Adultery

====Judaism====
Though Leviticus 20:10 prescribes the death penalty for adultery, the legal procedural requirements were very exacting and required the testimony of two eyewitnesses of good character for conviction. The defendant also must have been warned immediately before performing the act.<ref>Maimonidies, Book of the Commandments, Prohibition 392 and the note at the end of Prohibition 347, Hebrew translation and notes by Rabbi Joseph Kapach, Mossad Harav Kook, Jerusalem 1971</ref> A death sentence could be issued only during the period when the [[Holy Temple]] stood, and only so long as the [[Sanhedrin]] court convened in its chamber within the Temple complex.<ref>Maimonides, [[Mishneh Torah]]: Laws of Sanhedrin 14:11</ref> Technically, therefore, no death penalty can now be applied.<ref>Talmud Bavli: Ketuvoth 30a,b</ref>

The death penalty for adultery was generally strangulation,<ref>Talmud Bavli: Sanhedrin 52b, towards the bottom</ref> except in the case of a woman who was the [[Bat kohen|daughter of a Kohen]], which was specifically mentioned in Scripture as the penalty of burning (pouring molten lead down the throat),<ref>{{bibleverse|Leviticus|21:9|HE}}</ref> or a woman who was betrothed but not married, in which case the punishment for both man and woman was stoning.<ref>{{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|22:24|HE}}.</ref>

At the civil level, [[Halakha|Jewish law]] (halakha) forbids a man to continue living with an adulterous wife, and he is obliged to divorce her. Also, an adulteress is not permitted to marry the adulterer, but (to avoid any doubt as to her status as being free to marry another or that of her children) many authorities say he must give her a divorce as if they were married.<ref>The Jewish Way in Love & Marriage, Rabbi Maurice Lamm, Harper & Row, San Francisco,1980</ref>

According to Judaism, the [[Seven laws of Noah]] apply to all of humankind; these laws prohibit adultery to non-Jews as well as Jews.<ref>[[Maimonides]], [[Mishneh Torah]], Judges, Laws of Kings and Wars, Chapter 7 (Shabse Frankel edition, Jerusalem - B'nai B'rak, 5762 (c.2008, copyright 1998))</ref>

The extramarital intercourse of a married man is not in itself considered a crime in biblical or later Jewish law;<ref>Source=ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 15 |section=Adultery |Author=Jeffrey Howard Tigay]</ref><ref name=collins/> it was considered akin to [[polygyny]], which was permitted. Similarly, sexual intercourse between an unmarried man and a woman who was neither married nor [[Engagement|betrothed]] was not considered adultery.<ref name=collins>Collins, R. F. (1992). "Ten Commandments." In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), ''The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary'' (Vol. 6, p. 386). New York: Doubleday</ref> This concept of adultery stems from the economic aspect of Israelite marriage whereby the husband has an exclusive right to his wife, whereas the wife, as the husband's possession, did not have an exclusive right to her husband.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/adultery.html |title=Adultery |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=20 September 2016 |archive-date=2 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602070025/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/adultery.html |url-status=live }}</ref>