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20 In point of fact there does not appear to have been any great or continued difficulty within the Jewish-Christian churches in securing a satisfactory practice in the matter of marriage; but it was far otherwise in the case of the Gentile churches. When we pass from the Gospels to the Pauline Epistles we are conscious of a great change in the moral atmosphere. Behind our Lord’s teaching there is a moral background essentially Christian; behind the Pauline Epistles there is a background of moral confusion definitely pagan. Accordingly there is a suggestive absence of direct legislation in practical morals in the one case, and an equally suggestive abundance of it in the other.

Our Lord’s pronouncements on the subject of marriage are, indeed, as coming from Him, of supreme importance, but they do not carry the question beyond the point at which the prophet Malachi had left it, and, indeed, there was no need that they should. He adopts the prophetic point of view, adds the