ADULTERY, Sexual intercourse of a married person with other than the marriage partner. Adultery was generally condoned in pagan cultures, particularly on the part of the male, who though married was not charged with adultery unless he cohabited with another man's wife or a betrothed maiden.
Adultery is strictly forbidden in both the OT (the seventh commandment, Ex 20:14; Deut 5:18; punishable under the law with death by stoning, Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22 ff.) and the NT (Rom 13:9; Gal 5:19; Jas 2:11). Jesus extended guilt for adultery, as He did in the case of other commandments, to the purpose or will it as well as the act itself (Mt 5:28).
Adultery is technically distinguished from fornication, which is intercourse between unmarried persons. However the Gr.porneia uniformly translated "fornication" in the KJV, properly includes all lewdness and sexual irregularity (cf. MM; and Vine, EDNTW).
W.T. Purkiser Ph.D., Associate Professor of English Bible, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo.
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