“about this matter.” Jesus had a conversation with the Pharisees about marriage and divorce, which is recorded in Matthew (see the commentaries on Matt. 19:3 and 19:9). What Jesus said, however, was of such interest to the disciples that they asked him “about this matter.” It seems that the disciples were so steeped in the culture of the day that they had just accepted divorce and remarriage as part of life (as many people have today), and were shocked at the way Jesus defended the sanctity of marriage. The Gospel of Mark leaves out the full conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees and goes forward to an event that Matthew does not mention, and that is that Jesus spoke privately to his disciples about what he had said to the Pharisees. The disciples had waited until they were all back at a house and in private before bringing up this matter. Jesus occasionally taught his disciples in private in houses (cp. Mark 7:17; 9:28, 33; 10:10).