Researched and prepared by Ruth Magnusson Davis
This post belongs to the series “Principal Matters from the 1537 Matthew Bible.” The purpose of the series is:
(1) To get to know the Table of Principal Matters in the Matthew Bible.
(2) To learn through Bible studies from the Reformation.
“As the bees diligently do gather together sweet flowers, to make by natural craft the sweet honey, so have I done with the principal topics contained in the Bible.”
So began John Rogers’ introduction to the Table of Principal Matters in the 1537 Matthew Bible. This Table was a concordance at the front of the book. It set out bible topics in alphabetical order. Under each topic were short headings, with bible verses for further study.
This Principal Matters series follows the topics in the order of the Table. It also sets out the bible verses in full, taken from the Matthew Bible and gently updated as needed.
Topic: Adultery
The topic of adultery in the Table of Principal Matters was long, with 15 headings. Some of the scriptures are also quite long. Therefore, I have divided this topic into five separate posts, of which this is the third. Headings 1-5 are in the previous two posts, and here we cover headings 6-9.
I noticed a curious thing under heading 8. This heading reads “Those who have minds only to commit adultery are punished.” The scripture verses given are in Genesis chapters 12 and 20. These chapters respectively tell the stories of Pharaoh and King Abimelech, two heathen rulers who took Abraham’s wife Sarah into their houses. (Sarah was called Sarai in chapter 12.) Their intent was to have her as their wife or concubine. However, both men were unaware that Sarah was married to Abraham (called Abram in chapter 12), because he lied and said that she was his sister.
These rulers had conceived a lust for Sarah, and no doubt this was carnal and fleshly. However, strictly speaking they did not have adultery in their minds. Indeed, both men returned Sarah to Abraham immediately once they learned that she was his wife – and, fortunately, without having violated her. It was clear from their conduct that they shrank from adultery and feared God. While punishment came passingly upon them and their houses so long as they held Sarah, perhaps as a kind of forewarning, it was lifted when they restored her to her husband.
If no adulterous deed was in fact committed by these two rulers, but only contemplated without knowledge of Sarah’s married state, and yet God punished them, what will be the punishment of those who knowingly practise adultery?
Another curious thing is that no reference is made under heading 8 to another ruler who did knowingly commit adultery and was sore punished: King David, who lay with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. In my next post are some scriptures where the Table of Principal Matters used David’s story to illustrate how adultery may lead to murder. King David had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed (though Uriah was a good and honourable man) in order to avoid detection. Then God afflicted King David and his house for the rest of his life, even though he repented of his double sins.
A final note: the word ‘fornication’ in the Scriptures may include adultery and any form of sexual immorality. It needs to be broadly understood in biblical context.
Adultery (continued)
(6) He who looks upon his neighbour’s wife, lusting after her, has already committed adultery with her.
Matthew 5:27-28 You have heard how it was said to the people of the old time, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whosoever looks on a wife, lusting after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
(7) Many are adulterers.
Ezekiel 22:11 Every man has dealt shamefully with his neighbour’s wife, and abominably defiles his daughter-in-law.
Jeremiah 23:10 … the land is full of adulterers, for which it is destroyed, and mourns; and the pleasant pastures of the desert are dried up.
Hosea 4:11-12 Whoredom, wine, and drunkenness take the heart away. My people ask counsel at their wooden gods; their staff must inform them. For a whorish mind has deceived them, so that they commit fornication against their God.
2 Peter 2:13-14 They count it pleasure to live deliciously for a season. Spots they are, and vileness, living at pleasure, and in deceptive ways feasting with you, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, beguiling unstable souls.
(8) Those who have minds only to commit adultery are punished.
Genesis 12:14-19 As soon as he came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw [Sarai], that she was very fair. And Pharaoh’s lords saw her also, and praised her to Pharaoh. So it came about that she was taken into Pharaoh’s house, who treated Abram well for her sake, so that he had sheep, oxen, and he-donkeys, menservants, maidservants, she-donkeys, and camels.
But God plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, Why have you dealt thus with me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say that she was your sister, and cause me to take her as my wife? But now, lo, there is your wife. Take her, and be walking.
~~~
Genesis 20:2-7, 14, 17-18 Abraham said of Sarah his wife that she was his sister. Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent and fetched Sarah away. And God came to Abimelech by night in a dream and said to him, See, you are but a dead man because of the woman that you have taken away, for she is a man’s wife.
But Abimelech had not yet come near her, and therefore said, Lord, would you slay righteous people? Did he not say to me that she was his sister? Yea, and did she herself not say that he was her brother? With a pure heart and innocent hands I have done this.
And God said to him in a dream, I knew well that you did it in the pureness of your heart, and therefore I kept you so that you would not sin against me; neither did I suffer you to come near her. Now therefore, deliver to the man his wife again. And let him pray for you so that you may live. But if you do not deliver her back, be sure that you shall die, with all that you have. …
Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, menservants and womenservants, and gave them to Abraham, and delivered Sarah his wife to him again. … And so Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
(9) Adulterers have no part in the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Be not deceived. For neither fornicators, nor worshippers of images, nor whoremongers, nor effeminates, nor abusers of themselves with the male sex, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor cursed speakers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 13:4 Let wedlock be had in honour in all points, and let the bedchamber be undefiled. For whorekeepers and adulterers God will judge.
“Abram’s Counsel to Sarai.” This painting by James Tissot (1836-1902) depicts Abram counseling Sarai to tell people that she is his sister, from Genesis 12.
~~ End Part 3, Adultery ~~
Notices:
– New Testament Scriptures are from the October Testament, the New Testament of the New Matthew Bible. The Old Testament Scriptures and Apocryphal writings are taken directly from the Matthew Bible, with obsolete English gently updated.
– Information about the New Matthew Bible Project is here.
– Sample scriptures from the New Matthew Bible are here.
– To find former topics, on the main blog page search under “Categories/Principal Matters Series” for the subcategory with the appropriate letter. For example, for “Abomination,” look under Principal Matters Series/ Principal Matters A/Abomination.
– The preceding topics in this series are:
Adultery Part 1
Adultery Part 2 (The Story of Susanna)