It does not appear that Christ ever came into contact with any other marriage law or practice than those which obtained in Palestine, and accordingly He never encountered the gross licence of the Græco-Roman world. Very early in the experience of the Church, however, the practical questions implied in the theory and practice of marriage were raised outside the pale of Judaism, and the Apostles found themselves compelled to apply the principles of the Gospel under novel circumstances. We shall find that this application was by no means easy or altogether successful. For outside the Jewish sphere there were absent the presuppositions of a sound marriage law. Christ could take for granted the prophetic teaching, and He could appeal with the relatively debased standard of Rabbinic morality.
- ↑ See "History of the Jewish Nation," p. 272.
