What did the Early Church Leaders Teach
The Shepherd of Hermas, Second Book, Fourth Commandment, Chapter One, On Putting One’s Wife
Away for Adultery (It is said that the authorship of this book may have been written around A.D. 89-
99)
"The husband should put her away, and remain by himself. But if he put his wife away and marry
another, he also commits adultery.” And I said to him, "What if the woman put away should repent,
and wish to return to her husband: shall she not be taken back by her husband?" And he said to me,
"Assuredly. If the husband do not take her back, he sins, and brings a great sin upon himself; for he
ought to take back the sinner who has repented…In case, therefore, that the divorced wife may repent,
the husband ought not to marry another, when his wife has been put away. In this matter man and
woman are to be treated exactly in the same way. Moreover, adultery is committed not only by those
who pollute their flesh, but by those who imitate the heathen in their actions. Wherefore if any one
persists in such deeds, and repents not, withdraw from him, and cease to live with him, otherwise you
are a sharer in his sin. Therefore has the injunction been laid on you, that you should remain by
yourselves, both man and woman, for in such persons repentance can take place. But I do not, said he,
give opportunity for the doing of these deeds, but that he who has sinned may sin no more. But with
regard to his previous transgressions, there is One who is able to provide a cure; for it is He, indeed,
who has power over all.”
We learn here that divorce and remarriage equals adultery—period.
Remarriage leaves no room for repentance. You must forgive your repentant spouse by taking her/him
back otherwise you commit a great sin and become the cause of her/his adultery.
In this matter man and woman are to be treated exactly the same way.
If you have been in an adulterous relationship and you forsake it, there is forgiveness.
Adultery is sin against your own body.
Theophilus of Antioch, Book Three, Chapter XIII, Concerning Chastity, (It is estimated that he lived
from A.D. 115 to 181)
“And concerning chastity, the holy word teaches us not only not to sin in act, but not even in thought,
not even in the heart to think of any evil, nor look on another man’s wife with our eyes to lust after
her. Solomon, accordingly, who was a king and a prophet, said: “Let thine eyes look right on, and let
thine eyelids look straight before thee: make straight paths for your feet.” And the voice of the Gospel
teaches still more urgently concerning chastity, saying: “Whosoever looketh on a woman who is not his
own wife, to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” “And he that
marrieth,” says [the Gospel], “her that is divorced from her husband, committeth adultery; and
whosoever putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery.”
Because Solomon says: “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Or can one
walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to a married woman shall not be
innocent.”
Theophilus taught:
Lusting after another man’s wife in thought is equivalent to the very act of adultery.
Divorce and remarriage is adultery.
We are to be holy not only in deed but also in mind.
Whoever is having sexual relations with a married person will not go unpunished. Likewise whoever is
divorced and remarried will not be guiltless either.
The Writings of Athenagoras the Athenian, Philosopher and Christian, Chapter XXXII, The Elevated
Morality of the Christians and Chapter XXXIII, Chastity of the Christians with Respect to Marriage
(Believed to be written A.D. 177).
“But we are so far from practising promiscuous intercourse, that it is not lawful among us to indulge
even a lustful look. “For,” saith He, “he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed
adultery already in his heart.” Those, then, who are forbidden to look at anything more than that for
which God formed the eyes, which were intended to be a light to us, and to whom a wanton look is
adultery, the eyes being made for other purposes, and who are to be called to account for their very
thoughts, how can anyone doubt that such persons practice self-control? For our account lies not with
human laws, which a bad man can evade (at the outset I proved to you, sovereign lords, that our
doctrine is from the teaching of God), but we have a law which makes the measure of rectitude to
consist in dealing with our neighbour as ourselves.”
“For we bestow our attention, not on the study of words, but on the exhibition and teaching of actions,
—that a person should either remain as he was born, or be content with one marriage; for a second
marriage is only a specious adultery. “For whosoever puts away his wife,” says He, “and marries
another, commits adultery;” not permitting a man to send her away whose virginity he has brought to
an end, nor to marry again. For he who deprives himself of his first wife, even though she be dead, is a
cloaked adulterer, resisting the hand of God, because in the beginning God made one man and one
woman, and dissolving the strictest union of flesh with flesh, formed for the intercourse of the race.”
To lust after another man’s wife is adultery.
Athenagoras exalts the righteousness of Jesus’ teaching and boldly confesses that the power of the Holy
Spirit within us is able to provide enough self control to refrain from both thought and act of adultery.
One day we will give an account of our thought life before a holy God whose countenance is like the
sun shining in its strength.
Marriage is permanent.
The disallowance of divorce and remarriage is not of human law but a Divine ordinance and teaching of
God.
God has blessed mankind with the marriage covenant and we should be thankful for it.
A second marriage is only a specious adultery.
Justin Martyr, Chapter XV of the First Apology, (History records that he lived from A.D. 110-165)
“Concerning chastity, He uttered such sentiments as these: “Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust
after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart before God.” And, “If thy right eye
offend thee, cut it out; for it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of heaven with one eye, than,
having two eyes, to be cast into everlasting fire.” And, “Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced
from another husband, committeth adultery.” And, “There are some who have been made eunuchs of
men, and some who were born eunuchs, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heaven’s sake; but all cannot receive this saying.” So that all who, by human law, are twice
married, are in the eye of our Master sinners, and those who look upon a woman to lust after her. For
not only he who in act commits adultery is rejected by Him, but also he who desires to commit
adultery: since not only our works, but also our thoughts, are open before God.”
Lusting after another man’s wife is adultery.
Marriage is a perpetual covenant.
It is better to enter into heaven having one eye, than having two, and be cast into everlasting fire.
Divorce and remarriage is the sin of adultery, therefore, such a person who has contracted a second
marriage is sinning against the Lord.
Where human law permits such, our Master does not.
Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Book XIV, Chapter 24, (Probably written about A.
D. 246-248)
“For confessedly he who puts away his wife when she is not a fornicator, makes her an adulteress, so
far as it lies with him, for if, when the husband is living she shall be called an adulteress if she be joined
to another man ( Romans 7:3) and when by putting her away, he gives to her the excuse of a second
marriage, very plainly in this way he makes her an adulteress. But as a woman is an adulteress, even
though she seem to be married to a man, while the former husband is still living, so also the man who
seems to marry her who has been put away, does not so much marry her as commit adultery with her
according to the declaration of our Saviour.”
Divorce and remarriage while the spouse is still living is adultery no matter the reason.
Marriage is permanent.
A person who has engaged a second marriage while the former spouse is living is not married to the
new but has contracted a forbidden relationship and remains in a perpetual state of adultery, “So as
long as the spouse still lives.”
Basil, "Second Canonical Letter to Amphilochius" c. 375 A.D.
"A man who marries after another man's wife has been taken away from him will be charged with
adultery in the case of the first woman; but in the case of the second he will be guiltless."
In this statement Basil describes a case where a man married a woman who actually belonged to
another man. Since the covenant belongs to the first marriage, any contract thereafter is invalid, and is
considered by our Lord, and this author as adultery. This was a second union for the woman, and
even though it was a first for this man, the covenant was not acknowledged by God, for it is adultery,
and therefore Basil says, if he should decide to marry, he shall be guiltless, because the union for him
was illegitimate.
Intimacy itself with a partner does not constitute a legitimate marriage recognized by God, nor do vows
and intimacy alone, but only these things combined in a first union. Any other is called porneia.
Jerome, Letter 55 to Amandus (Written about 394-396 A.D.) Perhaps Jerome’s most notable work was
translating the Bible into Latin (The Vulgate)
I find joined to your letter of inquiries a short paper containing the following words: ask him, (that is
me,) whether a woman who has left her husband on the ground that he is an adulterer and sodomite
and has found herself compelled to take another may in the lifetime of him whom she first left be in
communion with the church without doing penance for her fault. As I read the case put I recall the
verse they make excuses for their sins. We are all human and all indulgent to our own faults; and what
our own will leads us to do we attribute to a necessity of nature. It is as though a young man were to
say, I am over-borne by my body, the glow of nature kindles my passions, the structure of my frame
and its reproductive organs call for sexual intercourse. Or again a murderer might say, I was in want, I
stood in need of food, I had nothing to cover me. If I shed the blood of another, it was to save myself
from dying of cold and hunger. Tell the sister, therefore, who thus enquires of me concerning her
condition, not my sentence but that of the apostle. Do you not know, brethren (for I speak to them that
know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman which
has an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband lives, she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. Romans 7:1-3 And in another place: the wife is bound by the law
as long as her husband lives; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she
will; only in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 7:39 The apostle has thus cut away every plea and has clearly
declared that, if a woman marries again while her husband is living, she is an adulteress. You must not
speak to me of the violence of a ravisher, a mother's pleading, a father's bidding, the influence of
relatives, the insolence and the intrigues of servants, household losses. A husband may be an adulterer
or a sodomite, he may be stained with every crime and may have been left by his wife because of his
sins; yet he is still her husband and, so long as he lives, she may not marry another. The apostle does
not promulgate this decree on his own authority but on that of Christ who speaks in him. For he has
followed the words of Christ in the gospel: whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commits
adultery. Matthew 5:32 Mark what he says: whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits
adultery. Whether she has put away her husband or her husband her, the man who marries her is still
an adulterer. Wherefore the apostles seeing how heavy the yoke of marriage was thus made said to
Him: if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry, and the Lord replied, he that is
able to receive it, let him receive it. And immediately by the instance of the three eunuchs he shows the
blessedness of virginity which is bound by no carnal tie. Matthew 19:10-12
I have not been able quite to determine what it is that she means by the words has found herself
compelled to marry again. What is this compulsion of which she speaks? Was she overborne by a
crowd and ravished against her will? If so, why has she not, thus victimized, subsequently put away her
ravisher? Let her read the books of Moses and she will find that if violence is offered to a betrothed
virgin in a city and she does not cry out, she is punished as an adulteress: but if she is forced in the
field, she is innocent of sin and her ravisher alone is amenable to the laws. Deuteronomy 22:23-27
Therefore if your sister, who, as she says, has been forced into a second union, wishes to receive the
body of Christ and not to be accounted an adulteress, let her do penance; so far at least as from the
time she begins to repent to have no farther intercourse with that second husband who ought to be
called not a husband but an adulterer. If this seems hard to her and if she cannot leave one whom she
has once loved and will not prefer the Lord to sensual pleasure, let her hear the declaration of the
apostle: ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's
table and of the table of devils, 1 Corinthians 10:21 and in another place: what communion has light
with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? 2 Corinthians 6:14-15
Jerome compares the reason of adultery to that of a murderer. By nature a person has feelings and
desires for an intimate relationship, but sexual relations outside of the original marriage union is adultery
regardless of the need. By nature a person is hungry and needs to fill his stomach with a morsel of
food, but if the means he uses to satisfy his hunger pains is through theft and murder, he then becomes
a thief and murderer. Whatever needs we have, we must obey the Gospel at whatever cost, even on
pain of death. Jesus said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
During Biblical times people who were in a betrothal covenant were considered to be legally married
though it had not been consummated, so that intimacy with another partner prior to the consummation
would be called adultery. (Deuteronomy 22:23-27)
Marriage to a divorced person is adultery.
The Gospel of our Lord gives no excuse for divorce and remarriage.
If a person remarries while their original spouse is living, the marriage is illegitimate. The union is
adulterous and not sanctioned by God. If the two separate they are not going through a divorce, but
they are leaving a relationship forbidden by scripture.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold
to the one, and despise the other. (Matthew 6:24)
Doctrine that teaches a legal divorce and remarriage is an evil doctrine and those who drink from it
know not that that they drink from the cup of devils.
After the season of passion has faded and the true colors of your spouse come forth, if you divorce and
remarry you are in a perpetual state of adultery.
Augustine, Of the Good of Marriage, Chapters 6, 7, and 21 (Finished about A.D. 401)
“For whosoever putteth away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit
adultery.” To such a degree is that marriage compact entered upon a matter of a certain sacrament, that
it is not made void even by separation itself, since, so long as her husband lives, even by whom she
hath been left, she commits adultery, in case she be married to another: and he who hath left her, is the
cause of this evil.
But I marvel, if, as it is allowed to put away a wife who is an adulteress, so it be allowed, having put
her away, to marry another. For holy Scripture causes a hard knot in this matter, in that the Apostle
says, that, by commandment of the Lord, the wife ought not to depart from her husband, but, in case
she shall have departed, to remain unmarried, or to be reconciled to her husband… But I see not how
the man can have permission to marry another, in case he have left an adulteress, when a woman has
not to be married to another, in case she have left an adulterer. And, this being the case, so strong is
that bond of fellowship in married persons, that, although it be tied for the sake of begetting children,
not even for the sake of begetting children is it loosed. Seeing that the compact of marriage is not done
away by divorce intervening; so that they continue wedded persons one to another, even after
separation; and commit adultery with those, with whom they shall be joined, even after their own
divorce, either the woman with a man, or the man with a woman.
Therefore as to serve two or more, so to pass over from a living husband into marriage with another,
was neither lawful then, nor is it lawful now, nor will it ever be lawful. Forsooth (In truth) to apostatize
from the One God, and to go into adulterous superstition of another, is ever an evil.
Marriage to a divorced person is adultery.
A separation accomplished through the laws of the land does not supersede the law of Christ. His word
abrogates all the laws of man concerning divorce and remarriage.
The divorce is not recognized by our Lord or His church. Even if they legally separate, according to
the local custom, the compact of marriage is not done away by divorce intervening.
Both male and female persons who are divorced and remarried are sinning against the Lord through
their adulterous union.
The word apostatize means, “To abandon one's profession or church; to forsake principles or faith
which one has professed.” (Webster’s 1828) St. Augustine equates adultery with apostasy. Truly to
forsake one part of Jesus’ teachings is to forsake them all, for He will not regard those who have lightly
esteemed even one of His messages. An old practice for such persons who persisted in their sins is
anathema. (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)
You may be saying to yourself, how is it I have never heard these things? As I stated earlier, though
the messengers of the Bible have changed, the message of the Bible has remained the same.
There was a common thread of holiness throughout these teachings of the early church leaders as well
as an upmost reverence toward His nature and commands. Only those church leaders prior to the
council of Nicea in 325 A.D. do I make such a statement. Abounding from their teachings emanated a
genuine love for holiness. It seems that they exalted His word greater than their names, just as the
LORD exalted His word above His name. (Psalm 138:2) They were not concerned with personal
reputation, but esteemed the honor from God as far more value than the praises of men. (John 5:44)