What Does Mark 10:11 Mean?
And he said to them, Whoever sends away his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.THE KEY
The Greek verb behind “put away” means to release or dismiss, yet the next marriage is still named as an act against her.
THE MEANING
When a husband dismisses his wife and marries another, the new union is named as adultery against her. The dismissal does not erase her from the moral reality of that marriage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A man can dismiss his wife and treat his next marriage as unrelated to her, with no wrong done to her.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσῃ
apolysē
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
to loosen, unbind, release
“put away” in this verse is apolysē. The verb carries the sense of releasing or dismissing. But the sentence keeps the released wife in view: the new marriage is still described as being “against her.”
ALSO GROWS
luō: loosen, unbind
λύω
In John 11:44, the same root appears in “Loose him, and let him go,” showing the basic sense of undoing a bond.
apoluō: release, dismiss
ἀπολύω
Luke 16:18 uses this same verb for putting away a wife, then names the next marriage as adultery.
μοιχᾶται
moichatai
GROWS FROM
μοιχ-
moich-
to commit adultery; to violate marital fidelity
“committeth adultery” in this verse is moichatai. The verb is followed by ἐπ᾽ αὐτήν (ep’ autēn, “against her”), giving the act a direction and naming the person it harms. The wife remains present in the meaning of the new union even after she is dismissed.
ALSO GROWS
moichos: adulterer
μοιχός
This related noun names a person by the same act that the verse attributes to the husband.
moichalis: adulteress
μοιχαλίς
This related form shows the same word family can name a woman in relation to adultery, a symmetry made explicit in Mark 10:12.
THE PATTERN
A marital bond carries consequences beyond the act of separation, so a new union cannot simply erase the first relationship.
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.But I say to you, whoever sends away his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries the one who was sent away commits adultery.But if she does put space between, let her remain unmarried, or return to her husband. And let the husband not let go of his wife.THE THREAD
And if a woman sends away her husband and is married to another, she commits adultery.The same release verb appears here when a woman dismisses her husband, and the same charge follows when she marries another. The shared root shows the dismissal-and-remarriage pattern from the other side of the marriage.
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