Is it wrong to have sex outside of marriage?
The second group presents troubling relationships and captivity, but it does not directly command the adultery prohibited in the first group.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
Marrying or loving an adulterous woman does not command adultery, and retaining captives does not explicitly prescribe the sexual act prohibited elsewhere.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Adultery and sexual immorality are forbidden
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.