The Biblical Concept Of Adultery Part 3
You may think to yourselves that we have exposed, with Fausset’s commentary, a chink in our armor by including Mt. 19:5, but we will tackle the words of Christ in a few moments, please be patient.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
a-dul'-ter-i: In Scripture designates sexual intercourse of a man, whether married or unmarried, with a married woman.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
109 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.
The conclusion is that a polygamous relationship is only adulterous if one of the wives runs off to sleep with a man other than her husband, but one man marrying more than one wife is not in and of itself an adulterous act. This fact is generously overlooked by most of modern Churchianity, who rely on and seem to prefer a modern definition of this term rather than a biblical one. This is unfortunate and leads to confusion. It is small wonder that people have such great difficulties in understanding what the bible says when the definition of terms is approached from a number of different perspectives, depending on preferred Church doctrine.
Today’s Christians often argue that Christ did away with the patriarchal practice of polygamy by pointing towards Mt 19:5, where He talks about man and women becoming “one flesh”, which is what leads us to our next aspect.
Go back to the beginning and to Part 2
The Biblical Concept Of Adultery Part 1
The Biblical Concept Of Adultery Part 2
Read about the biblical concept of marriage here:
Apologetics Part 2: The Biblical Concept Of Marriage
Apologetics Part 3: Are 1Ti 3 and Titus 1 Prohibiting Polygyny ?
