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Now, the Jews reacted to Jesus saying that they did the deeds of their
father and thus wanted to kill him by retorting:
"We were not born of fornication (porneia); we
have one Father––God."
Why? did they react so strongly? Well, maybe because the word implies something
quite different from adultery.
So lets consider another accession where we see
this word used. Speaking about the subject of of divorce Jesus said :
“And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife,
except for sexual immorality (porneia)…” Matt 19:9 (NKJV, 'fornication'
KJV)
If Jesus had intended to convey that divorce was
permitted on the grounds of adultery, then He surely would have used
one of the terms for adultery, for example moichao. Secondly we must ask
ourselves why would
Jesus have then immediately go on to unequivocally condemn adultery:
“….marries another, commits adultery (moichao);
and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery (moichao).”
(v9)
It is unthinkable that Jesus would contradict
Himself. Thus in the Gospel record of Mark, in his record he notes that
Jesus clearly stated:
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. "And if a woman divorces her husband
and marries another, she commits adultery.” Mark 10:11-12
Jesus would not use ambiguous terms nor would He
choose His words carelessly, especially when disputing with legal
experts. Jesus chose to use two distinctly separate words, because He intended
to convey two
different meanings.
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