It can only be imagined that when the New Testament writers made their (albeit brief) comments on divorce and remarriage that they assumed they would be understood. So what has gone wrong?In the years after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, when Graeco-Roman culture was at its height, the Jewish perspective of marriage and divorce, and thus the context of those brief New Testament comments was lost. The Christian church of that era was influenced by the neoplatonic ideas of the day, and an idealised concept of marriage developed from on Adam and Eve's marriage recorded in Genesis 2:23it was love at first sight, a marriage made in heaven. These concepts frame an understanding of marriage in much of Western culture even today.However, that was never the understanding of ancient Israel. Instead they looked to Genesis 2:24: ';Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'so a naturally born man chooses a wife for himself, and their union was based on a ';covenant'in other words an agreement. The Old Testament makes it clear what the basis of that agreement was. Furthermore, it is clear, if that agreement was broken, there could be a divorce and a remarriage. All the Bible's marital imagery (where the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures imagine that God is married to his people) is based on that understanding of human marriage.But so strong is our concept of marriage, that when Genesis 2:24 is referred to in the New Testament, it is thought that the reference is to Adam and Eve's marriage. It is a paradigmatic marriage that for many excludes (or greatly restricts) the possibility of divorce and remarriage.This study looks to challenge that paradigmand to suggest that the New Testament writers would not have employed an imagery which had at its centre divorce and remarriage, only to deny the possibility of such in their own human marriage teaching.Colin Hamers thesis represents the only recent work on metaphor theory in biblical scholarship. It challenges centuries of academic scholarship and ecclesiastical assumptions about divorce. Hamers detailed and well researched analysis challenges the consensus view that the marriage of Adam and Eve in Gen 2:24 represents an ontological unity, suggesting important implications for contemporary Christian teaching on marriage and divorce.

Chapter 1: Cross-Domain Mapping and Genesis 2:241.1 Cross-Domain Mapping1.1.1 Metaphor Theory1.1.2 Large-Scale Conceptual Metaphors1.1.3 Cross-Domain Mapping and Theology Today1.2 The One-Flesh Unions of Genesis 2:23 and 2:241.3 The Cross-Domain Mapping of Genesis 2:24 in the Old Testament1.3.1 Yahweh: The Husband of Israel1.4 Cross-Domain Mapping of Genesis 2:24 in the New Testament1.4.1 Jesus: The Bridegroom of the Church1.4.2 Sin: The Husband of Unredeemed Humanity1.4.3 The Body of Christ1.4.4 The Body of a Prostitute1.5 Reverse Cross-Domain Mapping1.6 Genesis 2:24 and the People of God1.7 Summary: Cross-Domain Mapping and Genesis 2:24Chapter 2: Literature Review2.1 Marital Imagery in the Old Testament2.2 Marital Imagery in the New Testament2.3 Divorce and Remarriage Teaching in the New Testament2.4 Summary: Literature ReviewChapter 3: Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 An Approach to the Biblical Text3.3 Metaphor versus Other Literary Forms3.4 The Social and Literary Context3.5 Cross-Domain Mapping as a Hermeneutical Tool3.6 Summary: MethodologyChapter 4: Marriage and Divorce in the Ancient Near East4.1 Introduction4.2 Ancient Near East Principal Relevant Source Materials4.3 Specific Marital Practices in the Ancient Near East4.4 Provision and Protection for the Woman4.5 Summary: Marriage and Divorce in the Ancient Near EastChapter 5: Marriage and Divorce in the Old Testament5.1 Introduction5.2 Marriage in the Early Narrative Accounts5.3 Mundane Marriage-Contract or Covenant?5.4 The Importance of Virginity5.5 Betrothal Arrangements5.6 Forbidden Marriages5.7 Polygyny and Concubinage5.8 Marital Obligations5.9 Adultery5.10 Divorce5.11 A Husband's Right to Divorce5.12 A Wife's Right to Divorce5.13 Other Divorces5.14 Summary: Marriage and Divorce in the Old TestamentChapter 6: Marital Imagery in the Old Testament6.1 Introduction6.2 Some Definitions6.3 The Ancient Near East Background to Old Testament Marital Imagery6.4 The Marriage at Sinai6.5 The Sinaitic Covenant and Genesis 2:246.6 Betrothal Arrangements6.7 Marital Obligations6.8 Adultery6.9 Divorce6.10 Remarriage6.11 Inferred Cross-Mapping6.12 Marital Imagery in Eden6.13 Summary: Marital Imagery in the Old TestamentChapter 7: The Literature of the Second Temple Period7.1 Introduction7.2 The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha7.3 The Old Testament Apocrypha7.4 Qumran7.5 Rabbinic Writings7.6 Philo and Josephus7.7 Summary: The Literature of the Second Temple PeriodChapter 8: The Documents of the Second Temple Period8.1 Introduction8.2 The Elephantine Documents8.3 The Judaean Desert Documents8.4 The Graeco-Roman Documents8.5 Summary: The Documents of the Second Temple PeriodChapter 9: Marital Imagery in the New Testament9.1 Introduction9.2 Marital Imagery in the Gospels9.3 Marital Imagery in the Apocalypse9.4 Marital Imagery in the Pauline Corpus9.5 A Second Divorce9.6 Adam and Eve as Types in the New Testament9.7 Summary: Marital Imagery in the New Testament9.8 New Testament Marital Imagery and Traditional Teaching9.9 Some Implications for New Testament ExegesisChapter 10: Divorce and Remarriage in the New Testament10.1 Introduction10.2 Marriage in the New Testament10.3 Divorce and Remarriage in the Gospels10.4 Separation, Divorce, and Remarriage in First Corinthians 710.5 Adam and Eve10.6 Summary: Divorce and Remarriage in the New TestamentConclusionAppendix A: Cross-Domain Mapping DiagramsAppendix B: Judaean Desert Documents ChartAppendix C: Judaean Desert Documents TranslationsJudaean Desert Documents Select BibliographyAbbreviationsBibliography