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Mat_19:10. This conversation is to be understood as having taken place privatim, in a house (Mar_10:10), or elsewhere.
εἰ οὕτως ἐστὶν ἡ αἰτία , κ . τ . λ .] ἡ αἰτία means causa, but not in the sense of res or relation (Grotius): “si ita res se habet hoininis cum uxore” (Grimm), which is at variance with the Greek usage, and would be tantamount to a Latin idiom; nor is it to be understood in the sense imported by Fritzsche: “causa, qua aliquis cum uxore versari cogatur.” According to the text, ἡ αἰτία can only be taken as referring back to the question concerning divorce, κατὰ πᾶσαν αἰτίαν , Mat_19:3. The correct interpretation, therefore, must be as follows: If it stands thus with regard to the reason in question, which the man must have in relation to his wife (in order, namely, to her divorce). The Lord had, in fact, declared the πορνεία of the wife to be such an αἰτία as the disciples had inquired about, and that, moreover, the sole one. This also leads me to withdraw my former interpretation of αἰτία in the sense of guilt, that, namely, which was understood to be expressed by the μοιχᾶται . The correct view is given by Hilgenfeld in his Zeitschr. 1868, p. 24, and, in the main, by so early an expositor as Euthymius Zigabenus: ἐὰν μία μόνη ἐστὶν ἡ αἰτία ἡ μέσον τοῦ ἀνδρὸς κ . τῆς γυναικὸς ἡ διαζευγνύουσα .
οὐ συμφ . γαμ .] because one cannot be released again, but, with the exception of adultery alone, must put up with all the woman’s other vices.