NOTES for Mat 19:3-12
John the Baptist died because he condemned Herod Antipas's second marriage. Perhaps the Pharisees ask Jesus this question in order to provoke Him into saying something that would likewise anger the tetrarch. At that time, divorce in Jewish families generally took place at the man's initiative; opposite cases were extremely rare and required special circumstances. If a man was unfaithful, it was considered that he sinned against the other man with whose wife he had sinned. Jesus, however, speaks of faithfulness to one's own wife, thus establishing equality between man and woman in marriage, and this was new. But there is more. The Lord returns us to His original design for us. He joins us in love for one another so that no one may separate us again. For whoever has not learned faithfulness to one person cannot know faithfulness to the one God. This is why, in biblical symbolism—as can be seen especially clearly, for example, in the Revelation of John the Theologian—sexual immorality is often a symbol of paganism.