18
Nov
2008
FACTS ABOUT THE WORD ADULTERY
FACTS FROM THE DICTIONARY ABOUT THE WORD “ADULTERY”
Webster’s New Riverside University Dictionary says: “Latin ‘adulterium,’ to adulterate.” ( page 80). This dictionary first says that the word comes from a Latin word meaning “to adulterate.” But then it gives as its number 1 definition something completely different. It says, “Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a partner other than their lawful spouse.” Why?
Just before this the verb form, “adulterate,” is defined as “to make impure, spurious, or inferior by adding extraneous or improper ingredients.” If the verb form means this, how can the noun form mean something totally different?
Note: The etymology of the word is not given, in the English dictionary nor the Greek, nor Hebrew. Why not? Because the word is being defined arbitrarily in total disregard for its etymology, its basic form, and its usage in the Bible.
FACTS FROM THE BIBLE ABOUT THE WORD “ADULTERY”
This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened to Biblical words. For example, if you look up the word “baptise” in an English dictionary it will be defined as “a religious rite accomplished by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion.” We find out its true meaning in scripture by reading passages where someone is baptized and noting what he does. The text says of the person being baptized that they went down into the water and came up out of the water. (Acts 8:37-38) So we know what baptism is. When we do the same thing with the word “adultery,” we find a person committing adultery and the text tells us exactly what he did, then we know something about the meaning of that word. Any good language scholar will tell you that the final determiner of word meanings is how they are used in the scriptures. Checking the Bible in this way on this word, here is what we find:
“Adultery” is sometimes used in reference to a sex act. (John 8:3-4)
But not always.
“Adultery” is sometimes used in reference to idolatry. (Jeremiah 3:8).
Verse 9 says Israel committed adultery with stones and trees.
But not always.
“Adultery” is sometimes used of seeking after a sign. (Mat. 12:39)
But not always.
“Adultery” is sometimes used of evil in general. (James 4:4, Hos. 7:1-4)
But not always.
The one constant: The feature that is always there when this word occurs, is unfaithfulness, disloyalty, breaking of covenant type obligations. Before the word “adultery” came into the English language, both John Wycliffe and William Tyndale made a translation of the New Testament. In the “divorce” passages, such as Matthew 19:9, they uniformly translated this word “breaketh wedlock.” The foregoing facts tell us why. When we find “adultery” committed by putting away an innocent wife and marrying another, why should we change it to a sexual meaning and move it over to the actions in the next marriage?
The “Contemporary English version” translates it “is unfaithul.”