[Luircin]

I’m sorry, but that argument doesn’t give any evidence that the word means invalid marriages. In the original Greek, the word is used to refer to sexual sin many times over, not invalid marriages. I cannot find a single use otherwise.

Even in context. Having said that, I DO understand your point. Even with the adultery exception, it doesn’t change Jesus’ words about marriage. The teachers were looking for ways out. Jesus instead turned the question inside out. Instead of looking for ways out, Jesus showed the holy estate of marriage.

Simply acknowledging the world is full of sin and that sometimes marriages get broken by sin doesn’t change that.

Believe me, I researched the smeg out of it when I was trying to convince mom not to get a divorce, and when my ex was worried about living apart from her cheating husband.

It would be so easy to agree with you. Would make my relationship with my mother much simpler, albeit harsher.

But I can’t get over the textual analysis! I just can’t see how the word is used differently in this ONE case and never has the same meaning elsewhere.

Prolly wouldn’t matter in my life. These marriages weren’t Catholic and so could be annulled according to RCC doctrine.

I’ll not talk about the can of worms that comes with the idea of tradition at the moment.

(The idea of ‘obedience to the Gospel’ bugs me as well because obedience is within the realm of the Law, but that would be beside the point at the moment as well.)

[Petrosius]

The Greek word porneia covers a broad range of sexual sins: prostitution, homosexuality, incest, adultery, fornication, etc. By itself one cannot know what it is referring to. Thus one must look at the context. In his response Jesus clearly states that "what God has joined let no one separate," giving an absolute prohibition to divorce against the competing justifications of the two rabbinical schools. It should be noted that in Mark and Luke there is no "exception clause."

The trouble with trying to find porneia as an exception justifying the divorce of a valid marriage is that it does not work within the context of what Jesus is saying. All of this stems from seeing porneia as a sexual sin by one of the married couple outside of the marriage. Rather, I would ask you to see the porneia of which our Lord is speaking as occurring between the couple themselves, i.e. a sexually sinful union. There were many such unions in the Greek world that the Jews would hold to be sinful, and thus invalid. This reading alone does not negate what our Lord says in the rest of the passage.

For the reality that even after divorce the married couple are bound by marriage fidelity to each other I refer you to Saint Paul:

To the married, however, I give this instruction (not I, but the Lord): A wife should not separate from her husband—and if she does separate she must either remain single or become reconciled to her husband—and a husband should not divorce his wife. (1 Cor. 7:10-11)

There is no exception here, after divorce "either remain single or become reconciled to her husband." And this, Paul says, comes from the Lord.