“And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 19:4 Mean?
"Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female?" Jesus answers a question about divorce by going back to creation — not to Moses' regulations but to God's original design. His appeal to "the beginning" establishes that God's intention precedes and supersedes human accommodation. What God designed is the standard; what Moses permitted was a concession.
The phrase "have ye not read" is gently confrontational: you, the experts in Scripture, haven't you read the most basic text about human origins? The Pharisees know Genesis. They can recite it. But they've been reading Moses' divorce regulations instead of God's creation design. They're studying the accommodation and ignoring the original.
The appeal to creation as the interpretive key for ethics is significant: when Jesus wants to establish what God intends for human relationships, He doesn't start with the law. He starts with creation. The creation order reveals God's purpose more clearly than the legal accommodations that followed the fall.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What ethical question are you debating at the edges that needs to be reframed from the center?
- 2.Why does Jesus appeal to creation rather than law when answering the Pharisees' question?
- 3.What's the difference between God's design and God's accommodation?
- 4.How does 'going back to the beginning' clarify complex modern questions?
Devotional
Have you not read? Jesus sends the Pharisees back to Genesis — not to the divorce laws they want to debate but to the creation they've been ignoring. Before Moses permitted divorce, God designed marriage. The design is the standard. The permission was the concession.
Jesus' method here is instructive: when asked a complicated ethical question, He goes back to the beginning. Not to the latest regulation or the current cultural consensus. To the original design. What did God intend when He made things? That's the foundation. Everything else — accommodations, exceptions, cultural adaptations — is measured against the original.
The Pharisees want to debate the conditions under which divorce is permissible. Jesus wants to discuss why marriage exists in the first place. They're arguing about the edges; He's reestablishing the center. The edges can only be understood when the center is clear.
This approach applies beyond marriage. When any ethical question gets tangled in competing regulations and cultural accommodations, Jesus' method is: go back to the beginning. What did God design? What was the original purpose? What was the intention before human sin introduced the need for accommodation?
The beginning isn't naive idealism — it's foundational architecture. What God made at the beginning reveals what God intended permanently. The accommodations that followed the fall are temporary concessions. The design is the destination.
What ethical question in your life needs to be reframed by going back to God's original design?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And he answered and said unto them,.... Not by replying directly to the question, but by referring them to the original…
And he answered and said ... - Instead of referring to the opinions of either party, Jesus called their attention to the…
at the beginning An appeal from the law of Moses to a higher and absolute law, which has outlived the law of Moses.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture