(12) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: Any party whose wife has gone astray and broken faith with him, (13) in that another man has had carnal relations with her unbeknown to her husband, and she keeps secret the fact that she has defiled herself without being forced, and there is no witness against her, (14) but a fit of jealousy comes over him and he is wrought up about the wife who has defiled herself—or if a fit of jealousy comes over him and he is wrought up about his wife although she has not defiled herself— (15) that party shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. No oil shall be poured upon it and no frankincense shall be laid on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing. (16) The priest shall bring her forward and have her stand before יהוה. (17) The priest shall take sacral water in an earthen vessel and, taking some of the earth that is on the floor of the Tabernacle, the priest shall put it into the water. (18) After he has made the woman stand before יהוה, the priest shall bare the woman’s head and place upon her hands the meal offering of remembrance, which is a meal offering of jealousy. And in the priest’s hands shall be the water of bitterness that induces the spell. (19) The priest shall adjure the woman, saying to her, “If no other party has lain with you, if you have not gone astray in defilement while living in your husband’s household, be immune to harm from this water of bitterness that induces the spell. (20) But if you have gone astray while living in your husband’s household and have defiled yourself, if any party other than your husband has had carnal relations with you”— (21) here the priest shall administer the curse of adjuration to the woman, as the priest goes on to say to the woman—“may יהוה make you a curse and an imprecation among your people, as יהוה causes your thigh to sag and your belly to distend; (22) may this water that induces the spell enter your body, causing the belly to distend and the thigh to sag.” And the woman shall say, “Amen, amen!” (23) The priest shall put these curses down in writing and rub it off into the water of bitterness. (24) He is to make the woman drink the water of bitterness that induces the spell, so that the spell-inducing water may enter into her to bring on bitterness. (25) Then the priest shall take from the woman’s hand the meal offering of jealousy, elevate the meal offering before יהוה, and present it on the altar. (26) The priest shall scoop out of the meal offering a token part of it and turn it into smoke on the altar. Last, he shall make the woman drink the water. (27) Once he has made her drink the water—if she has defiled herself by breaking faith with her husband, the spell-inducing water shall enter into her to bring on bitterness, so that her belly shall distend and her thigh shall sag; and the wife shall become a curse among her people. (28) But if the woman has not defiled herself and is pure, she shall be unharmed and able to retain seed. (29) This is the ritual in cases of jealousy, when a woman goes astray while living in her husband’s household, and defiles herself, (30) or when a fit of jealousy comes over a husband and he is wrought up over his wife: the woman shall be made to stand before יהוה and the priest shall carry out all this ritual with her. (31) The man shall be clear of guilt; but that woman shall suffer for her guilt.
The Biblical definition of adultery concerns itself with the adulteration or potential adulteration of an innocent husband’s genetic lineage. Since sexual intercourse between a wife and a man other than her husband can result in that other man’s impregnation of the wife with that other man’s adulterant genetic material, the genetic lineage of a child conceived from that act would be adulterated, that is, not genetically the husband’s. Yet, such a child would nevertheless be deemed in Biblical law to be the legal child of the husband due to its birth to the wife while she was in a marital contract (lawful wedlock) with the husband. This adulteration of a victimized husband’s family lineage (consanguinity), by the wife's adulterous conception of a child, would detrimentally impact the lawfully wedlocked husband and his birth family, as all the responsibilities, burdens, and privileges of and for the child, due to the contract of marriage, attach to the husband and his birth family. By contrast, an unmarried woman becoming pregnant or risking pregnancy as a result of sexual intercourse with a man married to another woman does not create the same situation, because the unmarried woman's child would not be regarded in law as his. Since there is no aggrieved party whose genetic lineage can be adulterated by their act, it is not defined as adultery per the Hebrew Bible.
Adultery in the Hebrew Bible is prohibited and capitally punished because it would result in the unjust and fraudulently diverted imposition of financial burdens on a husband to a child which is not his own (until its adulthood), the usurpation of Biblical inheritance rights from the rightful consanguineous heirs of the husband then converted to the male offender’s family via the adulterated child (from the moment the child is born and for its lifetime), including rights to inherit the property of the aggrieved husband’s birth family and his own personally accumulated property and assets, citizenship rights into one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel to which the aggrieved husband belongs, usurpation of inherited priestly status with all its accompanying rights and responsibilities if the aggrieved husband was a Kohen (Aaronic priestly caste halakhically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron brother of Moses) or a Levite, up to usurpation of royal status and line of succession rights for an aggrieved husband of royal lineage including the king himself.
Thus, adultery was regarded as the highest and most despicable form of fraudulent theft meriting capital punishment, because the crime affected not only the husband, but his family and rightful heirs, depriving the husband of genetic posterity and killing off his family’s genetic line. The form of capital punishment employed to execute those convicted of adultery is Biblically required to be more torturous if the guilty wife was a Bat-Kohen (daughter of a Kohen).
Wikipedia: Adultery
The biblical ritual is structured as a divine ordeal, which was a customary way of resolving doubt in the ancient East. However, while the surrounding cultures used trial by ordeal for many areas, from murder to theft, in biblical law it exists only in the case of the sotah. This has led researchers to suggest various reasons for its uniqueness.
Jacob Milgrom, for example, believes that for this instance biblical law adopted a foreign pagan institution in order to save women from public lynching, which was the probable fate of a woman with a reputation as an adulteress. Others said that in a case of suspected adultery, as in murder (cf. Deut. 21:1–9), doubt is a usual occurrence, but at the same time it is perceived as dangerous and defiling, and thus must be resolved in metaphysical ways.
In general, the biblical status of adultery is different from that customary in the ancient East. Moshe Greenberg showed that while most cultures in biblical times perceived adultery as an offense against the husband and therefore left the punishment of the adulterers to him, in biblical law adultery is perceived, first and foremost, as a religious transgression that carries the death penalty (note that adultery in biblical as well as rabbinic literatures, is defined as sexual relations between a married woman and a man other than her husband. The paramour’s marital status is irrelevant to the case.) However, the near eastern traditions are echoed in a few places in the Prophets, where the adulteress’s punishment is given over to the community and sometimes even to her paramours. This includes public disrobing and humiliation and death at the hands of the community (see esp. Ezekiel 16:36–41; 23: 46–49).
Sotah by Ishay Rosen-Zvi from jwa.org
Ordeals, Or Ordeal-Trials
otherwise termed "judgments of God," a pretended mode of appeal to God's judgment, formerly permitted in criminal cases in the most civilized society of Europe. Ordeal is generally traced to the Anglo-Saxon ordoel. Spelman derives this word from or, "magnum," and doel, "judicium," which is also the derivation given by Ducange. Lye and Bosworth derive it from or, privative, "without," and doel, "difference," an indifferent or impartial judgment, a judgment without distinction of persons. The German word urtheil, a judgment, is intimately related to it.
The earliest trace of any custom resembling the ordeals afterwards so largely-used among the northern tribes of Europe may be found in the waters of jealousy, which the Hebrew women, suspected of adultery, were compelled to drink as a test of innocence (Numbers 5). The alleged intention of it was to vindicate the truth when it could not in any other way be discovered, and to make way for the execution of law. A similar trial for incontinence is in use among the natives of the Gold Coast of Africa. SEE ADULTERY. Blackstone (Comm. on the Laws of England, 4, ch. 27, "Of Trial and Conviction") says: "The several methods of trial and conviction of offenders established by. the laws of England were formerly more numerous than at present, through the superstition of our Saxon ancestors; who, like other northern nations, were extremely addicted to divination, a character which Tacitus observes of the ancient Germans (De Mor. Germ. x). They therefore invented a considerable number of methods of purgation, or trial, to preserve innocence from th[e danger of false witnesses, and in consequence of a notion that God would always interpose miraculously to vindicate the guiltless." Throughout Europe in the dark ages the ordeal existed under the sanction of law and of the clergy.
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Honor killing is a violent crime committed by one or more perpetrators, in which the crime’s intention is to restore honor to their family. In this narrative review, the authors investigate the epidemiology of honor killing in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Furthermore, the social, cultural, and legal aspects of honor killing are discussed. Numerous socio-cultural factors lead to the action of killing for honor in this region. They include deeply rooted patriarchal dominance, the desire to maintain social status, and being poorly educated. Honor killing perpetrators have similar characteristics, such as rating female chastity at a higher price and justifying violence against women. The impact of honor killing on family members is much greater than the perceived families’ beliefs of the community’s rejection of the female’s dishonorable behavior. Silence culture dominates these societies, and many crimes are under-reported in this region. Often, a judicial trial is not conducted for such heinous crimes. Penal code reforms, campaigns to promote human rights, steps to improve the education level, and active participation of civil society in condemning such crimes are a few essential measures that need to be considered in order to curb the social evil of honor killing.
Honor Killings in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Narrative Review
Sarah M. AlQahtani,* Danah S. Almutairi, Eman A. BinAqeel, Reema A. Almutairi, Reem D. Al-Qahtani, and Ritesh G. Menezes
What the Bible says about Punishment Matches the Sin
(From Forerunner Commentary)
God uses this principle in His judgments—greater and lesser punishments for greater and lesser sins. Under "an eye for an eye" in the Bible, the punishment must match, but not exceed, the damage or harm done by the perpetrator. The law placed strict limits on the amount of damages anyone could collect. It permitted no one to "get rich quick" from another's mishap. Moreover, God intended this law to be a rule of thumb for judges, not an authorization of personal vendetta or private retaliation. Martin G. Collins |