Mar 10:1-2 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Mark 10:1-2: 10:1-2 The Pharisees’ question about divorce was much debated in Judaism, but it had a hostile purpose as they tried to trap Jesus (see 2:16 , 18 , 24 ; 7:5 ; 8:11 ; 12:13 ). John the Baptist was beheaded over his teaching that Herod Antipas’s divorce and remarriage was unlawful (6:18-19 ), and according to the Jewish historian Josephus, John was martyred close to Jesus’ current location east of the Jordan River , at Herod Antipas’s fortress at Machaerus (see 6:28 ; Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2). If Jesus answered in agreement with John the Baptist, the Pharisees could indict him before Herod. But if Jesus said that divorce was lawful, he would be contradicting a prophet.

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‏ Mark 10:1-2

Summary for Mark 10:1-2: 10:1-2 ^a The Pharisees’ question about divorce was much debated in Judaism, but it had a hostile purpose as they tried to trap Jesus (see 2:16 ^b, 18 ^c, 24 ^d; 7:5 ^e; 8:11 ^f; 12:13 ^g). John the Baptist was beheaded over his teaching that Herod Antipas’s divorce and remarriage was unlawful (6:18-19 ^h), and according to the Jewish historian Josephus, John was martyred close to Jesus’ current location east of the Jordan River, at Herod Antipas’s fortress at Machaerus (see 6:28 ⁱ; Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.2). If Jesus answered in agreement with John the Baptist, the Pharisees could indict him before Herod. But if Jesus said that divorce was lawful, he would be contradicting a prophet.