Adultery in the Bible: Meaning, Types, & Verses

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

Adultery is one of the best-known prohibitions in the Bible, yet its meaning is often misunderstood when read through modern assumptions about love, marriage, and personal relationships. In order to grasp what the biblical authors meant by adultery, we have to step into a very different cultural world.

In this article, I’ll answer questions about adultery in the Bible, from its definitions to the laws of the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus and Paul in the New Testament. I’ll also examine how ancient marriage customs shaped these definitions, why adultery in the Bible was treated as such a serious offense, and how its meaning expanded from a physical act to a matter of intention and moral character.

Marriage in the Ancient World: No Bed of Roses

Since adultery is broadly conceived of as a violation of the marriage bond, it’s important to understand ancient marriage, an institution defined quite differently, in both purpose and practice, from modern marriages. That is, we need to understand what prohibitions on adultery in the Bible were meant to protect.

In his book The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology, Bruce Malina notes that, unlike the initiation of most marriages in the modern world, romance was not involved in ancient marriage customs:

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In other words, marriage was not an agreement between two people in love, but an economic contract between two families. It was, therefore, meant to be mutually beneficial for both families, especially in the economic realm. Most biblical marriages were arranged by the families of the bride and groom according to certain criteria. Malina writes that

The wife would normally move in with the husband’s family, and be subject to the authority not only of her husband, but also of the rest of the family. The woman’s status improved slightly after she had her first child, but she nevertheless remained the low person on the totem pole. However, in order to secure the marriage contract, the groom’s family had to pay something to the bride’s family. It’s all but impossible, therefore, to avoid the perception that the prospective wife was treated as a type of commodity. Malina notes that

It follows, then, that the ancient biblical ban on adultery was not there to protect the husband and wife as individuals but to safeguard the honor and economic position of the families involved. Adultery was a serious matter which, especially in small communities, could affect the whole fabric of a society.

Adultery in the Bible: Verses From the Old Testament

Given the difference between marriage in the ancient world and marriage today, what actually constituted adultery? Were there different types of adultery? The commandment in Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery,” doesn’t explain any further. However, three verses down from that commandment, Exodus 20:17 makes it clear what the status of the wife was:

Note that the commandment against coveting lists a wife among things a man can possess, including a house, a slave, and livestock. By this definition, adultery is actually a kind of theft. However, since marriage was, as Malina wrote, “the fusion of the honor of two extended families,” adultery was also an offense against the honor of the husband’s family. For both these reasons, it was a serious offense.

The book of Leviticus also makes clear what constitutes adultery generally: sex between a man, married or unmarried, and a married woman who is not his wife. As such, what was the punishment for adultery in the Bible? Leviticus 20:10 gives us an example:

Notice that although we can find plenty of unfair treatment of women in the Bible, the law from Leviticus states that both man and woman involved in consensual adultery must be punished. Scholars are uncertain how consistently such punishments were inflicted on adulterers but, as we’ll see below, the prohibition on adultery remained an important commandment throughout the history of Judaism.

A further clarification of adultery comes from Deuteronomy 22:26, which says that if a married woman is raped by a man who is not her husband, only the rapist is put to death, not the victim, who has done nothing wrong.

On the other hand, if a man suspected that his wife had committed adultery but had no witnesses, the wife could be tested by the ordeal of the bitter water, outlined in Numbers 5. This was a “test” administered by a priest in which the suspected woman is forced to drink a potion consisting of holy water and dust. If she suffers any ill effects from the potion, she is considered guilty and punished accordingly. If she suffers no ill effects, she is considered innocent. By the way, there is no similar test administered to a husband whom the wife suspects of committing adultery.

In later Hebrew Bible writings, women are characterized as aggressors, while young men, portrayed as potential victims, are warned against seductresses and/or adulteresses. See for example, Proverbs 7:4–5 in which the young man is encouraged to

And what are the consequences of an encounter with this adulteress? Verses 25–27 make it clear that they are far worse than mere earthly punishments:

Note that, in these verses, the man seems to bear less responsibility. The woman engages in unseemly behavior and thus tricks the naïve young man into perdition.

By contrast, Hosea 4:13–14 makes use of the common biblical metaphor of adultery and/or fornication as idolatry:

James Luther Mays, writing in the HarperCollins Study Bible, says that in the context of idolatry, “Daughters of Israelites seem to have been involved… in promiscuous sex and debauchery, which were thought to ‘jump start’ agricultural fecundity.” In other words, the prophetic warning is not just against literal adulterous behavior but against sexual rituals asking for favors from other gods.

Adultery in the Bible: New Testament Verses

The 1st-century authors of most of the New Testament texts certainly inherited the scriptural ideas of the Old Testament. However, we know that, as with many religious ideas, things had changed by the Second Temple Period. In particular, punishments for adultery had changed.

Rabbinic texts, looking back on the Second Temple period, stated that the Jewish legal system had given up inflicting executions on anyone for any crime, including adultery. Instead, according to the Mishnah, adulterers were publicly whipped, and the husband of an adulteress was forced to divorce her. A woman caught in adultery lost any property granted through her marriage agreement and was not allowed to marry the adulterer with whom she had violated her marriage.

This may seem harsh, by modern standards, but in the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 5:27–28, Jesus takes an even sterner position:

Does this mean that Jesus believes that any man who looks at a woman lustfully should receive the punishments normally granted to adulterers in his time? Perhaps, but Jesus doesn’t say. L. Michael White writes in Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite, the Jesus of Matthew “focuses on Torah observance and piety as the proper path to righteousness,” which is why the Sermon on the Mount “stands as a call to discipleship under the guideline of Torah.” Therefore, since Matthew’s Gospel focuses on Jesus as a teacher and re-interpreter of the Jewish Law, it’s indeed possible that he would have viewed any form of lust as punishable (although this would have been highly difficult to enforce).

Meanwhile, in John 8:3–11 we have the famous story of the woman taken in adultery. While most scholars agree that this passage is a later interpolation to John, it has long been seen as an emblem of the mercy of Christ.

In the story, a woman is caught in the act of adultery and is dragged by scribes and Pharisees to Jesus, who is teaching near the Temple. They plan to stone her to death and ask Jesus whether they should, since the Torah says so. Jesus says "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Since none of them are sinless, they drop their rocks and leave. Jesus then tells the woman that he won’t condemn her either and not to sin anymore.

This is a beautiful story about love and forgiveness, but it brings up some odd historical problems. First, according to Michael Satlow writing in the Jewish Annotated New Testament, by the 1st century CE, only Romans were allowed to put criminals to death. Second, where is the male adulterer in this story? If the woman was indeed “caught in the act,” the man should have been caught as well and put to death, according to Leviticus.

The most likely explanation for the first fact is that this was not meant to report a historical occurrence but was rather a teaching story, much like Jesus’ parables. The mere threat of being put to death is enough to show Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. The male adulterer, meanwhile, may have simply run away and escaped, or perhaps he was treated more leniently, as men generally were in the ancient world.

Either way, note that while Matthew’s Jesus is quite severe, not only about adultery itself but also about lust, John’s Jesus is merciful and forgiving. Scholars have long noted the difference in theological emphasis between these two books.

Additionally, the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, includes divorce and remarriage among the definitions of adultery. Malina explains:

Above all, this verse in Luke seems to be a continuance of Jesus as Torah teacher, making Torah observance for his followers even stricter than that of the Pharisees (see Matt 5:20).

Finally, 1 Corinthians 6:9 shows Paul putting adulterers on a long list of sinners who will not be saved on the last day:

It’s interesting to note that Paul does not rank any of these sins as worse than the others. Adulterers are apparently equal to drunkards, swindlers, and those who worship idols. For Paul in this passage, all these sins, regardless of their severity, make a person ineligible for citizenship in the coming kingdom.

Is Adultery a Sin in Other Religions? (Islam, Hinduism, Judaism)

Now that we’ve explored adultery in the Bible, you might wonder how other major religions treat the matter. Let’s take a look.

Judaism

We started off by outlining what the Hebrew Bible says about adultery, so we know that for ancient Jews, adultery was strictly prohibited, if for different reasons than we modern people might assume. However, in his book Every Person's Guide to Jewish Sexuality, Rabbi Ronald Isaacs says that the command against adultery is strictly upheld by Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis to this day, albeit without the harsh physical punishments.

Islam

Islam’s ideas about adultery are similar to those found in the Pentateuch. However, the Quran uses the Arabic word zina to refer to any sexual intercourse outside of a valid marriage contract, regardless of whether the individuals involved are single or married (this is perhaps similar to the Greek word porneia which can also mean any sexual misconduct). Based on this, Quran 24:2 says

However, lest someone in the community try to use this punishment to hurt someone who is actually innocent, Quran 24:4 says

Hinduism

According to Hindu religious texts, Hinduism also sees adultery as a grave violation which has long-term consequences in this life and future lives. For example, in the Hindu scripture known as the Vishnu Purana 3.11, it says

Furthermore, another Hindu scripture known as the Manusmriti, written between 200 BCE and 200 CE, says in Chapter 8 that

The frequent parentheses in these verses indicate gaps in the manuscripts which scholars and translators have filled in with likely information. While ancient categories such as castes may be hard for us to go along with, it’s clear that, as in the monotheistic religions, Hinduism sees adultery as a serious violation of religious codes.

Conclusion

Most world religions prohibit adultery. However, since adultery is always defined as a violation of marriage vows, we need to understand marriage in the context in which these rules were written in order to understand what adultery originally meant.

Examinations of adultery in the Bible require the additional context that marriage was not the romantic involvement of two people who vowed loving fidelity only to each other. Instead, it was a political and economic contract between two families. Marriages were arranged by the families, not the individuals getting married, and the father of the groom had to pay a price to the father of the bride.

Although unfortunate, it’s easy to see, then, how in Exodus, a wife is listed along with commodities like a house and livestock, which others should not covet. In the Old Testament world, adultery was not a personal violation against an individual, but a violation of the honor and economic status of the family.

In the New Testament, Jesus says that anyone who lusts for a woman, even if he never interacts with her at all, is guilty of adultery. While there is no historical evidence of widespread acceptance of this notion (how could it be enforced, after all?), it was meant to show that Jesus took the Torah more seriously than the Jewish leaders of his day.

Finally, Paul noted that a long list of sinners, adulterers included, were in grave danger of losing their inheritance of the Kingdom of God. While adultery wasn’t listed as better or worse than any other sin, it was serious enough to have grave consequences in the hereafter.