24 The Pharisee replied, The law provides that man may be divorced, may put away his wife. 25 And Jesus said, The hardness of the hearts of men induced the giver of the law to make provisions such as these; but from the first it was not so. 26 God made a woman for a man, and they were one; and afterwards he said, A man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; they are no more divided; they are one, one flesh. 27 What God has joined no man can part. 28 Now, when they went up to the house, a man made free to ask again about this matter of divorce. 29 And Jesus said again what to the Pharisee he said; and then he gave the higher law of marriage life: 30 Whoever puts away his wife, except she be a courtesan, and then shall take another wife commits adultery. 31 The woman who shall leave a man, unless he be a libertine and an adulterer, and then becomes the wife of any other man, commits adultery. 32 And Thomas asked, What is adultery? 33 And Jesus said, The man who harbors lustful thoughts, who covets any woman not his wife, is an adulterer. 34 The wife who harbors lustful thoughts, and covets any man who is not wed to her, is not her husband, is a courtesan. 35 Men cannot make a law to bind two hearts. 36 When two are bound in love they have no thought of lust. The woman cannot leave the man; the man has no desire to send his wife away. 37 When men and women harbor lustful thoughts, and covet any other flesh, they are not one, not joined by God. 38 And Philip said, Lord, are there few that God has joined in holy marriage bonds? 39 And Jesus said, God knows the pure in heart; the lustful men and women are but creatures of the lustful self; they cannot be at one; nor can they be at one with God. 40 Nathaniel said, Is it not well that all men should refrain from taking on themselves the marriage vow? 41 And Jesus said, Men are not pure because they are unmarried men. The man who lusts is an adulterer if he has wife or not. 42 And then he said to all, Some things men know by being told, while other things they know not till the gate of consciousness shall open up for them. 43 I speak a mystery that now you cannot understand; but you shall some day understand. 44 A eunuch is a man who does not lust; some men are eunuchs born, some men are eunuchs by the power of men, and some are eunuchs by the Holy Breath, who makes them free in God through Christ. 45 He who is able to receive the truth I speak, let him receive. CHAPTER 144. _The Christines at Tiberius. Jesus speaks on the inner life. Relates the parable of the prodigal son. The resentment of the elder brother._ When they had journeyed through the towns and cities of the land of Galilee, the Lord with his disciples came to Tiberius, and here they met a few who loved the name of Christ. 2 And Jesus told them many things about the inner life; but when the multitudes came up, he spoke a parable; he said,