19 ¹ WHEN JESUS HAD FINISHED this discourse he left Galilee and came into the region of Judaea across Jordan. 19 ² Great crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

19 ³ Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any and every ground?' Or: Is there any ground on which it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife? 19 ^{4 [ Gn.1.27, Gn.5.2. ]} He asked in return, 'Have you never read that the Creator made them from the beginning male and female?'; 19 ^{5 [ Gn.2.24. ]} and he added, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be made one with his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. 19 ⁶ It follows that they are no longer two individuals: they are one flesh. What God has joined together, man must not separate.' 19 ^{7 [ Dt.24.1. ]} 'Why then', they objected, 'did Moses lay it down that a man might divorce his wife by note of dismissal?' 19 ⁸ He answered, 'It was because you were so unteachable that Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives; but it was not like that when all began. 19 ⁹ I tell you, if a man divorces his wife for any cause other than unchastity, and marries another, he commits adultery.' Some witnesses add: And the man who marries a woman so divorced commits adultery.

19 ¹⁰ The disciples said to him, 'If that is the position with husband and wife, it is better to refrain from marriage.' 19 ¹¹ To this he replied, 'That is something which not everyone can accept, but only those for whom God has appointed it. 19 ¹² For while some are incapable of marriage because they were born so, or were made so by men, there are others who have themselves renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let those accept it who can.'