Marriage, the New Testament, and pastoral ministry

Abstract

There is a diversity of teaching about marriage in the New Testament. Opening up this diversity provides a pastorally more generous, and theologically more adequate, understanding of marriage than claiming, and then finding, an alleged unanimity of view. The article considers, in chronological order, the teaching of Paul, the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, and the teaching of the later Letters on marriage, acknowledging the differences. It then suggests several pastoral benefits for ministry arising from the acknowledgement of the diversity of teaching.