Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 02:1 (Spring 2020)
Article: Grounds For Divorce: Why I Now Believe There Are More Than Two
Author: Wayne Grudem

Eikon 2.1 (Spring 2020) p. 71

Grounds For Divorce:
Why I Now Believe There Are More Than Two1

Wayne Grudem

Wayne Grudem is Distinguished Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in Scottsdale Arizona.

Until 2019, I held the common, historic Protestant view of divorce, namely, that adultery and desertion were the only two legitimate grounds for divorce allowed by Scripture. This is the position set forth, for example, in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646):

In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce: and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead. . . . Nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage. (24.5, 6)

I defended this position and interacted extensively with numerous other positions in a forty-five page chapter in my book, Christian Ethics, and I will not repeat those arguments here.2

However, as a result of additional research that I carried out in 2019, I now believe that 1 Corinthians 7:15 implies that divorce may be legitimate in other circumstances that damage the marriage as severely as adultery or desertion. This change in my position has come because I reached a new understanding of Paul’s expression “in such cases” in 1 Corinthians 7:15.

Eikon 2.1 (Spring 2020) p. 72

A. A New And Broader Understanding Of “In Such Cases” (1 Corinthians 7:15).

Here is the key verse where Paul allows for divorce in cases of desertion by an unbeliever:

But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. (1 Cor. 7:15)

The Greek phrase translated “in such cases” is en tois toioutois. The phrase does not occur anywhere else in the New Testament, nor does it occur in the Septuagint. This phrase does occur in Greek literature outside the Bible, but, so far as I could tell, no interpreter of 1 Corinthians has ever studied its use in extra-biblical literature.3 Most commentaries just assume that it means “in cases of desertion by an unbeliever,” which is the specific situation that Paul mentions. But could its meaning be broader?