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
(Numbers 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
(Jeremiah 3:6,8,9; Ezekiel 16:32; Hosea 1:2:3; Revelation 2:22) An apostate
church is an adulteress
(Isaiah 1:21; Ezekiel 23:4,7,37) and the Jews are
styled "an adulterous generation"
(Matthew 12:39) Comp
(Revelation 12:1)ff
