Fornication in the Bible. The Bible covers multiple subjects in broad strokes, and one of these is fornication. An issue that can be uncomfortable and controversial for many practitioners, as well as for non-practitioners included.
The holy book expresses different ideas about fornication in its verses, which allows us to approach its meaning, understanding what are the appreciations found in its pages on this subject. In the following sections, we will show a variety of verses about fornication and its treatment in the Bible.
Meaning: Fornication in the Bible
The word fornication comes from the Latin fornicāri, which means “to have sex with a prostitute.” We could consider it as the term used to describe the act of practicing marital infidelity.
Fornication is described in the Bible as the act of having sex with a person outside of marriage. One of the spouses establishes an intimate relationship with a third party, breaking their pact of loving loyalty.
This practice is one of the gravest sins in the Bible, as it represents a mockery itself in the eyes of God, who would be the chief testimony of the oath of eternal loyalty between spouses.
In ancient societies, fornication was condemned with death to women, who were exposed to all the people and later killed with severe physical punishments such as stones or blows. For their part, the men suffered no kind of condemnation from us, other than some recriminations on the part of testimonies.
The couple was an unbreakable institution, which made fornication one of the most outrageous acts among societies. Intimacy was conceived as a faculty that God granted to couples, and, therefore, a sacred element that had to be respected at all times.
When we talk about fornication, we can be referring to two scenarios:
- A married person who commits adultery by having sexual relations with a third party. This does not necessarily involve penetration, but any kind of intimate exchange that represents sexual pleasure between the couple.
- A person who has sex without being married, breaking into his chastity before committing to marriage.
A variety of religions such as Judaism, Catholicism and Christianity consider fornication as a serious sin, so these actions are often condemned by their practitioners, who must apply reforms to the path of those who have sinned. They will try to guide the sinner to return to the paths of his religious morality and repent of his actions.
In many of these liturgies, among which we can also mention Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is imperative that women and men arrive chaste in marriage, that is, without having had sexual relations with their partner or another person before committing themselves in sacred union before their church.
Fornication is thus one of the most critical sins a person can commit in different religions. When reading the Bible, we can find different scriptures about the act of fornicating, so it is important to perform this review after this analysis.
Verses: Fornication in the Bible
We can find different verses in multiple chapters of the New Testament. In this sense, some of the most relevant are presented as follows:
In Jeremiah 3:9
“And it came to pass that because she judged her fornication lightly, the earth was polluted, and she made adultery with the stone and with the log.”
Corinthians 6:18
“Flee from fornication. All {the others} sins that a man commits are outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body.“.
Revelation 17:1-5
“And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me, saying, Come; I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is sitting on many waters; With it the kings of the earth committed {actos} immoral, and the inhabitants of the earth were drunk with the wine of their immorality. And he led me in the Spirit into a wilderness; And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, and who had seven heads and ten horns.“.
Corinthians 5:9-11
“In my letter I wrote you not to walk in the company of immoral people; I didn’t mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or the idolaters, because then you would have to get out of the world. But indeed I wrote to you not to walk in the company of anyone who, calling himself a brother, is an immoral person, or greedy, or idolater, or slanderer, or drunkard, or swindler; With that one, don’t even eat“.
Corinthians 6:9
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the immoral, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the homosexuals“.
Ezekiel 16:29
“You also multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan and the Chaldeans, and neither did you be satisfied with this.”
Ephesians 5:5
“For you know this with certainty: that no immoral, impure, or miserly man, who is idolatrous, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
Corinthians 6:13
“Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both. However, the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.“.
Corinthians 7:2
“However, because of immorality, let each have his own wife, and each have her own husband.”
Corinthians 5:1
“Indeed, one hears that among you there is immorality, and such immorality as does not exist even among the Gentiles, to the extent that anyone has his father’s wife.”
Colossians 3:5
“Therefore regard the members of your earthly body as dead to fornication, impurity, passions, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.”
Fornication is an act that breaks with the most important principles of many religions: love for God. Its practice is an act that marks a difficult condemnation of any practitioner to sustain, and, therefore, a fact that rebukes any kind of love before God. In this way, we can agree, fornication is conceived in the Bible.
Read also: Adultery vs Fornication Islam; Types of adultery in Islam; Adultery in Judaism; Adultery in the Old Testament
Reference: Wikipedia