Mark 10:12 Meaning and Explanation
“And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Ancient legal codes rarely treated husbands and wives alike, and much of the debate Jesus had just faced concerned what a man was permitted to do. Then he addresses the woman in exactly the same terms. Anyone who has wondered whether Scripture holds men and women to one moral measure in marriage will find a plain answer in this short sentence.
Jesus extends his teaching on divorce to cover a wife who dismisses her husband for another man. The same standard binds both partners, since marriage joins two people by God's own act.
The Context of Mark 10:12
Mark 10 begins with Jesus teaching crowds beyond Jordan, where Pharisees test him about whether a man may put away his wife. He asks what Moses commanded, hears about the bill of divorcement, and traces that permission to hardness of heart. Verses 6 through 9 go back to the creation of male and female, to the leaving and cleaving of Genesis, and to the one flesh that God has joined. Verse 10 moves the scene indoors, where the disciples ask about the same matter privately. Verse 11 gives the ruling concerning a husband, and verse 12 completes it for a wife. Children are brought to Jesus in the very next verse.
What Does Mark 10:12 Mean?
The sentence is built as a mirror of verse 11. There a man puts away his wife and marries another; here a woman puts away her husband and is married to another. The verb rendered put away describes a legal release, the dismissal that ends a household. Notice the second clause in each case, since Jesus ties the verdict to the remarriage that follows the dismissal rather than to the dismissal standing alone. The charge itself, she committeth adultery, uses the seventh commandment as the measure, which means Jesus treats the first marriage as still carrying weight. The passive form, be married to another, may reflect the way a woman's remarriage was arranged.
Placing this word in the house, away from the testing crowd, matters. The Pharisees wanted a ruling on the limits of a man's permission; the disciples get a description of what marriage is. Jesus roots the whole answer in the opening chapters of Genesis, where God makes male and female and where a man leaves his parents to cleave to his wife. The concession Moses wrote is real, given by God through the lawgiver to restrain the damage that hard hearts inflict. Jesus honors that provision while pointing his followers back to the design it was accommodating. Verse 9 supplies the ground for verse 12: what God has joined has a joiner, and human dismissal cannot simply undo divine work.
Christ speaks here as the one through whom the beginning came, which gives him standing to describe what marriage was made to be. Paul later repeats the same instruction to a congregation in a Greek city, addressing wife and husband in turn and marking the teaching as the Lord's own. Scripture also shows God binding himself to a covenant people and refusing to let go, so faithfulness in marriage carries something of his character. Many readers come to this verse carrying real wounds, some of them from choices made long ago. The same Lord who states the standard is the one who receives the sorrowful, and his mercy is as large as his clarity.
Mark 10:12 in the Original Language
apolyo (ἀπολύω), 'put away' -- to release or dismiss. The verb covers letting a crowd go home as well as ending a marriage, and its legal use in this chapter describes the formal act of sending a spouse away from the household.
Bible Verses Related to Mark 10:12
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
- Genesis 2:24
“What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
- Mark 10:9
“And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:”
- 1 Corinthians 7:10
“And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
- Matthew 19:9
Where Mark 10:12 Echoes in Scripture
1 Corinthians 7:10 records Paul relaying a command he attributes to the Lord rather than to himself, telling the wife not to depart from her husband and the husband not to put away his wife. The mutual address matches Mark 10:11 and 12 closely enough that Paul appears to be passing on this very teaching. That a letter written to a Greek city preserved the same balanced form suggests how firmly the saying was fixed in the memory of the early churches.
How to Apply Mark 10:12 Today
Marriages are kept by small daily fidelities long before any crisis arrives. Jesus grounds the covenant in something God did, which means our part is largely guarding what he joined: attention, honesty, repair after conflict, and firm limits around whatever competes for our loyalty. Those of us who are married can name one habit this week that protects the bond. Those of us carrying a broken marriage can bring it to the Lord honestly, since he neither pretends the wound away nor abandons the wounded. Congregations can also help by refusing to treat a friend's marriage trouble as gossip.
Reflection & Prayer
What would change in our homes if we truly believed God himself did the joining? A prayer: Lord, you made us male and female and you bind hearts together. Give married couples among us patience, tenderness, and courage to repair what is torn. Comfort those whose marriages have ended, and teach all of us to keep faith the way you keep faith with your people. Amen.