10:11a–b
So He told them: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So he told them introduces the answer to the question that the disciples asked Jesus in 10:10. Introduce it in a natural way in your language.
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as commits adultery refers to a certain type of sexual sin. It refers to sexual relations between a man and a woman, when at least one of them is married to another person.
When a man divorces his wife, God still considers their marriage to be valid. So when he marries another woman, he has been unfaithful to his first wife and sinned. God considers this sin to be adultery. This same term occurs in 7:21c.
In some languages the usual term for commits adultery is very specific. For example, it may refer only to a man having sexual relations with another man’s wife. If that is true in your language, you should indicate that divorce and remarriage is the same as the sin of adultery. For example:
If a man divorces his wife and marries someone else, he has been unfaithful to her. It is the same as adultery.
-or-
A person who divorces his wife and marries someone else does a bad thing to his wife. It is the sin of adultery.
against her: The pronoun her refers to the first wife. The man who divorces his wife and remarries is committing adultery by taking a second wife. That is a sin against the first wife. It injures her and is an offense against God. It violates God’s will for married people.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery with her and so sins against his first wife.
-or-
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery and behaves immorally/unfaithfully to/toward his first wife.
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