Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount

Protecting women from abusive divorce practices

Bibliographic Data

ID21609884
AuthorsFrancois P Viljoen (0000-0001-8251-4539, North-West University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume59
Issue1
Publication date2025-03-10
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIn die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1018-6441 • E-ISSN: 2305-0853
PublisherAOSIS (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.4102/ids.v59i1.3147
OpenAlexW4408421820
LanguageEN
References cited6

Domestic violence and abusive divorce practices remain significant issues in contemporary societies. This article presents a New Testament perspective on addressing these injustices, sdemonstrating how prevailing views on adultery and deplorable divorce practices exacerbated the vulnerability of women within the patriarchal society of the time. This article examined Jesus’s two antithetical arguments in the Sermon on the Mount against the abusive practices of adultery and divorce, highlighting his protective stance towards women. It explores Jesus’s opposition to unjust divorce practices and their relationship with adultery, emphasising the importance of inner purity and the necessity for men to regulate their thoughts and desires to uphold the sanctity of marriage. Contribution: This article illustrated how misinterpretations of adultery and divorce practices further aggravated the vulnerability of women in that era. Although Jesus’s theses were directed towards his followers, the findings of this study underscored the urgent need for societal reform and the establishment of robust support systems to combat and prevent abuse against women

Abusive relationship · Adultery · Art · Criminology · Domestic violence · Mount · Poison control · Political science · Sermon · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nigeria · Religion, Society, and Development