17-6-20, Deacon Study Guide, Divorce

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adultery, illicit sexual relations with someone other than one’s marriage partner. In the OT adultery had a precise and limited definition: sexual relations between a married (or betrothed) woman and any man other than her husband. Adultery, therefore, was committed only against a husband, never against a wife. It was considered a most grievous transgression (Exod. 20:14; Deut. 5:18; Lev. 18:20), to be punished by the death of both parties (Deut. 22:22-24). There is no actual evidence that this punishment was ever carried out, but it may have been in certain instances, and the threat of execution still existed in the first century (cf. John 7:53-8:11). The law was probably intended to ensure that any child born to the wife was really the husband’s child, since it was considered crucial for the husband to have offspring, so that the family name could be perpetuated.

In the NT period, it appears that the definition of adultery was extended in its scope. For example, the teaching of Jesus was understood to mean that a husband could now be held responsible for committing adultery against his wife (Matt. 5:32; Mark 10:11; Luke 16:18). Adultery was forbidden by various NT writers (Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:19; James 2:11).

Adultery was sometimes used as a symbol of the unfaithfulness of the people toward God (e.g., Hos. 9:1; Matt. 12:39). See also Family, The; Fornication; Harlot; Law; Marriage; Women. J.M.E.

ADULTERY—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). (Comp. Rev. 12.)

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