Dear Editor,
Wallace Benn’s review of Dr Hamer’s book God’s Divorce (September en) was helpful, but from the outset it is clear that he has not been able to realign his thinking to the biblical way that the book demands.
Hamer argues that we have mistakenly conflated Genesis 2.23 and 24; it is one of the many key new insights in his work. Adam never left a mother or father, and was ‘one flesh’ with Eve before they were united in marriage. The word ‘therefore’ that links the two verses in Hebrew can be translated ‘after that’, thus Benn makes too much of the poor English translation.
Paul argues in Ephesians 5 that Genesis 2.24 is about Christ and the church, thus ‘one flesh’ is not about the sexual consummation of marriage, but about the beginning of a new family unit based on the union of two previously unrelated people of which the husband is to be the head.
Hamer’s exegesis of Exodus 21 (not Exodus 22 as mistakenly cited in the review) is another important new insight in the book. But Benn fails to see the significance of the triad of food, clothing and conjugal rights described there that a wife was entitled to, the lack of which are grounds for a wife being able to initiate a divorce. Hamer shows that these rights are not altered or denied by the New Testament teaching of Jesus or the Apostles, rather they reflect and enforce them.
Finally, having been positive about much of the book, Wallace Benn retreats to the very conservative position of Köstenberger and Adams, which are far from being ‘the safe pair hands’ that he describes. Underlying their understanding (and that of many evangelicals) is a sacramental view of marriage that sees that any divorce and remarriage is a sin. And yet the book’s title reminds us that God is twice divorced (Judah and Israel) and once remarried (Christ and the church). It seems strange to me that God would reveal his relationship to his people in terms that could never apply to their own human relationships.
Hamer’s book breaks new ground and I believe it is the most significant theological work on marriage and divorce ever written. I strongly recommend it to your readership, as it will help to solve some of the most pressing and difficult pastoral issues of our day.
Yours sincerely,
