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Mat_19:5. Εἶπεν ] God. Comp. note on 1Co_6:16. Although, no doubt, the words of Gen_2:24 were uttered by Adam, yet, as a rule, utterances of the Old Testament, in which God’s will is declared, are looked upon as the words of God, and that altogether irrespective of the persons speaking. Comp. Euthymius Zigabenus and Fritzsche on the passage.
ἕνεκεν τούτου ] refers, in Gen_2:24, to the formation of the woman out of the rib of the man. But this detail, which belongs to an incident assumed by Jesus to be well known, is included in the general statement of Mat_19:4, so that He does not hesitate to generalize, somewhat freely, the particular to which the ἕνεκεν τούτου refers. Observe, at the same time, that Mat_19:4-5 together constitute the scriptural basis, the divine premisses of what is to appear in the shape of an inference in the verse immediately following.
καταλείψει “necessitudo arctissima conjugalis, cui uni paterna et materna cedit,” Bengel.
οἱ δύο ] These words are not found in the Hebrew, though they occur in the Samaritan text, as they must also have done in that which was followed by the LXX. They are a subsequent addition by way of more distinctly emphasizing the claims of monogamy. See note on 1Co_6:16. The article indicates the two particular persons in question.
εἰς σάρκα μίαν ] Ethical union may also be represented by other ties; but this cannot be said of bodily unity, which consists in such a union of the sexes, that in marriage they cease to be two, and are thenceforth constituted one person. Comp. Sir_25:25 and Grimm’s note. The construction is not Greek (in which εἷναι εἰς means to refer to anything, or to serve for anything, Plat. Phil. p. 39 E; Alc. I. p. 126 A), but a rendering of the Hebrew äÈéÈä ìÀ (Vorst, Hebr. p. 680 f.).