# Biblical Adultery Prohibitions **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 19, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695 "2012-06-19T22:52:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/41 "2012-06-28T00:30:36Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > It’s #3 that I want to discuss. Exodus 20:14 is the Biblical prohibition against adultery (translated in more modern translations as “Be faithful to your spouse” or words to similar effect). No, it means be faithful to your **husband.** To men it means only, don’t mess with another man’s wife. Nothing wrong with going to whores. Proverbs 26: 23 For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life, 24 keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman. 25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. 26 For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/42 "2012-06-28T01:43:42Z")
Chronos: > [@](#): > > Isn’t there a principle in Jewish law that one of the ways a young, hitherto-unattached couple can become engaged is by having sex? Yes, but it needs to be done with all the same formalities as betrothing with a ring (or the equivalent). Merely having sex does not automatically make them married. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/43 "2012-06-28T12:00:08Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > monavis: > > Half of your post gets into the big free will vs omniscience paradox. I’m not going to address that, because it’s not germane to understanding the individual matters. Suffice it to say that it’s a given that human beings have free will to choose to sin or not to sin. And having sinned, they have the free will to return to the path of goodness or not to. > > Repentance is not about the expectation of forgiveness. It’s about the humble admission that one has done wrong, and that he aspires to do better. Saul tried to justify his wrong behavior rather than submit to the rebuke of the prophet. David did not. If one truly has free will he would not be punished for it. If I told my child you can go to the movies if you wish, but I don’t want you to go,and if you do I will kill you isn’t free will! No one can truthfully say they know the will of God ,Just what some other human said was God’s will. even Jesus didn’t know God’s will or he wouldn’t have said," Father,‘IF’ it is your will let this chalice pass from me". ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/44 "2012-06-28T14:53:47Z")
monavis: > [@](#): > > If one truly has free will he would not be punished for it. If I told my child you can go to the movies if you wish, but I don’t want you to go,and if you do I will kill you isn’t free will! That is not the definition of free will that most people use, myself included. To me, “free will” means that one has the ability to choose a course of action, and the consequences that come with said action. Where there is a threat involved, one has the free will to take the instant gratification and suffer the execution of the threat, or to defer gratification so as to not be subject to the threat. > [@](#): > > No one can truthfully say they know the will of God ,Just what some other human said was God’s will. Well, that’s why divine revelation and belief in true prophecy are so important to most religious beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/45 "2012-06-29T11:32:25Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > monavis: > > That is not the definition of free will that most people use, myself included. To me, “free will” means that one has the ability to choose a course of action, and the consequences that come with said action. Where there is a threat involved, one has the free will to take the instant gratification and suffer the execution of the threat, or to defer gratification so as to not be subject to the threat. > > Well, that’s why divine revelation and belief in true prophecy are so important to most religious beliefs. It doesn’t mean any thing about divine revelation, just the belief that some human had a devine revelation, and one takes the word of that human. It is true that if you would choose to walk into the path of a running train it would be your will to do so, but it doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the will of a divine being wanting you to do different. Of course most of what we do in this life has a lot to do with our own choice, but if a person harms another, it is not the choice of the victum.No divine being approves or stops the action, just as in the case of Hitler’s taking so many lives because he chose to do so. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/46 "2012-06-29T14:26:00Z")
monavis: > [@](#): > > It doesn’t mean any thing about divine revelation, just the belief that some human had a devine revelation, and one takes the word of that human. True, but the point is that the religions in question DO take these particular human beings as having truly spoken to G-d, so they can be said to know the will of G-d (at least vis a vis the particular prophecy they received). > [@](#): > > It is true that if you would choose to walk into the path of a running train it would be your will to do so, but it doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the will of a divine being wanting you to do different. You can choose to heed or ignore dangers that are readily apparent; you can choose to heed or ignore threats of punishment that you’ve been told come from a divine being. The ability to choose freely is the same, regardless of the source of the possible consequence. > [@](#): > > Of course most of what we do in this life has a lot to do with our own choice, but if a person harms another, it is not the choice of the victum.No divine being approves or stops the action, just as in the case of Hitler’s taking so many lives because he chose to do so. Granted, but the issue we had been discussing had nothing to do with victims. It was about David’s vs Saul’s reactions to being told that they had done wrong. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/47 "2012-06-29T15:02:39Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > …just as in the case of Hitler’s taking so many lives because he chose to do so. How’d that work out for him? ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695/48 "2012-06-30T12:15:09Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > How’d that work out for him? It didn’t have to do with Divine intervention,just the law of nature, he ended up killing himself! Look how many people paid the price for that one man, had he never been conceived, many good, and innocent people may have made a difference in this world! If I were his mother who knew ahead of time how he would turn out I wouldn’t have been near a man, thus preventing hundred of thousands of people,suffering and dying because of one man’s evil ways. To me it is humans making laws(some good for the benifit of society and others to rule over some with guilt and fear),has nothing to do with the will of God. Unless of course one looks at the psalmist who is quoted," I said you are gods". Laws such as in driving etc. helps all people.( But there is no reason to believe they were from God) and some help people live a more secure and happy life. That in itself is why some religions allow several wives or husbands, and some don’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biblical-adultery-prohibitions/625695.md?page=2)