Difference between revisions of "Adultery"

<p> <i> [[See]] </i> <a> Immorality, [[Sexual]] </a> </p>

<p> [[Old]] [[Testament]] Israel's covenant law prohibited adultery ( <span> [[Exodus]] 20:14 </span> ) and thereby made faithfulness to the marriage relationship central in the divine will for human relationships. [[Many]] Old Testament regulations deal with adultery as the adulterous man's offense against the husband of the adulterous wife. [[Yet]] both the adulterous man and woman were viewed as guilty, and the punishment of death was prescribed for both ( <span> [[Leviticus]] 20:10 </span> ). The severity of the punishment indicates the serious consequences adultery has for the divine-human relationship ( <span> [[Psalm]] 51:4 </span> ) as well as for marriage, family, and community relationships. </p> <p> [[Several]] Old Testament prophets used adultery as a metaphor to describe unfaithfulness to God. [[Idolatry]] ( <span> [[Ezekiel]] 23:27 </span> ) and other pagan religious practices ( <span> [[Jeremiah]] 3:6-10 </span> ) were viewed as adulterous unfaithfulness to the exclusive covenant that [[God]] established with [[His]] people. To engage in such was to play the harlot ( <span> [[Hosea]] 4:11-14 </span> ). </p> <p> New Testament Jesus' teachings expanded the Old Testament law to address matters of the heart. [[Adultery]] has its origins within ( <span> [[Matthew]] 15:19 </span> ), and lust is as much a violation of the law's intent as is illicit sexual intercourse ( <span> Matthew 5:27-28 </span> ). Adultery is one of the “works of the flesh” ( <span> [[Galatians]] 5:19 </span> ). It creates enmity with God ( <span> [[James]] 4:4 </span> ), and adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God ( <span> 1 Corinthians 6:9 </span> ). </p> <p> The New Testament associates remarriage after divorce and adultery. [[Marriage]] is a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman. [[Divorce]] does not break the bond, so remarriage is viewed as adultery except in cases where unfaithfulness was the reason for the divorce ( <span> Matthew 5:32 </span> ; <span> [[Mark]] 10:11-12 </span> ). The marriage bond is broken by death ( <span> [[Romans]] 7:3 </span> ; <span> 1 Corinthians 7:39 </span> ). </p> <p> Adulterers can be forgiven ( <span> [[John]] 8:3-11 </span> ); and once sanctified through repentance, faith, and God's grace, they are included among God's people ( <span> 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 </span> ). [[See]] <a> Divorce </a> , <a> Marriage </a> . </p> <p> [[Michael]] Fink </p>

<p> <translit> a </translit> - <translit> dul´tẽr </translit> - <translit> ı̄ </translit> : [[In]] [[Scripture]] designates sexual intercourse of a man, whether married or unmarried, with a married woman. </p> <h4> 1. Its [[Punishment]] </h4> <p> It is categorically prohibited in the [[Decalogue]] (seventh commandment, <span> [[Exodus]] 20:14 </span> ; <span> [[Deuteronomy]] 5:18 </span> ): "Thou shalt not commit adultery." In more specific language we read: "And thou shalt not he carnally with thy neighbor's wife, to defile thyself with her" ( <span> [[Leviticus]] 18:20 </span> ). The penalty is death for both guilty parties: "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death" ( <span> Leviticus 20:10 </span> ). The manner of death is not particularized; according to the rabbis (Siphra' at the place; <i> <translit> Ṣanhedhrı̄n </translit> </i> 52b) it is strangulation. It would seem that in the days of [[Jesus]] the manner of death was interpreted to mean stoning ("Now in the law [[Moses]] commanded us to stone such," <span> [[John]] 8:5 </span> , said of the woman taken in adultery). Nevertheless, it may be said that in the case in question the woman may have been a virgin betrothed unto a husband, the law (in <span> Deuteronomy 22:23 </span> ) providing that such a person together with her paramour be stoned to death (contrast <span> Deuteronomy 22:22 </span> , where a woman married to a husband is spoken of and the manner of death is again left general). <span> [[Ezekiel]] 16:40 </span> (compare <span> Ezekiel 23:47 </span> ) equally mentions stoning as the penalty of the adulteress; but it couples to her sin also that of shedding blood; hence, the rabbinic interpretation is not necessarily disputed by the prophet. [[Of]] course it may also be assumed that a difference of custom may have obtained at different times and that the progress was in the line of leniency, strangulation being regarded as a more humane form of execution than stoning. </p> <h4> 2. [[Trial]] by [[Ordeal]] </h4> <p> The guilty persons become amenable to the death penalty only when taken "in the very act" ( <span> John 8:4 </span> ). The difficulty of obtaining direct legal evidence is adverted to by the rabbis (see <i> <translit> Makkōth </translit> </i> 7a). In the case of a mere suspicion on the part of the husband, not substantiated by legal evidence, the woman is compelled by the law (Nu 5:11-30) to submit to an ordeal, or God's judgment, which consists in her drinking the water of bitterness, that is, water from the holy basin mingled with dust from the floor of the sanctuary and with the washed-off ink of a writing containing the oath which the woman has been made to repeat. The water is named bitter with reference to its effects in the case of the woman's guilt; on the other hand, when no ill effects follow, the woman is proved innocent and the husband's jealousy unsubstantiated. According to the [[Mishna]] ( <i> <translit> Ṣōṭāh </translit> </i> 9) this ordeal of the woman suspected of adultery was abolished by [[Johanan]] ben [[Zaccai]] (after 70 ad), on the ground that the men of his generation were not above the suspicion of impurity. [[See]] article <links> BITTER </links> ; <a> BITTERNESS </a> . </p> <h4> 3. <links> A H </links> einous [[Crime]] </h4> <p> [[Adultery]] was regarded as a heinous crime ( <span> [[Job]] 31:11 </span> ). The prophets and teachers in [[Israel]] repeatedly upbraid the men and women of their generations for their looseness in morals which did not shrink from adulterous connections. [[Naturally]] where luxurious habits of life were indulged in, particularly in the large cities, a tone of levity set in: in the dark of the evening, men, with their features masked, waited at their neighbors' doors ( <span> Job 24:15 </span> ; <span> Job 31:9 </span> ; compare Prov 7), and women forgetful of their God's covenant broke faith with the husbands of their youth ( <span> Proverbs 2:17 </span> ). The prophet [[Nathan]] confronted [[David]] after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, with his stern rebuke ("Thou art the man," <span> 2 [[Samuel]] 12:7 </span> ); the penitential psalm (Ps 51) - "Miserere" - was sung by the royal bard as a prayer for divine pardon. [[Promiscuous]] intercourse with their neighbors' wives is laid by [[Jeremiah]] at the door of the false prophets of his day ( <span> Jeremiah 23:10 </span> , <span> Jeremiah 23:14 </span> ; <span> Jeremiah 29:23 </span> ). </p> <h4> 4. [[Penal]] and [[Moral]] Distinctions </h4> <p> While penal law takes only cognizance of adulterous relations, it is needless to say that the moral law discountenances all manner of illicit intercourse and all manner of unchastity in man and woman. While the phrases "harlotry," "commit harlotry," in Scripture denote the breach of wedlock (on the part of a woman), in the rabbinical writings a clear distinction is made on the legal side between adultery and fornication. The latter is condemned morally in no uncertain terms; the seventh commandment is made to include all manner of fornication. The eye and the heart are the two intermediaries of sin (Palestinian Talmud, <i> <translit> Berākhōth </translit> </i> 6 <i> b </i> ). A sinful thought is as wicked as a sinful act ( <i> <translit> Niddāh </translit> </i> 13 <i> b </i> and elsewhere). Job makes a covenant with his eyes lest he look upon a virgin ( <span> Job 31:1 </span> ). And so Jesus who came "not to destroy, but to fulfill" ( <span> [[Matthew]] 5:17 </span> ), in full agreement with the ethical and religious teaching of Judaism, makes the intent of the seventh commandment explicit when he declares that "every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already In his heart" ( <span> Matthew 5:28 </span> ). And in the spirit of [[Hosea]] ( <span> Hosea 4:15 </span> ) and Johanan ben Zaccai (see above) Jesus has but scorn for those that are ready judicially to condemn though they be themselves not free from sin! "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" ( <span> John 8:7 </span> ). [[Whereas]] society is in need of the death penalty to secure the inviolability of the home life, Jesus bids the erring woman go her way and sin no more. [[How]] readily [[His]] word might be taken by the unspiritual to imply the condoning of woman's peccability is evidenced by the fact that the whole section (Jn 7:53 through 8:11) is omitted by "most ancient authorities" (see Augustine's remark). </p> <h4> 5. <links> A G </links> round of [[Divorce]] </h4> <p> Adultery as a ground of divorce. <links> - T </links> he meaning of the expression "some unseemly thing" ( <span> Deuteronomy 24:1 </span> ) being unclear, there was great variety of opinion among the rabbis as to the grounds upon which a husband may divorce his wife. While the school of [[Hillel]] legally at least allowed any trivial reason as a ground for divorce, the stricter interpretation which limited it to adultery alone obtained in the school of Shammai. Jesus coincided with the stricter view (see <span> Matthew 5:32 </span> ; <span> Matthew 19:9 </span> , and commentaries). From a moral point of view, divorce was discountenanced by the rabbis likewise, save of course for that one ground which indeed makes the continued relations between husband and wife a moral impossibility. See also <links> CRIMES </links> ; <links> DIVORCE </links> . </p>