Jesus does agree that Moses permitted divorce. But he makes two significant observations regarding the ruling that Moses made: (1) divorce was a concession which resulted from the rebellious attitude of the Jewish people, and (2) it is contrary to God’s original intention in creation. This second observation would have carried much weight, since Jewish teachers affirmed that when two passages of Scripture were in conflict, the earlier passage was to be regarded as superior. This would mean that the law of divorce which Moses introduced was made invalid by the prior law of creation.

He said to them: both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch specifically identify He as Jesus.

Your hardness of heart, a noun phrase in Greek, is transformed into a full clause in Good News Translation: (“because you are so hard to teach”) and Jerusalem Bible (“It was because you were so unteachable”). New International Version, though retaining the figure of speech, also shifts away from a noun phrase: “because your hearts were hard.” In English the heart is considered to be the organ which controls the emotions, while in Jewish thought it was related to the rational side of the human being. Therefore New English Bible translates “because your minds were closed,” and New American Bible “Because of your stubbornness.”

There are many languages where the phrase Moses allowed you to divorce will more naturally come at the beginning of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, as it is in Good News Translation: “Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives because you are so hard to teach.” Another way to structure the sentence is “You refused to pay attention to God’s teaching, so Moses let you get divorces from your wives.”

Your and you are plural forms. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees who were there, of course, but the context indicates that he was referring to the Jewish people in general when he said “you.” Some translators have said “you people.”

But from the beginning it was not so is translated by Good News Translation as “But it was not like that at the time of creation.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “But it was originally not so.” One may also translate “But it was not that way at the time that God first created man and woman” or “But that was not the way things were at the beginning.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .