MORALITY
FORNICATION
- Deut.23:17 There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Lev.19:29 Do not profane your daughter (do not defile your daughter) by causing her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and become full of wickedness.
Fornication is a sexual relationship between a man and a woman who are not married to each other. Today, a common law relationship is a type of fornication.
ADULTERY
- Ex.20:14 Do not commit adultery.
Mtt.5:28 And I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Lk.16:18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else* commits adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Mk.10:11 Whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else* commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and remarries, she commits adultery.
* In this case, Yeshua is saying that an intentional divorce due to marrying another person is adultery. It’s important not to be confused and to understand that these words of Yeshua in the house of his disciples (Lk.16:18 and Mk.10:11) differ from his words in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Mtt.5:32), where He speaks about ‘the letter of divorce’ or marrying your wife for the second time which is an abomination before YHWH.
Adultery is an unlawful relationship between a man and someone else’s wife or a woman with someone else’s husband. It also refers to lustful thoughts, inappropriate jokes and comments, even to a lustful look at someone else’s wife or husband.
- Lev.18:20 You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her.
It should be noted that these commandments were known long before Moses: Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, ‘She is my sister.’ So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But YHWH came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, ‘Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife’.
Gen. 39:7 And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against YHWH?’?
- Deut.22:22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel. Lev.20:10 The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.
John 8:1-11 describes a situation of a woman who was accused of adultery. It is interesting to note that Yeshua did not agree to stone her as the Pharisees demanded him to do, but he let her go according to the commandment from the Torah. This was the temptation of the Pharisees (Jn.8:6): to find something that they could blame Yeshua for in breaking the commandment of the Torah. Yeshua did not change the Torah, or break it. On the contrary, according to the Torah a woman could be stoned for adultery only together with a man adulterer (Deut.22:22) and if two or three witnesses were present (Deut.17:6) which were absent in that case. According to the commandment, the hand of the witness was supposed to be the first on this woman (Deut.17:7). This is why no one dared to throw a stone since no one wanted to commit a sin of being a false witness. Yeshua actually followed the Torah.
- Deut.22:23 If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall put away the evil from among you.
The emphasis of this commandment is on the understanding of dual responsibility for an immoral action. The harshness of the commandment implies a punishment for both a man and a woman. A woman has the responsibility to do everything she can in order to prevent this sin. The key word here is ‘in the city’; this means that it does not refer to a situation where a man attacks woman in a place where no one is around, as it was described in commandment #8, chapter VI ‘FAMILY’. This can be compared to a law in Singapore and Thailand and some other countries where both a drug dealer and a consumer are sentenced to capital punishment. It is important to understand that capital punishment in the Torah is an extreme measure for a wicked and systematic infraction of the law and not for someone’s mistake.
HOMOSEXUALITY
- Lev.18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Lev.20:13 If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
1Cor.6:9 Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of YHWH? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of YHWH.
ZOOPHILIA
- Ex.22:18 Whoever lies carnally with an animal shall surely be put to death. Deut.27:21 Cursed is he who lies with any beast!
- Lev.18:23 A man must never defile himself by having sexual intercourse with an animal. Lev.20:15 If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death, and the animal must be killed.
- Lev.18:23 A woman must never stand before an animal to mate with it (a woman shall not yield herself to a beast to lie with it). It is perversion and degradedly carnal. Lev.20:16 If a woman approaches any beast and lies carnally with it (and mates with it), you shall stone the woman and the beast. They shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.