In Chapter 6 we will look at the metaphor in Jesus' statement that adultery has already occurred when lust has settled on doing it. Children certainly know that there is a huge amount of adulteration involved in their parents' divorce. The usual security of family life is disturbed. And since two families with relatives and grandparents were interconnected in the first marriage, the ending of relationships and the confusing reconnections with another family are also an adulteration of what children assume is their normal family life. Similarly if we think of adultery as a metaphor for the adulteration of our hopes for the love and joy of a happy marriage, then Jesus' words take on a powerful meaning.
Any divorce is metaphorical adultery.
And divorcing one's partner causes his or her adultery. When a woman is suddenly given divorce papers, her home, her children, her family, and her life expectations are all horribly adulterated. And this is also true for the man when his wife divorces him. If this is the meaning of the metaphor in both texts, we have Jesus making a plain statement of fact. Divorce causes the adulteration of a marriage.