adultery Summary and Overview

conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and an unmarried woman was fornication. Adultery was regarded as a great social wrong, as well as a great sin. The Mosaic law (Num. 5:11-31) prescribed that the suspected wife should be tried by the ordeal of the "water of jealousy." There is, however, no recorded instance of the application of this law. In subsequent times the Rabbis made various regulations with the view of discovering the guilty party, and of bringing about a divorce. It has been inferred from John 8:1-11 that this sin became very common during the age preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. Idolatry, covetousness, and apostasy are spoken of as adultery spiritually (Jer. 3:6, 8, 9; Ezek. 16:32; Hos. 1:2:3; Rev. 2:22). An apostate church is an adulteress (Isa. 1:21; Ezek. 23:4, 7, 37), and the Jews are styled "an adulterous generation" (Matt. 12:39). (Compare Rev. 12.)

#Ex 20:14| The parties to this crime, according to Jewish law, were a married woman and a man who was not her husband. The Mosaic penalty was that both the guilty parties should be stoned, and it applied as well to the betrothed as to the married woman, provided she were free. #De 22:22-24| A bondwoman so offending was to be scourged, and the man was to make a trespass offering. #Le 19:20-22| At a later time, and when owing, to Gentile example, the marriage tie became a looser bond of union, public feeling in regard to adultery changed, and the penalty of death was seldom or never inflicted. The famous trial by the waters of jealousy, #Nu 5:11-29| was probably an ancient custom, which Moses found deeply seated --(But this ordeal was wholly in favor of the innocent, and exactly opposite to most ordeals. For the water which the accused drank was perfectly harmless, and only by a miracle could it produce a bad effect; while in most ordeals the accused must suffer what naturally produces death, and be proved innocent only by a miracle. Symbolically adultery is used to express unfaithfulness to covenant vows to God, who is represented as the husband of his people.)

ADUL'TERY , the crime forbidden in the seventh commandment. According to Jewish law, it is the unlawful intercourse of a man, whether married or not, with a married or betrothed woman not his wife. The crime was punished in patriarchal times, if Tamar's be a specimen case, by burning.Gen 38:24, or at least capitally. Under the Mosaic law in the case of the free woman both offenders were stoned. But a bondwoman thus guilty was to be scourged, and the man must make a trespass-offering. Lev 19:20,Lev 19:22. The so called "water of jealousy," by which the guilt of the accused woman was proven or refuted, was simply some " holy water," or that from the laver which stood near the altar in an earthen vessel, into which dust from the floor of the tabernacle was sprinkled. This mixture was given to the woman, who was solemnly charged by the priest with an oath of cursing. If she was guilty, then by divine interposition -- for it contained nothing injurious -- this test proved her guilt. If innocent no effect was produced. The accuser in these cases was the husband. Num 5:11-31. There is no case of the use of this test in Scripture. Adultery is the only ground of divorce recognized by our Lord. Matt 5:32. Adultery is used in the Bible in a spiritual sense to denote the unfaithfulness and apostasy of the Jews, because the union between God and his people was set forth as a marriage. In the N. T. "an adulterous generation" means a faithless and God-denying people.

A married woman cohabiting with a man not her husband. The prevalent polygamy in patriarchal times rendered it impossible to stigmatize as adultery the cohabitation of a married man with another besides his wife. But as Jesus saith, "from the beginning it was not so," for "He which made male and female said, They twain shall be one flesh." So the Samaritan Pentateuch reads Genesis 2:24, as it is quoted in Matthew 19:5. A fallen world undergoing a gradual course of remedial measures needs anomalies to be pretermitted for a time (Romans 3:25 margin; Acts 17:30), until it becomes fit for a higher stage, in its progress toward its finally perfect state. God sanctions nothing but perfection; but optimism is out of place in governing a fallen world not yet ripe for it. The junction of the two into one flesh when sexual intercourse takes place with a third is dissolved in its original idea. So also the union of the believer with Christ is utterly incompatible with fornication (1 Corinthians 6:13-18; 1 Corinthians 7:1-13; 1 Timothy 3:12). The sanctity of marriage in patriarchal times appears from Abraam's fear, not that his wife will be seduced from him, but that he may be killed for her sake. The conduct of Pharaoh and Abimelech (Genesis 12; 20), implies the same reverence for the sacredness of marriage. Death by fire was the penalty of unchastity (Genesis 38:24). Under the Mosaic law both the guilty parties (including those only betrothed unless the woman were a slave) were stoned (Deuteronomy 22:22-24; Leviticus 19:20-22). The law of inheritance, which would have been set aside by doubtful offspring, tended to keep up this law as to adultery. But when the territorial system of Moses fell into desuetude, and Gentile example corrupted the Jews, while the law nominally remained it practically became a dead letter. The Pharisees' object in bringing the adulterous woman (John 8) before Christ was to put Him in a dilemma between declaring for reviving an obsolete penalty, or else sanctioning an infraction of the law. In Matthew 5:82 He condemns their usage of divorce except in the case of fornication. In Matthew 1:19, Joseph" not willing to make the Virgin a public example (paradeigmatisai) was minded to put her away privily"; i.e., he did not intend to bring her before the local Sanhedrim, but privately to repudiate her. The trial by the waters of jealousy described in Numbers 5:11-29 was meant to restrain oriental impulses of jealousy within reasonable bounds. The trial by "red water" in Africa is very different, amidst seeming resemblance's. The Israelite ingredients were harmless; the African, poisonous. The visitation, if the woman was guilty, was from God direct; the innocent escaped: whereas many an innocent African perishes by the poison. No instance is recorded in Scripture; so that the terror of it seems to have operated either to restrain from guilt, or to lead the guilty to confess it without recourse to the ordeal. The union of God and His one church, in His everlasting purpose, is the archetype and foundation on which rests the union of man and wife (Ephesians 5:22-33). frontADAM.) As he ish) gave Eve (isha) his name, signifying her formation from him, so Christ gives a new name to the church (Revelation 2:17; Revelation 3:12). As He is the true Solomon (Prince of peace), so she the Shulamite (Song of Solomon 6:13). Hence idolatry, covetousness, and apostasy are adultery spiritually (Jeremiah 3:6; Jeremiah 3:8-9; Ezekiel 16:82; Hosea 1; 2; 3; Revelation 2:22). An apostate church, the daughter of Jerusalem becoming the daughter of Babylon, is an adulteress (Isaiah 1:21; Ezekiel 23:4; Ezekiel 23:7; Ezekiel 23:37). So Jesus calls the Jews "an adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39). The woman in Revelation 12, represented as clothed with the Sun (of righteousness), and crowned with the 12 stars (i.e. the 12 patriarchs of the Old Testament and the 12 apostles of New Testament), and persecuted by the dragon, in Revelation 17, excites the wonder of John, because of her transformation into a scarlet arrayed "mother of harlots," with a cup full of abominations, riding upon a "scarlet colored beast"; but the ten horned beast finally turns upon her, "makes her naked, eats her flesh, and burns her with fire." The once faithful church has ceased to be persecuted by conforming to the godless world and resting upon it. But the divine principle is, when the church apostatizes from God to intrigue with the world, the world, the instrument of her sin, shall at last be the instrument of her punishment. Compare as to Israel (Aholah), and Judah (Aholibah), Ezekiel 23. The principle is being illustrated in the church of Rome before our eyes. Let all professing churches beware of spiritual adultery, as they would escape its penalty.