Page:Woman's Position According to the Bible.pdf/5

 a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house" (Deut. xxiv., 1). There were no troublesome and lengthy proceedings, no divorce court, no judge, no jury, no evidence; the husband gave evidence before himself, summed up in his own favor, delivered a verdict of guilty against his wife, pronounced a sentence of divorce, wrote it, and turned out his divorced wife. The method had the merits of cheapness and simplicity, and avoided long arguments. Where the wife was of the second class, it was only necessary to turn her out when the husband was tired of her (Ex. xxi., 11; Deut. xxi., 14). The kind of position which is assigned to woman in the Bible is clearly seen in the following passage: "When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; then thou shalt bring her home to thine house  and thou shalt  be her husband and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will" (Deut. xxi., 10—14). Woman is a spoil of war, and after she has been outraged she may be cast aside. Yet the book which teaches thus is held up as the raiser of woman!

The New Testament teaching on the subject is ascetic, not licentious as is that of the Old. Jesus and Paul exalt celibacy to the detriment of marriage, and only accept the latter as a concession to human weakness. When Jesus blamed the licentiousness of the Mosaic code—God-inspired as it was—the disciples naïvely answered with the simple unconsciousness of Jews that any duty could be owed to women: "If the case of the man be so with his wife [if he may not put her away at pleasure] it is not good to marry." In this view Jesus acquiesced, answering them: "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matt. xix., 10—12). When people really believed in