Romans 7.2-A Jewish Woman Is Discharged From Her Marriage Contract With Her Husband If He Dies
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 17, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:2-A Jewish Woman Is Discharged From Her Marriage Contract With Her Husband If He Dies
Lesson # 210
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
Tuesday evening we presented an overview of Romans chapter seven.
Wednesday evening we began to note Romans 7:1-6, in which the apostle Paul uses the analogy of marriage in order to illustrate to the Jewish Christians in Rome that the Christian’s bondage to the Law has been severed because they have died with Christ and have been freed from the Law and placed in union with Christ.
Therefore, the Christian is no longer obligated to keep the Law because of his union with Christ.
Thursday evening we studied Romans 7:1, in which Paul poses a rhetorical to the Jewish Christians in Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over a person as along as he lives.
We pointed out on Thursday that Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians in Rome specifically in this passage, which is indicated in his parenthetical statement “I am speaking to those who know the Law.”
Thus, when he uses the term “Law” he is referring specifically, to the Mosaic Law, i.e. the Jewish law and not to an axiom of political justice both Jewish and Roman.
This morning we will begin to note Romans 7:2-3, in which Paul employs the marriage analogy to illustrate the principle mentioned by him in Romans 7:1 that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over the Jew as long as he lives.
In this passage, he teaches that according to the Mosaic Law, a woman is not bound legally to her husband if he dies.
Today, we will study Romans 7:2 in which the apostle Paul presents the principle found in the Mosaic Law that a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives but if he dies, she is discharged from her marriage contract with her husband.
Romans 7:1-6 has absolutely nothing to say about divorce and cannot legitimately be used as an argument from silence to teach that divorce is never justified for a Christian and consequently, that only the death of a spouse gives the right to remarry.
We must study other passages to get the full teaching on divorce and remarriage (Exodus 21:10-11; Deuteronomy 24:1-5; Mark 5:31-32; 19:3-12; 1 Corinthians 7:10-15).
Romans 7:1-6, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
Let’s look at in detail verse two.
Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.”
Romans 7:2 illustrates the principle that Paul presented in Romans 7:1 that the Law has jurisdiction over the Jew as long as he lives.
“The married woman” is composed of the adjective hupandros (u%pandro$) (hoop-an-dros), “married,” which is modifying the noun gune (gunhv) (goo-nay), “woman.”
The adjective hupandros appears only once in the Greek New Testament, here in Romans 7:1 and is a compound word composed of the preposition hupo, “under” and the noun aner, “a husband,” thus the word literally means, “under (subject to) a husband.”
Marriage was established by the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Eden for both believers and unbelievers.
Genesis 2:18-25 records for us the first marriage in human history that was arranged by and presided over by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Genesis 2:18-25, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ Out of the ground the LORD God formed (yatsar, “to produce from existing material”) every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle (behemah, “domestic animals”), and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast (chayyath, “wild animals”) of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
The divine institution of marriage was established for the entire human race, both believers and unbelievers and is to be honored.
Hebrews 13:5, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.”
“Is bound” is the verb deo (devw) (deh-o), which is used in relation to the marriage of the Mosaic Law and says that the wife is caused to be under the authority of her husband by the marriage contract.
She is restricted to her husband and placed under the jurisdiction of her husband by the marriage contract.
“By law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which does not refer to the Mosaic Law itself but rather the context is dealing with Jewish marriage and is thus referring to the division of the Mosaic Law dealing with marriage “contracts.”
It refers to a marriage “contract,” which is an agreement between a Jewish man and woman to enter into marriage with each other and which agreement was enforceable by the Mosaic Law in the sense that breaking this agreement through adultery was punishable by death.
“While he is living” is the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), which functions as a “temporal” participle and emphasizes that the married Jewish woman is always bound to her husband “while” he is living.
“But” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s statement that a Jewish married woman is always bound by marriage contract to her husband while he does live.
“If” is the conditional particle ean (e)avn) (eh-an), which introduces the protasis of a fifth class conditional statement, which expresses the spiritual principle that if a Jewish woman’s husband dies, then she is released from the marriage contract with her husband.
“She is released” is the verb katargeo (katargevw) (kat-arg-eh-o), which is used in relation to the obligations between a Jewish man and woman who have entered into a marriage contract in accordance with the conditions set forth in the Mosaic Law.
The word is used of a Jewish woman in relation to her husband and means, “to be discharged in a legal sense” from her marital obligations to her husband as set forth in the Mosaic Law.
Therefore, the word implies that the marriage contract is “rendered as completely null and void.”
It denotes not only the legal act of releasing a Jewish woman from her legal obligation to her husband upon his decease but that her obligations to her deceased husband are rendered legally by the Mosaic Law as completely null and void.
“From the Law” is composed of the preposition apo (a)pov), “from” and the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), “the Law.”
Once again, the noun nomos does not refer to the Mosaic Law itself but rather the context is dealing with Jewish marriage and is thus referring to the division of the Mosaic Law dealing with marriage “contracts.”
The word functions as a “genitive” or “ablative of separation” indicating that upon her husband’s death a Jewish woman was discharged “totally and completely separated from” the marriage contract with him.
In Romans 7:4, Paul teaches that in the same way that a wife is discharged from her husband’s authority when he dies and free to marry another so the Christian has been discharged from the authority of the Law and was married to Christ when they were identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”