The Radical Resurgence

Adultery According to the Bible

by Owen McLaren

Today, people use the word “adultery” to mean kissing or have feelings for another person who is not one’s spouse. That is not what it was meant in the Bible.

Of course, there is spiritual adultery. Jesus said looking after a woman with lust is adultery in that sense. But physical adultery had a very specific meaning [Matt. 5:28].

Physical adultery involved sexual intercourse. It is “willful sexual intercourse between someone other one’s husband or wife.”[1]

According to biblical scholar and original language expert James Swanson, adultery is “Sexual intercourse with [someone] other than a spouse, as a married or betrothed person.”[2]

Dr. David Instone-Brewer, a Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House, Cambridge, provides a concise definition of adultery from a biblical perspective:

“Adultery in the Bible is sexual intercourse between a married person and someone who is not their spouse.”[3]

These sources consistently define biblical adultery as involving sexual intercourse outside of marriage.

Intercourse must take place for it to be constituted physical adultery in the biblical sense. Emotional affairs, viewing pornography, and other kinds of physical contact outside of marriage short of intercourse can be defined as fornication but not adultery.

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School provides a concise, scholarly definition of adultery that aligns with the biblical definition:

“Adultery is a form of extramarital sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not a party to the marriage.”[4]

This definition, from a reputable legal source, agrees with the biblical definition. It clearly specifies that adultery involves sexual intercourse between a married person and someone who is not their spouse.

Citations:

[1] Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Easton’s Bible Dictionary also defines it as “illicit sexual intercourse.”

[2] Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages.

[3] David Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context.

[4] https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/adultery.