becoming generally unruly, but others would find some solace in a true, loving relationship, often with another slave in the same household, though doing so was made out to be a terrible crime--"adultery." To be clear, it's not as if the girls and women of Jesus' day were all looking for any opportunity to cheat on their, poor unsuspecting husbands behind his back! No, the vast majority of them had no "husband" in the modern sense of the word! They were just getting sexually used and abused by men who didn't regard them as any more than property to be exploited for their satisfaction only. But Jesus made it clear that, when two people fall in the love the way God originally intended, by mutual desire and mutual choice, it was God at work, bringing them together, not by constraint, but by the miracle of their love that resulted in their WANTING TO BE together! So, the men he was addressing were the sex slave holders who thought it their prerogative to put asunder the loving relationships their female sex slaves sometimes discovered, in the midst of their horrific circumstances! By the way, if this doesn't seem realistic, it's only because modern societies have done away with slavery, at least in the overt sense. (Illegal human trafficking still goes on!) But it wasn't all that long ago, in the US for instance, when African slaves were routinely raped by their masters or ordered to "entertain" a male guest! (For any who saw the 2012 movie, Jango Unchained, recall how Kerry Washington's character was actually in a love relationship with another slave, played by Jamie Foxx, but they were "put asunder" by their master who sold them off, separately, but with the help of a bounty hunter, Jango is finally able to reunite with his chosen love partner.) We should understand, then, (although there is now a political movement to ban public school history teachers from even discussing slavery, much less, the vile, sexual practices that accompanied it) when Jesus was asked about the practice of Putting Away, his response had NOTHING TO TO WITH MODERN DIVORCE, but actually, the terrible way in which men were sexually abusing girls and women. True, his answer to their question may have been a bit hyperbolic in the sense that, in all likelihood, few of these men who ever heard about his stance, took him seriously and began to tolerate their sex slaves finding real love amongst themselves, instead selling them off for the purpose of separating them, which was the real meaning behind Jesus injunction, "What God brings together, let no man separate." Jesus was definitely against all Putting Away (Banishment), especially when it meant "putting asunder" (separating slave couples by selling them to different buyers) true, loving, sexual union of mutual choice, which he regarded as a divinely inspired phenomenon. But to take what Jesus said to address the issue sexual enslavement in order to twist his meaning inside out, for the purpose of enslaving people in another way, pressuring couples no longer in love to have to stay together, is utterly ridiculous and, frankly, bordering on, if it is not actually, sexual abuse! Rick Lannoye, author of www.amazon.com/Honeymoon-Ends-Do-Adverse-Marriage/dp/0595434479
Reminds me of my childhood
Wow nice one.
I like that your music which Also includes
Beautiful. .....A meaningful number
What a beautiful song.
Nice one, my brother. You're supposed to be an Igbo man. Hahahhaah.......
0
Woderful song by a living legend graet
BABA NI YE... KO SI ELEGBE YIN SIR, ALLAH A TUNBO DA EMI YIN SI SIR👌💪💋💋👍🤛💗🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 FROM MAMAJJ 🇮🇹.
The back vocalist is from another planet.
Everygreen! God bless you sir and prolong your life....
I need a place where I can get it
¹
"PUTTING ASUNDER" MEANT SEPARATING SLAVES IN LOVE IN ORDER TO PUNISH THEM
Who exactly was it that Jesus was talking to when, in Mark 10:9, he said, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder"?
Of course, what we're typically told by so many (especially, Neo Evangelical) preachers and teachers, is that Jesus was talking about anyone who would try to convince what we would today call a married couple, that's it's OK for them to get a divorce. But was this really the case back in Jesus' day?
Well, for the sake of argument, let's just say that what we today call "marriage," a legally recognized domestic partnership between two people in which both persons, of their own free will, agreed to lived together in a sexual relationship. If this was what people did in Jesus day, was he warning people who were, apparently, running all over Galilee and Judea, trying to break up married couples?
Who were these guys anyway! Clearly, he had just got through saying in the previous verse Mark, Chapter 9, quoting from Genesis 2:24, that in the beginning, things were DIFFERENT! The way people, girls and women in particular, were recognized by the law and society as sexually together was no longer the way God had originally intended! "In the beginning," Jesus contrasted, men and women MUTUALLY found each other attractive, would begin having sex and, as a result, discover a deep, emotional bond so intense, from then on, they just WANTED TO BE TOGETHER, what the author of Genesis called becoming, "one flesh."
Alright then, so what was the situation in his day that he was contrasting God's original plan with? And what did it have to do with whoever these guys were that he next said, should NOT be trying to break up these couples, who were truly in love?
Well, the answer is the sex slave owners of women, most of them, purchased, while they were young girls, without any consideration for what they wanted, and after purchasing them as if they were mere cattle, would routinely rape them!
In other words, in Jesus day, a "husband" was nothing more than raping sex slave owner. A "wife" was nothing more than a sex slave, and a "marriage" was nothing more than the legal contract which allowed men to buy girls and, subsequently, do with them as they pleased!
OK, so what was the issue that started this conversation? Well, Jesus was approached by some religious legalists who were trying to ensnare him into a religious debate about WHEN was it OK, according to Mosaic Law for a sex slave owner to PUNISH one of his female sex slaves by BANISHING her. Was he allowed to banish her for any reason, or only if she was caught with someone else besides her sex slave owner?
Interestingly, Jesus was on to them, and came back with a surprising answer--"Never!"
To understand his answer, though, we first need to understand Moses' law with regard to the PUNISHMENT of BANISHMENT, or Putting Away. Tragically, many modern Bibles mistranslate this term as "divorce," as if to say it was not a punishment, but a legal termination of a completely voluntary sexual union, that can be initiated by one or both parties, as divorces are conducted today.
But before Moses' Law was decreed, a sex slave owning man, for any reason, could punish one of his female sex slaves by simply throwing her out of the house with nothing but the clothes on her back! Sometimes, just to teach her a lesson for whatever it was she did that got him angry. Unfortunately, because she was still, legally, his property, she had few options to survive. If another man wanted to take her in, he couldn't, or else be accused of "theft"! Not unlike the crime of "cattle rustling." Most of these women ended up begging on the street or forced into prostitution.
But Mosaic Law helped, just a little, to ease the suffering of women who were banished, by requiring their sex slave owners to legally free them from his ownership, in writing! In so doing, women who were banished could, at least, be re-purchased by another man and have a roof over their heads, food and clothing...even though they would be considered "used goods," and re-purchased at bargain rates!
This is why, in that same conversation Jesus had with those religious legalists, he said, "Moses only gave you that law FOR THE HARDNESS OF MEN'S HEARTS." In other words, these guys were really missing the point--that the real problem was not about WHEN it was OK to punish a female sex slave, but that the real evil was the SEXUAL ENSLAVEMENT ITSELF! Forcing girls and women to one's bed was wrong!
Now, Jesus did not begin a political effort to end female sex slavery, even though his stance laid the groundwork for eventual change centuries later, though it goes on STILL in many countries around the world! But he did introduce a standard that represented the first step in that direction, which was, "Any man who is trying to break up a couple that has found true love, has to stop it!"
So, we're back to the first question--"Who was Jesus talking to?" Well, let's recall, the question put to him had to do with WHEN it was OK for a sex slave holder to banish one of his sex slaves, with the clear implication that, some of these poor girls were resisting their sexual enslavement by becoming generally unruly, but others would find some solace in a true, loving relationship, often with another slave in the same household, though doing so was made out to be a terrible crime--"adultery."
To be clear, it's not as if the girls and women of Jesus' day were all looking for any opportunity to cheat on their, poor unsuspecting husbands behind his back! No, the vast majority of them had no "husband" in the modern sense of the word! They were just getting sexually used and abused by men who didn't regard them as any more than property to be exploited for their satisfaction only.
But Jesus made it clear that, when two people fall in the love the way God originally intended, by mutual desire and mutual choice, it was God at work, bringing them together, not by constraint, but by the miracle of their love that resulted in their WANTING TO BE together!
So, the men he was addressing were the sex slave holders who thought it their prerogative to put asunder the loving relationships their female sex slaves sometimes discovered, in the midst of their horrific circumstances!
By the way, if this doesn't seem realistic, it's only because modern societies have done away with slavery, at least in the overt sense. (Illegal human trafficking still goes on!) But it wasn't all that long ago, in the US for instance, when African slaves were routinely raped by their masters or ordered to "entertain" a male guest!
(For any who saw the 2012 movie, Jango Unchained, recall how Kerry Washington's character was actually in a love relationship with another slave, played by Jamie Foxx, but they were "put asunder" by their master who sold them off, separately, but with the help of a bounty hunter, Jango is finally able to reunite with his chosen love partner.)
We should understand, then, (although there is now a political movement to ban public school history teachers from even discussing slavery, much less, the vile, sexual practices that accompanied it) when Jesus was asked about the practice of Putting Away, his response had NOTHING TO TO WITH MODERN DIVORCE, but actually, the terrible way in which men were sexually abusing girls and women.
True, his answer to their question may have been a bit hyperbolic in the sense that, in all likelihood, few of these men who ever heard about his stance, took him seriously and began to tolerate their sex slaves finding real love amongst themselves, instead selling them off for the purpose of separating them, which was the real meaning behind Jesus injunction, "What God brings together, let no man separate."
Jesus was definitely against all Putting Away (Banishment), especially when it meant "putting asunder" (separating slave couples by selling them to different buyers) true, loving, sexual union of mutual choice, which he regarded as a divinely inspired phenomenon.
But to take what Jesus said to address the issue sexual enslavement in order to twist his meaning inside out, for the purpose of enslaving people in another way, pressuring couples no longer in love to have to stay together, is utterly ridiculous and, frankly, bordering on, if it is not actually, sexual abuse!
Rick Lannoye, author of www.amazon.com/Honeymoon-Ends-Do-Adverse-Marriage/dp/0595434479
Glad you enjoyed the music, Rick!