{"id":373,"date":"2014-09-03T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=373"},"modified":"2014-08-27T20:44:04","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:44:04","slug":"matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus\u2019 New Testament teachings on the topic of adultery could be considered by his hearers as rabbinical commentary on Old Testament law\u2014specifically on the seventh commandment found in Exodus 20:14.<\/p>\n<p>As such, at this point in his Sermon on the Mount, Christ helped his audience to understand an important truth: <em>The visible act of sin (adultery) and the invisible origin of sin (adulterous thoughts) are equal to each other<\/em>. That was a bit of a departure from some other popular opinions in his time. For instance, Jewish historian Josephus said, \u201cThe purposing to do a thing, without actually doing it, is not worthy of punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Christ\u2019s commentary on the seventh commandment expanded the definition of adultery that was generally accepted at that time. Noted Bible scholar, F.F. Bruce indicates that, \u201cIn the cultural context of the original Decalogue, this commandment forbade a man to have sexual relations with someone else\u2019s wife.\u201d The seventh commandment, however, <em>didn\u2019t<\/em> address a man having extramarital or premarital sex with an unmarried woman.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus, though, expanded the cultural understanding of sexual sin by citing \u201ca woman\u201d in general (\u201canyone who looks at<em> a woman <\/em>lustfully\u201d &#8211; as in &#8220;<em>any<\/em> woman&#8221;) rather than limiting adultery only to sex with another man\u2019s wife. That was an important distinction at that time, and one which continues to be important today.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[PC15, 162; HSJ, 52]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus\u2019 New Testament teachings on the topic of adultery could be considered by his hearers as rabbinical commentary on Old Testament law\u2014specifically on the seventh commandment found in Exodus 20:14. As such, at this point in his Sermon on the Mount, Christ helped his audience to understand an important truth: The visible act of sin&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[147,149,151,111,150],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culturalcommentary","category-matthew","tag-adultery","tag-decalogue","tag-exodus-2014","tag-sermon-on-the-mount","tag-seventh-commandment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesus\u2019 New Testament teachings on the topic of adultery could be considered by his hearers as rabbinical commentary on Old Testament law\u2014specifically on the seventh commandment found in Exodus 20:14. As such, at this point in his Sermon on the Mount, Christ helped his audience to understand an important truth: The visible act of sin&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-03T12:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-27T20:44:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Jesus\u2019 New Testament teachings on the topic of adultery could be considered by his hearers as rabbinical commentary on Old Testament law\u2014specifically on the seventh commandment found in Exodus 20:14. As such, at this point in his Sermon on the Mount, Christ helped his audience to understand an important truth: The visible act of sin&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-09-03T12:00:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-27T20:44:04+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html","name":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-03T12:00:48+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-27T20:44:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Cultural Commentary)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}