Why Mark 10:6 and Matthew 19 Don't Point to a Young Earth

  Mark chapter ten and Matthew chapter nine contain two accounts of the same event. The Pharisees are questioning Jesus about marriage and divorce. Young Earth Creationists have appropriated these verses to claim support for the belief that Jesus taught that the earth was young. I did address this somewhat in my book, but it keeps coming up again and again so I want to address it here as a stand-alone topic. 

First, let's look at the two passages in context. For Mark 10:2-9...

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.  And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

They reason that since Jesus said this joining together of Adam and Eve as man and wife was from "the beginning of the creation" then this implies that there could not be millions or billions of years between the creation of the universe and the ordination of marriage. 

Matthew 19 has very similar wording.  

3The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 7They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? 8He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Matthew nineteen also uses the phrase "the beginning" but does not specify the beginning of what. Mark includes the phrase "from the beginning of the creation" and so this is the passage most used to support their argument that "the beginning" Jesus was referencing was the beginning of the universe.

Here is an interlinear of the key verse Mark 10:6...note the word translated "creation"

Notice that the Greek word translated "creation" here is ktiseos. It does not mean "the universe" or "the world". That would be some form of the Greek word "kosmos". Rather, ktiseos means "the created thing" or the act of creation if used as an adjective. 

If the Holy Spirit had wanted this conversation to contain evidence of a young earth, Luke could have been inspired to write "kosmos" there and put the thing to rest. This did not happen and the word used does not mean "the universe" or "the world" in this context, though as we shall see it can mean that when the appropriate modifiers are present. I don't even think it means humanity per se, because the created thing that is the topic of this passage is the institution of marriage. For most, that distinction is without a difference because Eve was created to be the wife of Adam and that all happened as one interconnected act. But if there were men and women outside the garden before that act, it would not necessarily be speaking of them. It would be speaking of when God ordained the institution of marriage that is the topic of the conversation in this passage. See the definition of the root word here, ktisis...

So it's meaning is very much in tune with applying to the establishment of an institution such as a the political union of people in a city or their personal union in marriage. It is basically "the created thing(s)", so it is sometimes translated "creature". Can this mean the world or the universe? Yes. When the text shows that the world is the "created thing" it is referring to, then it means the world. If "all things" are the created things it is referring to, then it means the universe and beyond. Here are some examples where a form of ktisis can legitimately mean the world or all things...

“For since the creation (κτίσεως) of the world (the "created thing" is specified by "of the world’)… [God’s invisible attributes were] being understood by what has been made…. - Romans 1:20 

“For the eagerly awaiting creation (κτίσεως) (the KV translates this "the creature" until verse 22 where it says "the whole creation" and this is more correct. This verse and the next don't specify what created thing it is referencing until verse 22 where the ambiguity is resolved when it says "all" that was created.) waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.”- Romans 8:19

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (κτίσεως) (here again the word is modified by saying "all". "the created thing(s)" What created thing? Answer: All.): for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth… all things have been created through Him and for Him.” -Colossians 1:15-16 

“...mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For, ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things (‘all things’ specifies that the created thing referenced is "everything") continue just as they were from the beginning of creation (κτίσεως).’” - 2 Peter 3:3-4

“...the world has been created (κατηρτίσθαι) by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” (Here it specifies what the created thing is, the world.) - Hebrews 11:3

So I hope you can see from these examples that this passage isn't evidence that Jesus was speaking of a young earth. There is no just basis to shoehorn that meaning into Jesus teaching the Pharisees about marriage and divorce. Jesus was telling them that since the beginning of the creation of marriage itself, God had meant for it to be a joining of male and female. And since it was God's doing, man should not undo it. 

It isn't even necessarily taking about the beginning of the human race, except that the existence of male and female humans is a precondition for the two being made one flesh. The act of the formation of Eve from Adam as a template for us establishes this union and thus it is tied into the formation of Adam and Eve. So if Adam and Eve are the only humans then it is a distinction without a difference, but in principle if there were other humans outside the garden before this then the "created thing", the ktisis, that Christ is referring to here is the institution of marriage, not even the formation of humanity in general.

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