Adultery(fornication, licentiousness)
Summary
The violation of the marriage covenant through sexual intercourse with someone other than one's spouse, forbidden in the seventh commandment and used figuratively in Scripture to describe spiritual unfaithfulness to God.
☩Definition and Legal Status
Under Hebrew law, adultery was defined as the sexual intercourse of a married or betrothed woman with any man other than her husband. The Mosaic penalty was death by stoning for both guilty parties. For a married man, intercourse with an unmarried woman was considered fornication rather than adultery, reflecting the context of permitted polygamy, though still morally condemned. The seventh commandment categorically prohibited adultery without detailed definition, assuming its meaning was understood.
☩Trial by Ordeal
When a husband suspected his wife of unfaithfulness but lacked witnesses, the law of jealousy provided for trial by the bitter water, the only ordeal sanctioned in Israelite law. The woman drank water from the holy basin mixed with dust from the sanctuary floor and the washed-off ink of a written oath. If guilty, ill effects would follow; if innocent, she was proven and the husband's jealousy unsubstantiated. This ordeal was designed to restrain jealousy within reasonable bounds while the terror of it likely prevented guilt or led to confession without recourse to the test.
☩Teaching of Jesus
Jesus deepened the understanding of adultery by declaring that lustful intent constitutes adultery in the heart, even without the outward act. He rejected the liberal divorce practices of His day, teaching that divorce except for fornication causes the divorced woman to commit adultery and whoever marries her commits adultery. When confronted with the woman taken in adultery, Jesus neither condoned her sin nor invoked the death penalty, but challenged her accusers with their own guilt and told her to go and sin no more.
☩Spiritual Meaning
Scripture uses adultery as a powerful metaphor for spiritual unfaithfulness. Because God's relationship with Israel was described as a marriage, idolatry and apostasy were called adultery. The prophets charged Israel with committing adultery through her idols and seeking other lovers besides her divine husband. Jesus called His generation "adulterous" for their rejection of Him and lack of faith. The same figure applies to the apostate church, depicted in Revelation as having abandoned her true husband to consort with the world.
Related Verses149 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Adultery," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Adultery," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.James Hastings (ed.), "Adultery," in Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. I (T. & T. Clark, 1906–1908).
- 4.George Morrish, "Adultery," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 5.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Adultery," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).