Divorce in the Bible: A Covenant and Compassion Reading

This course uncovers what the original biblical text reveals about divorce—not as a permission-versus-prohibition binary, but as a communal covenant issue centered on pastoral mercy and protecting the vulnerable. Beginning with Deuteronomy 24's protective framework, we trace how Jesus reinterprets divorce in light of God's design for permanence, how Paul navigates real pastoral crises in the church, and what the ancient sources tell us about hardness of heart, covenant breaking, and grace. By grounding each chapter in the primary text and enriching it with historical, linguistic, and theological evidence, learners discover that the Bible's teaching on divorce is far more nuanced, compassionate, and theologically profound than common tradition suggests.