1. Relevance of the Bible today: a rational perspective.
Attitudes to marriage and divorce have deep roots in Christian teaching both in Europe and in Africa. To be properly critical, we need to ask searching questions about the relationship between modern attitudes and religious texts. The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is a foundation document of Judaism and Christianity. Attitudes to this range from conservative to critical, the former believing the Bible be inspired word of God, the latter denying this. I suggest that we approach the Bible as an historical document, without supernaturalist assumptions.
The Bible has a cultural relevance even if it has no personal authority for an individual. All the good and moral things of life are claimed to be Christian (or Jewish) even if they are just common sense social rules. The Bible also contains material which is contrary to common sense, such as the curse or poison ordeal for a woman's adultery (Numbers 5) so the texts have no extrinsic authority. . The task for education is to examine religious texts such as the Bible to gain some understanding about the time for which they were written. There is no guarantee that any of it will apply to modern day issues.
2. The Bible as history: some issues
There has been optimistic assumptions in conservative theological circles that the Hebrew story as set out in the Old Testament really happened in history. Their theological underpinning is the doctrine of divine inspiration, that is that the Bible is the word of God. That is what I was brought up to believe, but even as a teenager that never made any sense. The creation timescale of big bang to humans within six days is a case in point. Genesis paints the picture of all human peoples as one big family, being refined in the telling to the Hebrew family. There are some contemporary monuments produced by victorious monarchs in Egypt and Mesopotamia and eventually these begin to mention some kings that we know about. We actually cannot have any certainty about whether Joseph, or Moses, or even David were real people whose stories described what they really did. They are stories, folk tales, much like King Alfred and his cakes, Robert the Bruce and his spider, and Robin Hood's merry men. Whether David wrote psalms or Solomon wrote wisdom books must be open questions.
What we do know is that someone created and recited the studies. These people lived in time, had their own interests and theologies, and had reasons for writing. Most were men, and powerful men, and their writings were designed to persuade. That is, the writings were political. I recognize the Bible as history only in this precise sense.
3. Hermeneutics: applying the Bible for today.
I have great hesitation in this aspect. Times now are different from time then. Where texts assume the best in human nature, such as love and social justice, an application is easy to see. However much of the Old Testament has a much more dubious message, even on occasion advocating genocide. Preachers pick out a verse here or there to hang a sermon on, but this is not the same as applying a whole text. New Testament verses are more commonly used for preaching, and are much more appropriate in format. My general assumption as that hermeneutic applications will be very limited.
The Old Testament does not easily translate to marriage today. Polygyny is assumed, the royal family being rather excessive. There are slave marriages, prejudices against intermarriage and harsh judgements on female sexuality and homosexuality. The place and status of women is mixed, but in general demonstrates neglect
4. Divorce in the Bible: some issues.
We see relationships terminated in an unsatisfactory manner, such as Hagar's expulsion, left to die with her child. Divorce is not presented as a great issue, though there are not many examples. The law in Deuteronomy 24 mainly preventing remarriage afterwards. There are a few metaphorical uses in the works of the prophets.
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