In this verse it is once more Jesus speaking his own words; the Genesis citation ends at the end of verse 5. (It is not clear why Barclay keeps the first part of verse 6 as part of that quote.) Some translators have had to indicate this shift with a phrase such as “So I tell you that they….”

So they are no longer two but one flesh (Good News Translation “So they are no longer two, but one”): here again most translations are fairly literal. Two exceptions are Phillips (“So they are no longer two separate people but one”) and Barclay (“and they two shall become so completely one that they shall be no longer two persons but one”). As in verse 5, it will probably be best to use a simile in most languages: “So from then on the two of them are like one person.”

God has joined together: marriage is viewed as within the divine will and purpose. The verb literally means “yoke together (equally),” as of two oxen.

In the second sentence of this verse, Good News Translation inverts the order of the two clauses (compare Revised Standard Version). Man is here used generically of “people,” though most translations maintain the literal form. In addition, let not man (Good News Translation “Man must not”) is equivalent to “no one must.” Finally, What means “those whom” or “the man and woman whom.” The second part of the verse may then be translated “no one must separate a man and woman whom God has joined together as husband and wife.” Or, on the assumption that the verb means “try to separate” (An American Translation), one may translate “no one must try to separate…” or “no one must even try to separate….”

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 .