should be rejected. Several major churches today believe that rules for divorce should be set to best advance Jesus's overarching goals of love and justice, rather than a legalistic interpretation of his words. The Eastern Orthodox Church has also recognized this verse as permitting divorce for adultery and other reasons, such as spousal abuse, abandonment, and apostasy. In Eastern Orthodox practice, churches are to allow penitential remarriage up to two times after a divorce. A first marriage is celebrated, a second performed, a third tolerated, and a fourth prohibited. Invalid marriage The official Catholic position remains that there are no valid reasons for divorce, and a number of methods for reconciling this with Matthew's exception have been proposed. One is that the other synoptics do not mention the exception could be because it only refers to very obscure circumstances. Some read it as referring specifically to marriages that, while permissible under pagan religions, such as those between blood relations, were illegal under Jewish and Christian law. According to Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, commentary on the Apostolic Decree of the Council of Jerusalem: "it is possible ... (fornication means) marriage within the prohibited Levitical degrees (), which the rabbis described as "forbidden for porneia," or mixed marriages with pagans (; also compare ), or participation in pagan worship which had long been described by Old Testament prophets as spiritual adultery and which, in fact, offered opportunity in many temples for religious prostitution". Another reading is that the exception refers to the rules surrounding the Jewish betrothal ritual, linking this to Matthew 1:19, and has no relevance to the modern world. Commentary from the Church Fathers Hilary of Poitiers: But the Lord who brought peace and goodwill on earth, would have it reign especially in the matrimonial bond. Augustine: By interposing this delay in the mode of putting away, the lawgiver showed as clearly as it could be shown to hard hearts, that he hated strife and disagreement. The Lord then so confirms this backwardness in the Law, as to except only one case, the cause of fornication; every other inconvenience which may have place, He bids us bear with patience in consideration of the plighted troth of wedlock. Pseudo-Chrysostom: If we ought to bear the burdens of strangers, in obedience to that of the Apostle, Bear ye one another's burdens, (Gal. 6:2.) how much more that