AduUam
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Adultery
ADTJLLAM An old Canaanitish capital in western Jiuluh (Gen. xxxviii. 1; Josh. xii. 15, xv. It was foititied by Uehoboain {II Chron. xi. 35). 7). ami was an inliabitrd city till the end of Old Tcstanieni times (.Miniii. i. 1">": Nell. xi. HO; II Maoc. The modern Idcl-Miyeh now occupies its xii. 38).
site.
The famous Cave of AduUam was a resort of David when an outlaw (I Sam. xxii. 1; II Sam. Tradition has loealed it in the valley of Kharaitim, six miles southeast of Bethlehem. However, the locality mentioned above will suit the early xxiii. 13).
Site of
816
of the husband than that of the wife, modern law has ii^nored the distinction between the two erimes, and technically they are alike, liut the ancient .lewish law, as well as oilier systems Woman's nf law which {jrew out of a imtriarclial state of society, does not recoj;Bights Enforced. nize the husband's iiitidelily lo his marriajre vows as a crime, and it was not until comparatively recent times that the woman was Icfially entitled to enforei' her husband's faithfulness, and was given the ri'rht lo demand a bill of divorce for his sexual immorality (Isserles on " Eben
the a.vcient city of Adtlla-m.
(By permissioD of the Palvatine Ezploratioo FuQd.)
history of David just as well, especially as it is probable that the word "'cave " rests upon a false reading of the original and should be replaced by "stronghold." In later times Judas Maccabeus visited the city of Adullam (II Mace. xii. 38). BiBLior.RAPnT: Clermont-Ganneau, PaJ. KrpXor. Fund, QuaH. Statement, 1875, p. 177: Smith, Historical Genuraplni of the
Holy Land,
pp. 239 et
»c<j.;
Baedeker, Pal., 2d
ed., p. 133.
J.
AD'DXTERY
F.
McC.
Sexual intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband. The crime can be committed only by and with a married woman for the unlawful intercourse of a married man with an unmarried woman is not technically Adultery in the Jewish law. Under the (riis:):
Biblical law, the detection of actual sexual intercourse was necessarv to establish the crime (F/CV. xviii. 20 [A. V. 19] Num. v. 10. 13, 19) but this rule was so far modified by the Talmudie law, that circumstantial evidence was sufficient to justifv legal
procedure if the wife had been cautioned by her husband against intimate association with the suspected i. 2). When the Adultery is conmiitted woman who is within the prohibited consanguinity or affinity, the crime bedegrees of comes Incest. Although the common opinion of mankind is more inclined to condone the Adultery
man
(Sotali,
with a married
ha-'Ezer," §1.54,1). The sin of concubinage is, however, already severely condeumed in Leviticus Rabbah, XXV. Although in ancient society and law Adultery was regarded as a private wrong committed against the husband, public law later on exercised control of its investigation and punishment; for organized society was impossible unless it punished this crime, which sajis the very root of the social life. "Thou .«halt not commit adultery " is not merely a command not to tamper villi the domestic affairs of another, but a warning to refrain from unsettling the foundations of society. The law, therefore, sought to guard the sacrcdness of the marriage relation by moral injunction and by legal restraints. In patriarchal times Sacredness the purity of marriage was pictured of Marriag-e as jealously guarded (see the cases of
Relation.
Sarah and Rebekah
Gen.
xii. 18, 19,
XX. 2-7, xxvi. 10, 11). The Biblical and Talmudical idea! of marriage had a strong influthose who were susceptible to ence in controlling "Therefore purely moral influence and suasion. shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. ii. 24). The woman is made sacred by the ceremony of l-irklnnhin, aud is thereby set apart for her Idolatry, murder, and husband alone (Kid. 26).
