What they say has been added to the Seventh Commandment.
What they say has been added to the Seventh Commandment.
§ 78. To the Seventh Commandment, about not committing adultery [Exod. 20:14], they say that three things have been added: (a) “One should not even look upon a woman to lust after her” (p. 99).
We respond. On the contrary, the illicit lusting [concupiscentia] after a woman has been explicitly forbidden by a particular commandment of the Decalogue: “You shall not covet [concupisces] your neighbor’s wife” (Exod. 20:17; Deut. 5:21). The explanation of this commandment is given in Job (31:1): “I have made a covenant with my eyes that I would not even think about a virgin.” “The eye of the adulterer observes darkness” (Job 24:15). “Do not desire the beauty of an adulterous woman in your heart, and let her not captivate you with her splendors” (Prov. 6:25). “Do not look upon the wine when it is red” (Prov. 23:31). “Your eyes will see strange women” (Prov. 23:33). “Each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife” (Jer. 5:8). In Ezek. 6:9 “the eyes of fornicators” are mentioned. “She doted upon them with the lust of her eyes” (Ezek. 23:16).
** The Lord reproaches the synagogue because she exposed “her fornication to every passerby, to be his” (Ezek. 16:15). “The synagogue lusted after the children of Egypt because their flesh was like that of donkeys and their discharge was like that of horses” (Ezek. 23:20). Although the Holy Spirit is speaking especially about idolatry and spiritual fornication, the prophet would not have used such figures of speech if, in the sight of God, lust toward another man or woman were not really considered as fornication and adultery. In Mal. 2:15 the priests who were frequently divorcing their wives are warned to exercise self-restraint in their own spirit, that is, to restrain their affections and desires, lest they transfer their yearning from their own wives to other women. Just as our Savior says that anger is the chief thing in homicide that merits punishment, so also lust is the chief thing in adultery that merits punishment. **
Therefore the lustful glance which titillates the inner heart and kindles a corrupt lust and by which the heart burns with lust [libido] and looks about, seeking a desire [concupiscentia] for its eyes so that from it lust may be nourished and inflamed—such a lustful glance is forbidden no less in the Old than in the New Testament.
(b) The second thing they think Christ added to the commandment not to commit adultery is this: that “he who divorces his wife and marries one who has been divorced commits adultery” (p. 199).
We respond. Christ is not setting forth a new Law but is calling us back to the original institution of marriage and purging out the corruption of the Pharisees which, like dross, they added to the divine Law. Because Moses had, due to the hardness of heart of the Israelites, permitted divorce in the forensic or judicial law to avoid still greater evils (Deut. 24:1; Matt. 19:8), the Pharisees consequently claimed that it was lawful to grant a bill of divorce for any cause at all and that it was lawful to do this even in the sight of God. But Christ shows that, on the basis of God’s institution and ordinance, marriage is an indissoluble bond (Gen. 2:24). The only exception He makes is the case of fornication, because that conflicts directly with the nature of marriage, the essential parts [substantialia] of marriage, and conjugal fidelity. Therefore it breaks the bond of marriage. See Dr. Chemnitz (Harm. evang., bk. 2, ch. 51, pericope 3, p. 357).
(c) They place the third addition to this commandment in this: “that all fornication and impurity and even obscene language is forbidden in the New Testament” (p. 200).
We respond. So was only adultery forbidden in the Old Testament while fornication and impurity were allowed? This error is too crass and more than pharisaical. The explanation of this commandment is quite obvious and clear in Moses and the prophets. “There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a whoremonger among the sons of Israel” (Deut. 23:17). “Do not prostitute your daughter, lest the land be contaminated” (Lev. 19:29).
** “Rejoice, O young man, in your adolescence, and let your heart gladden you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart and according to the sight of your eyes; but know that the Lord will bring you into judgment because of all these things” (Eccles. [11:9]). Here it says that all conversation, actions, and deeds occurring at banquets and in all other pleasures earn the severity of the divine judgment if they conflict with piety and decency. In Deut. 22:5 the command is given that a man is not permitted to wear the clothing of a woman. **
Here pertain the punishments which have been established for fornicators (Exod. 22:16; Deut. 22[:13–30]) and those that happened by divine action (Gen. 19:34; Numbers 25; Judges 20; etc.). So this is the figure of speech called synecdoche, by which, under the name of “adultery,” all uncleanness and impurity is forbidden in works, words, and gestures. But if shameful, lascivious, and obscene gestures are forbidden, all the more are obscene words understood to have been forbidden. If the inner lust of the heart is forbidden by this commandment, all the more will impurity of language be forbidden. “Do not embrace another’s woman. Why would you burn for another’s woman in your heart?” (Prov. 5:20). “A woman dressed as a harlot meets and kisses the young man and flatters him with an impudent face” (Prov. 7:13). “The fornication of a woman is recognized in her eyes and winks,” etc. (Ecclus. 26:[9]).