ADULTERY (IN THE BIBLE)

In the ancient Near East adultery was sexual intercourse between a married or betrothed woman and a man who was not her husband. Adultery was prohibited in the Decalogue (Ex 20:14; Dt 5:8), the Holiness Code of Leviticus (Lv 20:20), and Deuteronomy's collection of miscellaneous laws (Dt 22:22), but is not mentioned in the Covenant Code of Ex 20:22–23:33. The presence of a prohibition of adultery in the Decalogue shows that adultery was not only a matter of concern for the aggrieved

husband, as it was generally considered throughout the ancient Near East, but that it was also and primarily a source of concern for the community. Israel's identity as a covenantal people was at stake when adultery had been committed. A husband's exclusive sexual rights over his wife were violated when his wife committed adultery. What was really at stake, however, was the purity of the family line and the inheritance of a family's possessions by legitimate offspring.

Lv 20:10 and Dt 22:22 portray adultery as a capital crime. The death penalty was to be meted out to both the woman and the man involved in the act. Contemporary scholarship shows that there is considerable debate about this punishment. Some scholars consider that the death penalty was "on the books" but that actual practice was somewhat different. Hos 2:4 and later rabbinic texts suggest that divorce was a penalty actually incurred by an adulterous woman. Being stripped of her clothes seems to be the penalty suggested by Hos 2:5, 12; Jer 13:22–26; Ez 16:37, 39; 23:26, 29. It may be that stripping was either part of the divorce procedure or a preparation for execution. If the penalty of death were actually inflicted, it probably took place by stoning (Sus 62; see Dt 19:16–19; Jn 8:5) but burning may have been the instrument of death (Gn 38:24).

Some of the ambiguity related to the interpretation of the penalty for adultery arises because the Bible's prophetic literature used adultery as an image for Israel's departure from its convenantal relationship with Yahweh (Hos 1–3; Jer 2:23–25; 3:1–13; Ez 16:23; see Rv 17–18). Biblical wisdom literature says that "the commandment" preserves a man from the wife of another. The one who commits adultery has no sense and arouses the wrath of the aggrieved husband (Prv 6:20–35; see also Prv 2:16–19, 5:1–23; 7:4–5).

The New Testament reprises the Decalogue's prohibition of adultery (Mt 5:27; 19:18; Mk 10:19; Lk 18:20; Rom 2:22; 13:9; Jas 2:11). The Sermon on the Mount interprets the commandment "you shall not commit adultery" as also prohibiting lust, probably masturbation, and divorce (Mt 7:27–32). Matthew's explanation of the commandment is similar to the midrashic interpretation of the early rabbinic tradition. Matthew, along with the Book of Revelation, followed the Bible in using adultery as a metaphor for apostasy and religious infidelity (Mt 12:39; 16:4; Rv 2:22; 17:1–18:24; see Mk 8:38).

Hellenistic catalogs of vices listing adultery as a kind of behavior that is inconsistent with discipleship appear in Mt 15:19; Mk 7:22; Lk 18:11; 1 Cor 6:9. Exhortations urging the avoidance of adultery are occasionally found in the New Testament (1 Thes 4:6; Heb 13:4; Jas 4:4). A story of a woman caught in the act of adultery has been incorporated into the Fourth Gospel (Jn 7:53–8:11). While Jesus urges the woman to sin no more (Jn 8:11), the purpose of the story is not to teach about the evil of adultery. Rather, the story is one that contrasts the opponents of Jesus' readiness to condemn others with Jesus' readiness to forgive sinners.

Bibliography: r. f. collins, Sexual Ethics and the New Testament: Behavior and Belief, (Companions to the New Testament; New York 2000). e. a. goodfriend, "Adultery," Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York 1992) 1:82–86.

[r. f. collins]