![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Joshua-Schachterle-Bart-Ehrman-Author-1-1.png\" "\\"Joshua")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D<\/a><\/p>\n Author | \u00a0Professor | Scholar<\/p>\n Author | \u00a0Professor | BE Contributor<\/p>\n Verified! \u00a0See our editorial guidelines<\/a><\/p>\n Verified! \u00a0See our guidelines<\/a><\/p>\n\nDate written: May 6th, 2026\n\nDate written: May 6th, 2026\n Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. – Dr. Bart D. Ehrman<\/p>\n Adultery is one of the best-known prohibitions in the Bible<\/a>, 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In this article, I\u2019ll 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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n Since adultery is broadly conceived of as a violation of the marriage bond, it\u2019s important to understand ancient marriage<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n In his book The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology<\/a>, Bruce Malina notes that, unlike the initiation of most marriages in the modern world, romance was not involved in ancient marriage customs:<\/p>\n (Affiliate Disclaimer: We may earn commissions on products you purchase through this page at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site!<\/em>)<\/p>\n In the first-century Mediterranean world and earlier, marriage symbolled the fusion of the honor of two extended families and was undertaken with a view to political and\/or economic concerns.<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n The bride\u2019s family looks for a groom who will be a good provider, a kind father, and a respected citizen. The bride does not look to him for companionship or comfort<\/strong>. Instead, as in all societies that exalt bonds between males and masculine lines of rights, the new wife will not be integrated into her husband\u2019s family but will remain for the most part of her life on the periphery of his family.<\/p>\n The wife would normally move in with the husband\u2019s family, and be subject to the authority not only of her husband, but also of the rest of the family. The woman\u2019s 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\u2019s family had to pay something to the bride\u2019s family. It\u2019s all but impossible, therefore, to avoid the perception that the prospective wife was treated as a type of commodity. Malina notes that<\/p>\n As a process, Mediterranean marriage is the disembedding of the prospective wife from her family by means of a ritual positive challenge (i.e., gifts and\/or services to her father) by the father of the prospective groom, along with her father\u2019s response.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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, \u201cYou shall not commit adultery,\u201d doesn\u2019t explain any further. However, three verses down from that commandment, Exodus 20:17 makes it clear what the status of the wife was:<\/p>\n You shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s house; you shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s wife<\/strong>, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.<\/p>\n 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, \u201cthe fusion of the honor of two extended families,\u201d adultery was also an offense against the honor of the husband\u2019s family. For both these reasons, it was a serious offense.<\/p>\n The book of Leviticus<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll see below, the prohibition on adultery remained an important commandment throughout the history of Judaism.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/strong>, outlined in Numbers 5. This was a \u201ctest\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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\u20135 in which the young man is encouraged to<\/p>\n Say to wisdom, \u201cYou are my sister,\u201d And what are the consequences of an encounter with this adulteress? Verses 25\u201327 make it clear that they are far worse than mere earthly punishments:<\/p>\n Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; Note that, in these verses, the man seems to bear less responsibility. The woman engages in unseemly behavior and thus tricks the na\u00efve young man into perdition.<\/p>\n By contrast, Hosea 4:13\u201314 makes use of the common biblical metaphor of adultery and\/or fornication as idolatry:<\/p>\n Therefore your daughters prostitute themselves, James Luther Mays, writing in the HarperCollins Study Bible<\/a>, says that in the context of idolatry, \u201cDaughters of Israelites seem to have been involved\u2026 in promiscuous sex and debauchery, which were thought to \u2018jump start\u2019 agricultural fecundity.\u201d In other words, the prophetic warning is not just against literal adulterous behavior but against sexual rituals asking for favors from other gods.<\/p>\n DID PAUL AND JESUS HAVE THE SAME RELIGION?<\/p>\n Jesus taught a message of repentance to prepare for the Kingdom of God while Paul taught faith in Jesus. \u00a0Did they agree?\u00a0 Should they be considered the \u201cco-founders\u201d of Christianity?<\/p>\n __CONFIG_colors_palette__{“active_palette”:0,”config”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“name”:”Main Accent”,”parent”:-1}},”gradients”:[]},”palettes”:[{“name”:”Default Palette”,”value”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“val”:”rgb(255, 133, 34)”,”hsl”:{“h”:26,”s”:0.99,”l”:0.5667}}},”gradients”:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ LEARN MORE<\/strong> <\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n This may seem harsh, by modern standards, but in the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 5:27\u201328, Jesus takes an even sterner position:<\/p>\n You have heard that it was said, \u2018You shall not commit adultery.\u2019 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.<\/p>\n 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?<\/strong> Perhaps, but Jesus doesn\u2019t say. L. Michael White writes in Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite<\/a>, the Jesus of Matthew \u201cfocuses on Torah observance and piety as the proper path to righteousness,\u201d which is why the Sermon on the Mount \u201cstands as a call to discipleship under the guideline of Torah.\u201d Therefore, since Matthew\u2019s Gospel focuses on Jesus as a teacher and re-interpreter of the Jewish Law, it\u2019s indeed possible that he would have viewed any form of lust as punishable (although this would have been highly difficult to enforce).<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in John 8:3\u201311 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t condemn her either and not to sin anymore.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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 \u201ccaught in the act,\u201d the man should have been caught as well and put to death, according to Leviticus.<\/p>\n 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\u2019 parables. The mere threat of being put to death is enough to show Jesus\u2019 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.<\/p>\n Either way, note that while Matthew\u2019s Jesus<\/a> is quite severe, not only about adultery itself but also about lust, John\u2019s Jesus is merciful and forgiving<\/strong>. Scholars have long noted the difference in theological emphasis between these two books.<\/p>\n Additionally, the Sermon on the Plain, Luke\u2019s version of the Sermon on the Mount, includes divorce and remarriage among the definitions of adultery. Malina explains:<\/p>\n Relative to this divorce tradition, scholars believe that the original teaching of Jesus is to be found in the first part of Luke 16:18, thus, \u201cEvery one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.\u201d Now if this is what Jesus said, it has to be a parable. For what does it mean? In line with the kinship norms we have considered, adultery means to trespass on the honor of another male by having sexual intercourse with his wife, who is embedded in the husband. It is something like theft, which is trespassing on the honor of another male by taking some goods which are embedded in that male, the owner.\u201d<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n Finally, 1 Corinthians 6:9 shows Paul putting adulterers on a long list of sinners who will not be saved on the last day:<\/p>\n Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, men who engage in illicit sex, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers\u2014none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Now that we\u2019ve explored adultery in the Bible, you might wonder how other major religions treat the matter. Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Islam\u2019s 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<\/strong>, 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<\/a> says<\/p>\n As for female and male fornicators [or adulterers, zina], give each of them one hundred lashes, and do not let pity for them make you lenient in \u02f9enforcing\u02fa the law of Allah, if you \u02f9truly\u02fa believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a number of believers witness their punishment.<\/p>\n However, lest someone in the community try to use this punishment to hurt someone who is actually innocent, Quran 24:4<\/a> says<\/p>\n Those who accuse chaste women \u02f9of adultery\u02fa and fail to produce four witnesses, give them eighty lashes \u02f9each\u02fa. And do not ever accept any testimony from them\u2014for they are indeed the rebellious.<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n A man should not think incontinently of another’s wife, much less address her to that end; for such a man will be reborn in a future life as a creeping insect. He who commits adultery is punished both here and hereafter; for his days in this world are cut short, and when dead he falls into hell.<\/p>\n Furthermore, another Hindu scripture known as the Manusmriti, written between 200 BCE and 200 CE, says in Chapter 8 that<\/p>\n If one touches a woman in a place (which ought) not (to be touched) or allows (oneself to be touched in such a spot), all (such acts done) with mutual consent are declared (to be) adulterous (samgrahana).<\/p>\n A man who is not a Brahmana [the highest caste] ought to suffer death for adultery (samgrahana); for the wives of all the four castes even must always be carefully guarded.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s clear that, as in the monotheistic religions, Hinduism sees adultery as a serious violation of religious codes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Although unfortunate, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t listed as better or worse than any other sin, it was serious enough to have grave consequences in the hereafter.<\/p>\n NOW AVAILABLE!<\/p>\n In The Beginning\u2122 – History, Legend, & Myth in Genesis<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n In Part One of Bart’s new “How Scholars Read the Bible” Series, dive into the stories of the first book of the Bible from a historical perspective.<\/p>\n __CONFIG_colors_palette__{“active_palette”:0,”config”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“name”:”Main Accent”,”parent”:-1}},”gradients”:[]},”palettes”:[{“name”:”Default Palette”,”value”:{“colors”:{“62516”:{“val”:”rgb(255, 133, 34)”,”hsl”:{“h”:26,”s”:0.99,”l”:0.5667}}},”gradients”:[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__ LEARN MORE<\/strong> <\/a> Adultery in the Bible: Meaning, Types, & Verses Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D Author | \u00a0Professor | Scholar Author | \u00a0Professor | BE Contributor Verified! \u00a0See our editorial guidelines Verified! \u00a0See our guidelines Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. – Dr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":" Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman<\/p><\/div>![\"adultery](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/adultery-in-the-Bible.png\" "\\"adultery")
<\/p>\nMarriage in the Ancient World: No Bed of Roses<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/quote-down.png\" "\\"quote")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/quote-up.png\" "\\"quote")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAdultery in the Bible: Verses From the Old Testament<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nand call insight your intimate friend,
\nthat they may keep you from the loose woman,
\nfrom the adulteress with her smooth words.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\ndo not stray into her paths.
\nFor many are those she has laid low,
\nand numerous are her victims.
\nHer house is the way to Sheol,
\ngoing down to the chambers of death.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nand your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
\nI will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves
\nnor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery,
\nfor the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
\nand sacrifice with female attendants;
\nthus a people without understanding comes to ruin.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jesus-and-Paul-PBS-4x3-1.jpg\" "\\"Jesus")
<\/a><\/p>\nAdultery in the Bible: New Testament Verses<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nIs Adultery a Sin in Other Religions? (Islam, Hinduism, Judaism)<\/h2>\n
Judaism<\/h4>\n
Islam<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nHinduism<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"types](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/types-of-adultery.png\" "\\"types")
<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.bartehrman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/In-the-Beginning-Online-Course-by-Dr-Bart-Ehrman-768x576-1.png\" "\\"In")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t__CONFIG_colors_palette__{\"active_palette\":0,\"config\":{\"colors\":{\"62516\":{\"name\":\"Main Accent\",\"parent\":-1}},\"gradients\":[]},\"palettes\":[{\"name\":\"Default Palette\",\"value\":{\"colors\":{\"62516\":{\"val\":\"var(--tcb-skin-color-0)\"}},\"gradients\":[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__<\/div>\n\t\n\t\tBurning Questions<\/span><\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>Adultery in the Bible: Meaning, Types, & Verses<\/h2><\/div>
__CONFIG_post_symbol__{\"id\":\"17826\"}__CONFIG_post_symbol__<\/div><\/div>\t