An interesting scholarly note: “It should be remembered that the ‘putting away of a wife’ referred to by Jesus was not equal to a legal divorce. As James E. Talmage has indicated, ‘Jesus announced no specific or binding rule as to legal divorces; the putting away of a wife, as contemplated under the Mosaic custom, involved no judicial investigation or action by an established court.’ (Jesus the Christ, p. 474.)… . Divorce (or permanent separation) is not good; but if a couple decides to separate permanently, they should follow the legal procedures. This requirement is equally applicable to the man or the woman, for if a man ‘puts away his wife’ but does not give her a legal divorce, he causes both her and any subsequent husband she might marry to commit adultery. (3 Nephi 12:31–32; compare Matthew 5:31–32; 19:3–9; Luke 16:18.) In this regard, it is well to remember that the word divorce as used by the Savior in 3 Nephi 12:32 is not a legal term; it simply implies a separation or ‘putting away.’ The legal term used by the Savior is ‘writing of divorcement’ (3 Nephi 12:31)” (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976], 266).