What is fornication? Adultery and fornication - what's the difference?

What is fornication? In simple terms, this is debauchery or sexual debauchery. In general, it is a social phenomenon of a negative nature. However, in the modern world people have quite free control over their bodies and relationships, so most people look at this concept with a fair amount of skepticism.

But a social perspective on a topic is one thing. And completely different – ​​religious. And now I would like to consider this concept from this point of view.

Demon of Impurity

Perhaps this is what we can call fornication. “What is it about physical carnal relations outside of marriage? After all, everything is done by mutual consent, without causing harm or damage to anyone...” - some may ask this question.

Well, since the topic is religious, it is worth remembering the meaning of the word “sin”. It means lawlessness. Mayhem. Violation of the laws of spiritual life. And it, as many may know, always leads to trouble and self-destruction. For nothing good is built on mistakes and sins.

If you delve deeper into the study of Holy Scripture, you can find there a very detailed and chaste description of what fornication is. Even if after committing it there are no serious consequences (it is, after all, not murder, not robbery), it is still considered a serious sin. These are the lines that can be found in the sacred source: “Do not be deceived: fornicators will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

This is unless they repent and stop fornication. For them, church rules are strict: they are forbidden to receive communion until they repent and go through penance. The last word denotes punishment, a moral-corrective measure. Moreover, it is very severe and long-lasting. Why does the Church have such an attitude towards people who are mired in fornication?

How to fight this passion

But enough about these abominations and disgusting things! What means do we, Orthodox Christians, have to fight all these?! Here, firstly, we need to pray for the authorities to come to their senses - they may well stop all this. So, at one time, through the efforts of I.V. Stalin and the Stalinist guard in the USSR, the sexual revolution with the “socialization” of women and girls, which began after the October Revolution, was suppressed. And for quite a long time, at least outwardly, the Soviet Union turned into a completely puritanical society!

The Achilles heel of which, however, was the rather hypocritical content of this puritanism. Many people chatted about the “shape of morality” of the builder of communism, and they themselves had mistresses; Pornographic magazines were brought from the West from business trips, and Western porn films were shown in special cinema halls in well-known regional party committees for especially vetted comrades who had the appropriate clearance. And at the same time, deep down in their souls, they all envied the West and mourned that “we don’t have sex.” This was the trigger for our second sexual revolution of the 90s.

To avoid this extremely unpleasant incident of a future normal government, if we have one, we should resort to the treasures of Christian culture (in particular, relevant ethics and aesthetics), contrasting them with the corrupted Western one. I’ll show you how to do this specifically using this example.

One of the main sexual brands of the West is the already mentioned sadomasochism. There is a lot of not only explicit pornography and erotica, but also serious films, books, and studies on this topic in an attempt to answer the question: what is it? Why do humiliation, violence, pain evoke sexual feelings both in the executioner and, even more strangely, in the victim?! So, until now no one has really answered this, let alone given a spiritual or mental cure for this disease. But Christian ethics and aesthetics can do this. And I know this answer, but talking about this is beyond the scope of this publication.

Reasons for negative perception

It should be noted that sex in Orthodoxy has never been forbidden. He was even blessed - but only if a man and a woman united in a marriage union (married or formalized according to civil laws).

The Apostle Paul himself wrote about intimate relationships: “Do not withdraw from one another, except by consent, or by prayer and fasting, but then be together again, so that Satan does not tempt you with intemperance.” These lines can be found in 1 Cor. 7:3–5.

Marriage was something sacred and highly spiritual. After his imprisonment, husband and wife became “one flesh.” Close, intimate relationships are a strong experience that binds spouses to each other even more strongly, cementing their union.

However, what is blessed in marriage is sin if done outside of it. Because the commandment is broken. In marriage, a man and a woman are united into one flesh in the name of love, while outside it - within the framework of lawlessness. What is fornication? This is receiving sinful pleasure, a manifestation of weakness and irresponsibility.

Just pay attention to 1 Cor. 6:15–16. This is what it says: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Or that he who has intercourse with a harlot becomes one with her?”

The meaning here is very simple. The whole essence and consequences of fornication are traced. Each unlawful relationship is a deep wound for the soul and body, often realized only later. But when a person finds his love and gets married, all his connections weigh heavily on his soul. For the memory of past sins cannot be erased.

Yes, fornication unites people... but only for the sake of desecration of their souls and bodies. This will not give true happiness to a person. Because it can only be found in spiritual unity, love and trust.

In jurisprudence

In Byzantine law

In the Byzantine Empire, corporal punishment was established for men for “debauchery.” According to the Eclogue, an unmarried man was punished for debauchery with six strokes, a married man with twelve. The exact meaning of the offense is unknown to scientists, although it is known that in Byzantium the cohabitation of a free man and a free woman (which, according to the Digests, was considered as marriage) and the cohabitation of a free man with a slave (which, although condemned by law, was considered elsewhere) was not debauchery. Eclogues)[6].

In the legislation of the Russian Empire

Article 2080 of the Code on Criminal and Correctional Punishments imposed prison terms for corrupting the morality of children and indulging in their debauchery[7]. Procurement by parents of their children, that is, complicity in their fornication, regardless of the age of the children, was punishable by deprivation of all special rights and advantages and exile to live in Siberia or transfer to correctional prison departments from 2½ to 3 years, and for deliberate corruption of the morals of their minor children and deliberate indulgence in their debauchery or tendency towards “indecency” and other vices, parents were subject to imprisonment from 2 to 4 months[8].

In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in the legislation and official documents of the Russian Empire, the term was usually used to refer to prostitution (in the encyclopedic literature, the concepts of “debauchery” and “prostitution” were clearly distinguished at that time [9]).

Thus, Article 529 of the Criminal Code uses the phrase “den of debauchery” to designate a brothel, and the law of 1909 was called “On measures to suppress trafficking in women for the purpose of debauchery”[10].

In Soviet legislation

In the first years after the 1917 revolution, the concept of debauchery, like many other things, changed radically. Thus, in P. S. Romanov’s story “The Trial of a Pioneer,” a pioneer who was courting a pioneer is reproached: “If you needed her for physical intercourse, you could honestly, in a comradely manner tell her about it, and not corrupt her by raising handkerchiefs, and don’t wear bags instead”[11].

At the same time, although the line between prostitution and debauchery in the philistine consciousness remained conditional, the Soviet government began a decisive fight against debauchery and prostitution: thus, from June 1, 1922, the Criminal Code of the RSFSR introduced liability for maintaining dens of debauchery and recruiting women for debauchery[12 ].

The concept of “dens of debauchery” was preserved in the criminal codes of the Russian Federation of 1926 and 1960; in the modern Criminal Code it was replaced by “dens for prostitution.”

Researchers consider the term “debauchery” in Soviet legislation as an evaluative concept. Thus, G. T. Tkesheliadze believed that “when it comes to the evaluative signs of a crime, the use of judicial discretion is excluded... Whether a certain act is debauchery or not, this must be proven”[13].

In Russian legislation

Main article: Depraved acts in Russian criminal law

Article 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“depraved acts”) defines as criminal actions aimed at arousing sexual interest, sexual feelings[14] in a person who is known to have under 16 years of age, by a person who has reached 18 years of age, without committing sexual intercourse in any form and without the use of violence. Actions related to exposure and manipulation of the genitals of both the victim and the accused, sexual intercourse with a third person in the presence of the victim, poses and touches of a sexual nature, demonstration of photo, audio or video materials of sexual content may be classified as depraved. conversations on sexual topics, provision of literature with sexual content[14].

Actions defined by these articles in relation to persons who knowingly

for a subject who has not reached the age specified in the relevant article (that is, the subject is subject to punishment either when the minor’s young age is obvious, or if it is proven that the age was known to the subject). These crimes can only be considered as such with direct intent.

In the legislation of Ukraine

Article 302 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine determines the punishment for creating or maintaining places of debauchery[15].

Where does sin begin?

It would not be superfluous to try to answer this question. What is “fornication” in Orthodoxy, where does this sin begin? Like everything else - from the little things. This is what it says in Matt. 5:28: “Everyone who looks lustfully at a woman has committed adultery with her in his heart.” There is a certain amount of truth here, since internal desire is the beginning of passion. For a person lets it into his soul and enjoys the resulting sensation. As a rule, this is not far from bodily sin.

But the holy fathers also say that fornication is associated with gluttony, bodily satiety, and excessive wine drinking. Do these seem like different concepts? Not really. Fornication, like satiety, is aimed at satisfying bodily desires and obtaining physical pleasure. Plus, in Eph. 5:18 there is a good phrase: “Do not get drunk with wine - it causes debauchery.”

Also in this topic there is such a concept as “sexual gluttony.” This is a carnal passion, and you can curb it if you accustom yourself to moderation and abstinence, which directly concerns food. Hearty, fatty, spicy dishes, sweet wine - all this warms the blood, excites hormones, excites.

Theme of debauchery in literature

In 1785, the Marquis de Sade’s pornographic novel “The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Debauchery” (French: Les 120 journées de Sodome, ou l'École du libertinage) was published. In his works, he became a preacher of the ideas of libertinism and depicted the behavior of a person from whom all restrictions have been removed, from social to religious (denial of God, all moral norms and rules, both religious and universal principles of behavior in the family and society). His works contain numerous detailed descriptions of scenes of perverted forms of sex, incest, cruelty (hence the term "sadism") and murder of the victim of sexual violence.

He called his introduction to one of his books “Debauchees” and in his address to this category of readers he urged to ignore all moral principles and laws, indulging their desires:

And you, dear libertines, you who from your very youth have not listened to other spurs than your desires and other laws than your whims, let the cynical Dalmanse serve as your example; move on, like him, if, like him, you want to go through all the flower-strewn paths prepared for you by depravity; under his guidance, be convinced that only by expanding the sphere of his tastes and fantasies, only by sacrificing everything in the name of voluptuousness, the unfortunate creature known as man, thrown against his will into this dull universe, can be able to grow a few roses on the thorns of life.[18]

What else influences the violence of the flesh?

Continuing to discuss what fornication is in Orthodoxy, it is worth noting several more reasons why the craving for it increases in many people. They were listed by the church writer Abba Isaiah in the Fatherland (IV-V centuries). In addition to the previously mentioned satiety, he noted:

• Celebration.
• Vanity.
• Long sleep.
• Love in beautiful clothes.

And again, all of the above concerns the satisfaction of one’s own desires and pleasure. Everything must be abandoned. Engage in prayer, replace vanity with the humility of Christ, long sleep with vigil, and replace beautiful clothes with rags. You can't leave anything behind. Because passions hold on to each other like links in a chain.

Other opinions

A person who decides to live in fornication becomes an enemy of God and even a false prophet. For the marriage union, and everything connected with it, is a sign, a model indicating the relationship of Jesus to humanity. This is also spoken about in certain sources (Eph. 5:25-33. Col. 3:18-21, to be more precise). And a person mired in fornication simply perverts the sacred model of behavior. He becomes guilty. And in any case. Even if he did it in the name of love, with the intention of further marriage.

There are also modern “interpretations”. Modern thinkers say that the question of why fornication is a sin can be answered exclusively from a religious point of view. Because there will always be counterarguments from other positions.

Well, the answer is: “Fornication drives the Holy Spirit out of the human heart. Because it cannot exist together with Impurity. There is either one or the other. And it’s better to choose the second one. Because there is nothing worse for any of us than to remain outside of God. For this is the underworld. Hell is precisely existence without God.”

However, there is one more nuance here. A person living in fornication and debauchery, who does not see the difference between debauchery and marital virtue, ironically perceives everything previously said. Even cynical. Religious people call them “enslaved,” morally degraded, and physically sick. According to Orthodox laws, a fornicator is a dwelling place of demons, an possessed person, someone with the mark of fall on his face. Sexual maniacs and the expression “fallen woman” are often cited as examples of these judgments.

Etymology and dictionary definitions

Debauchery

is a verbal noun, derived from the verb "to rotate", and means a forced turn in the opposite direction from the "correct" one.
In Church Slavonic, to corrupt
meant leading away from the path of truth.

According to Ozhegov’s dictionary, debauchery is depravity of morals, low moral level of behavior and relationships. According to Dahl:

CORRUPT

,
to corrupt
someone, to lead astray from the path of truth;
to distort mentally, by false teaching, or morally, inclining to debauchery, to a bad and criminal life. A bad example corrupts everyone. Corruption of judges corrupts the people. Drunkenness completely corrupts. -sya, they suffer. and return within the meaning of. Corruption
cf.
debauchery
m. action according to verb.
on t, and comp. according to verb. na sya. Trade in debauchery. | Quarrel, enmity through a third party, by conspiracy. Depravity
f.
the state of being depraved. Depraved
person - life and morals, vicious, criminal, especially dissolute.
-nost f. depravity
,
depravity
.
Libertine
, -nitsa, depraved, dissolute person.
Corrupter
, -titel, -nitsa, corrupter, -chitsa, corrupting others.
Corrupting
,
corrupting
.
To debauch
, to debauch, to live depravedly, immorally.

About the consequences

They are also worth noting when considering the meaning of the word “fornication.” If we move away from religion, then this would, of course, include sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy, the emergence of rumors about a person’s dishonesty, moral laxity, etc.

And here is what religious figures, in particular Archpriest Maxim Obukhov, write about this: “The peoples among whom the sin of fornication was widespread quickly disappeared from the face of our land or lost their independence, weakened, and were inferior to other nations. Everything is logical here. A society that is infected with sin ceases to produce great leaders. It becomes a mediocre, homogeneous gray mass.”

What else happened before? Consanguineous marriage. It contradicts the commandments of God and is considered sin, fornication. If children were born from such a marriage, they often had defects and genetic deformities that might not appear in them, but were reflected in their descendants. For incest is a direct path to the degeneration of the race, since its consequence is the accumulation of identical defective genes of common origin.

The Old Testament says: whoever encroaches on such fornication as having a relationship with a blood relative will be handed over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh.

About harlots

Now we can talk in more detail about depraved women. In the Bible, the harlot is a separate constant character, found from the first to the last book. A prostitute, in simple words. According to the Bible, they provided their “services” for kids, but then took larger riches.

It is interesting that only depraved women are mentioned in sacred sources - not men. And nowhere in the Bible can you find lines that would say how girls become prostitutes. In Lev. 19:29 you can only see these words: “Do not defile your daughter by allowing her to commit fornication.”

And it is unclear exactly how such desecration could have occurred. We can only guess. Perhaps girls from poor families were sent to “earn money.” In those days, girls were completely under their father's control, so if the head of the family wanted her to become a prostitute, she would not be able to go against him. The result is forced fornication.

You can find a lot of information about harlots in various sources, but what about men? Almost nowhere is it said specifically about the debauchery of representatives of the stronger half of humanity.

Perhaps times were different before. But there are hardly many who disagree with the fact that in our time, for many men, women have become something like objects, a manic passion. They argue about girls, they collect them. And then they complain that there are few decent women. Perhaps, but are lustful men worthy of them? No. And as a result, the walkers choose harlots, merging with them in sin.

It turns out that a man, called to be a spiritual warrior, turns into a weak puppet in the hands of the devil. And girls walking in darkness simply fall into his deceitful web of perversion and vice. And it doesn't end well for anyone. Because spiritual laws work even if people don’t believe in them.

Notes

1. Corrupt // Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language: in 4 volumes / author's compilation. V. I. Dal. — 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg. : Printing house of M. O. Wolf, 1880-1882.
2. Fornication // Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language: in 4 volumes / author's compilation. V. I. Dal. — 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg. : Printing house of M. O. Wolf, 1880-1882.
3. debauchery // Dictionary of the Russian language: In 4 volumes / RAS, Institute of Linguistics. research; Ed. A. P. Evgenieva. — 4th ed., erased. - M.: Rus. language; Polygraph resources, 1999.
4. ↑ 12
   Prostitution // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
5. Pokrovsky I. A. History of Roman law.
6. Barmina V. E. Byzantine legal culture. Experience of gender analysis // News of the Ural State University. - 2006. - No. 47. - P. 6-13.
7. S. S. Eskibaeva. Retrospective analysis of criminal liability for evasion of payment of funds for the maintenance of children or disabled parents. // Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University. 2010. No. 33 (214). Right. Vol. 26. pp. 48-52.
8. Alexander Sergeevich Lykoshin.
   Parents // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
9. Grigory Markovich Herzenstein.
   Prostitution // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
10. Petrov, Artyom Sergeevich. Legislation of the Russian Empire in the field of prostitution and regulatory rules for this activity in Chita in the period 1907-1917. (unavailable link). // Bulletin of ZabSU No. 10 (89) 2012. P. 3-11.
11. ↑ 12
    A. M. Strakhov. The evolution of images of gender and love in Russian culture of the 19th—21st centuries (inaccessible link). // Scientific bulletins of Belgorod State University. No. 9(40) Issue. 2 2007. P. 81.
12. M. I. Miroshnichenko. “Evil faces” of the female gender: the fight against prostitution in the light of revolutionary self-awareness in 1920-1922. (Based on materials from the Urals). Woman in Russian society, 1 / 2011.
13. O. S. Stepanyuk. On the question of the formulation of the definition of the evaluative concept of criminal law (inaccessible link). // Scientific bulletins of Belgorod State University. No. 9(40) Issue. 2 2007. P. 196.
14. ↑ 12
    Commentary on the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (article-by-article) / Rep. ed. V. M. Lebedev. M., Yurayt-Izdat, 2007.
15. Mamchenko N.V. Moral content of Ukrainian legislation (inaccessible link). Scientific notes of the Tauride National University named after. V. I. Vernadsky. Series "Legal Sciences". Volume 23 (62). No. 1. 2010, pp. 35-42.
16. N. A. Berdyaev. The meaning of creativity. MintRight Inc, 2000, p. 114.
17. ibid., p.118.
18. Marquis de Sade. "Philosophy in the boudoir (immoral mentors)"

Adultery

This concept, which is directly related to the topic under study, should be noted with special attention. And first, deal with the following question: “Adultery and fornication - what is the difference?”

If you look in the dictionary, everything will become clear. Adultery is adultery. That is, also a sin of an intimate and carnal nature. However, the Bible provides a much deeper look at how God himself views these two sins.

The Hebrew word translated “adultery” literally means “violation of marriage.” It is believed that God considers the apostasy of his people to other idols to be this sin. When the Jewish people, who were Jehovah's marriage partners, turned to the deities of other nations, the Lord said that their act was like the fornication of a wife, treason.

In the Old Testament, Israel's worship of idols is also often compared to a reckless woman who indulges in debauchery.

And throughout the entire book of Hosea, a parallel is drawn between the relationship between God and Israel, as well as the marriage of the prophet himself and his fornicating wife named Homer. And very colorful. Gomer's actions against Hosea seem to reflect the unfaithfulness and sinfulness of Israel, who abandoned Jehovah for spiritual adultery with idols.

And in the New Testament, the Greek words literally translated as “adultery” are used in most cases in the literal sense. This concept refers to sexual sin involving married people.

But one interesting exception can be found in a letter to a church located in the city of Thyatira. She was condemned for her tolerant attitude towards the wife of the Israeli king Ahab, whose name was Jezebel. She did not just call herself a prophetess, but dragged the church into idolatry and frightening immorality. All the people who were seduced by her false teachings were perceived as those who had committed adultery with Jezebel.

Where do dreams lead?

Bernardino Luini. Salome with the head of St. John the Baptist

Permissiveness is more about people of great wealth, but anyone can begin to indulge their desires indiscriminately. It all starts with the most harmless thing, but if you don’t learn to say “no” to yourself at the right moment, then feelings and desires make consciousness their slave. These days we remember one such sad example - the beheading of John the Baptist. The Gospels of Matthew (14:1-13) and Mark (6:14-30) give us an account of this event. King Herod, having such an opportunity, did not deny himself anything: neither food, nor wine, nor entertainment. Having not learned to abstain at all, he became a slave to his passions. Then he took his wife Herodias from his brother Philip, lived with her, drowning in luxury, and the nobles called it normal and indulged him in everything. Only John the Baptist was not afraid and came to his palace several times to denounce him.

Herod, although he feared John as a prophet and listened to him in many ways, nevertheless put him in prison - the truth stings his eyes. Herodias hated him more than anyone and wanted him dead. Finally, the moment was right for this. During the feast, the intoxicated Herod makes an insane oath: to give the daughter of Herodias everything she wants. The mother, taking advantage of the situation, forces her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist as a gift. “The king was saddened, but for the sake of the oath and those with him, he did not want to refuse her” (Mark 6:26). Having never denied himself or Herodias anything, Herod executes an innocent man. If his mind had not been darkened by debauchery, would he have committed such a crime?

Sins against the body

This is exactly what adultery and fornication are. What is the difference is clear. What common? It’s obvious here too. This is a temptation that is now at every step.

Modern thinkers call this a sin against chastity. The very spirit of the modern world corrupts, seduces, and entices people with carnal pleasures in every possible way. It is becoming increasingly difficult to resist such influence. Temptation is everywhere - in the media, on the air, on the radio, on billboards and videos, in music, in songs, in books, on social networks.

Even if we ignore religion. Are there not enough broken destinies, illnesses, suicides, murders and life tragedies from carnal sins? Not at all. Carnal sins are terrible because they seem to scorch the souls and hearts of people with the fire of Gehenna. They poison. Even after repenting, a person tries to recover for a long time.

But it is a fact that carnal sins are difficult to resist. For by succumbing to them, a person receives, albeit short-term, but strong satisfaction. It's like a narcotic substance. Debauchery is also addictive.

It is not for nothing that fornication and adultery are considered mortal sins. Slowly but surely they bring man down to the bottom of hell. Here it is worth paying attention to the testimony of the blessed Theodora, wife of Theophilus. It says that a rare soul can easily overcome prodigal obstacles. For the one who committed treason - desecrated the marital bed, showed disrespect for the spiritual partner, for his “half”, deceived and betrayed him, undermined trust, violated the oath. It is not so much religious as universal human principles that are at work here. And here it is unlikely that anyone will argue with what has been said.

Lust

It is worth briefly noting this concept. Not a synonym for the word “fornication,” as many may think, but a related concept. In asceticism it is closely associated with lust. This term does not mean sexual desire, but a distortion of gender relations. The Fall leads to it, associated with the thirst for power, selfishness, and seeing in another person only an object for one’s own satisfaction.

Lust is desire, an unlawful passion that turns a person away from the Lord and corrupts his heart. That which leads to sin and evil. According to the Bible, lust is the most common and dangerous sin, which is so contagious that even cases of its manifestation in the Holy Book are mentioned extremely delicately. You could even say casually. The word “lust” appears only 8 times in the book. They were afraid to use it often, so as not to savor debauchery and not mention it again.

FORNICATION

[fornication], 1. Sin against chastity (in everyday life it is often any violation of morality in the sphere of sexual relations); one of the passions in the ascetic teaching of the Church. 2. In a religious-metaphorical sense - any deviation of a person from God’s Providence for him; idolatry, unbelief.

In the Synodal translation of St. The Scriptures use the terms “B.,” “harlotry,” and “fornication” to be conveyed to Heb. . . . Greek πορνεία, - containing as the first (Gen 38.24; Lev 19.29; Hos 4.10-11; Acts 15.20, 29; 21.25; Rom 1.29; 1 Cor 6.13, 18; 7. 2; Gal 5. 19; Eph 5. 3; etc.), and the second (Ex 34. 16; Num 14. 33; Jer 2. 20; 3. 2, 9; Eze 16. 15, 20 , 34, 36; 23. 11, 27, 29; 43. 7, 9; Os 2. 4; 4. 12, 18; 5. 3, 4; 6. 10; Nahum 3. 4; etc.) meanings concept "B." In Jer 3.8, 9 the word “fornication” is conveyed, meaning adultery, that is, adultery. In Russian in B.'s language there are synonyms: fornication, debauchery, debauchery.

1. Christianity recognizes two forms of human life in the sphere of gender: marriage and celibacy. B. as a distortion of the relationship between the sexes and the Divine purpose inherent in them is a sin, for it only involves the achievement of sensual self- or mutual enjoyment. Manifesting itself in the form of thoughts, passion, corrupting words, shows, books, looking at obscene pictures, touching one’s own body or the body of another person, caresses and actual sexual relations, B. encroaches on the purity and chastity of a person. B. also includes prostitution, homosexual relations (see Sin of Sodom), incest, and masturbation (masturbation, malakia).

In the OT, the 7th commandment of the Mosaic Decalogue - “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex 20.14; Deut. 5.18) - does not draw a clear boundary between the concepts of adultery and sex, therefore this commandment applies to all cases of violation of sexual morality. At the same time, it coexisted with the ancient institution of polygamy and concubines. Punishment for violations in the area of ​​sexual relations depended on the degree of the offense. In the case of violence against an unmarried girl, the offender was obliged to give a significant ransom to her father and take the girl as his wife, never having the right to divorce her (Deut. 22.28-29). Committing a crime against any wife or concubine of the father was punishable by death as a desecration of the “holiness” of the father’s bed (Lev 18.7-8; 20.11; Deut. 22.30; 27.20). An equally harsh fate threatened brides who did not observe virginity (Deut. 22.20-21), priests’ daughters who defiled themselves through fornication (Lev. 21.9), and even spouses who came together during the period of wives. purification (Lev 20:18). The death penalty awaited people in cases of adultery (Deut. 22.22-27), incest, sodomy, bestiality (Lev. 18.22-29; 20.11-16). The main reason for the strictness towards perversions in the sphere of sexual relations was the sacred concern for the offspring of the people of Israel.

In the OT, prodigal sin was viewed not so much as a violation of public morality, but as a defilement that offends the holiness of God - the people of Israel. Therefore, for a Jew, the custom of “providing” daughters, common among pagans, is unacceptable: “Do not defile your daughter by allowing her to commit fornication, lest the land commit fornication and be filled with depravity” (Lev 19:29), although no formal punishment was provided for this. Human violation of the Divine Law causes bitter consequences - a change in the entire universe: the extermination of man, livestock, reptiles and birds “from the face of the earth” (Gen. 6. 2-7, 13); the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19.1-25); extermination of 24 thousand people. (Numbers 25. 1-9) and others (about God’s punishment for B. cf.: Isaac Syr. Sermo 62).

In the NT there are much stricter concepts about marriage (Matt 19:8-9; 1 Cor 7:10-11), chastity, about the attitude towards the human body, corresponding to the revealed highest purpose of man - unity with God: “the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Cor 6:13). Ap. Paul calls the body the temple of the Holy Spirit living in Christians (1 Cor 6:19) and contrasts the lifestyle of a sinner, who becomes one body with a harlot, to the union of the believer with the Body of Christ - His Church (1 Cor 6:15-17).

Christ draws attention to the fact that adultery (like B.) is committed primarily in the heart of a person, that is, in thought and feeling: “Whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5. 28). Fornication is indicated by Christ among the evil thoughts that come from the heart and defile a person (Matthew 15.19; Mark 7.21), while chastity is the ap. Paul calls God's sanctification of Christians (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). Therefore, B. and all uncleanness “should not even be named” among Christians, “as is fitting for saints” (Eph 5.3). In this regard, the fate of fornicators and adulterers is determined, who “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6.9-10; cf. Rev. 22.15), for B. corrupts the soul and body, and cools a person in his desire to God, separates from God (John of Kronstadt, p. 24). The fornicator “is torn away from the body of the Church, destroyed by daily rot - sinful pleasures...” (Greg. Nyss. Adv. fornic.), desecrates the image of God in himself: “” (4th Troparion of the 2nd Song of Monday of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete ).

At the same time, having come to call “sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13), giving every person the opportunity to be cleansed of sins, the Lord sets an example of a merciful attitude towards fallen man. Denouncing the pride and hypocrisy of his accusers, Christ says to the harlot brought to Him: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:3-11). The repentant harlots, whom the Lord promises a better fate than the high priests (Matthew 21:31), became His faithful disciples, and one of them, Mary Magdalene, was the first to see Him risen.

B. appears as one of the main passions in the ascetic teaching of the Church. Along with gluttony, B. refers to carnal passions, that is, passions associated with the needs of the body. Ap. Paul and St. the fathers especially emphasize that every sin is committed outside the body, “but the fornicator sins against his own body” (1 Cor 6.18), “not like a murderer, who sins against someone else’s body, keeping his own unhurt, not like a covetous man who harms to another, being careful not to harm his own body, the fornicator harms himself, pierces himself with the arrow of dishonor... cares about the robbery of his own flesh” (Greg. Nyss. Adversus fornic.). Lustful passion is the result of a constant agreement with lustful thoughts and the development of the skill for fornication, the psychophysical need for it.

Teaching that it is not useful for the inexperienced to reason about the movements of the passions and consider it better to remain in blissful simplicity regarding this (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 75), St. John Climacus speaks about the immediate causes of fornication and its close connection with other passions: “With beginners, physical falls usually occur from enjoying food; with averages they happen from arrogance and for the same reason as with beginners; but with those approaching perfection, they happen only from the condemnation of their neighbors” (Ibid. 15. 20; cf.: Isaac Syr. Sermones. 43, 70, 77). St. Isaac the Syrian adds to the causes of fornication “ridiculousness and daring soaring of thoughts,” which “is the work of a prodigal demon” (Isaac Syr. Sermo 68).

The beginning of the development of prodigal passion is a thought, and a Christian must direct the most ascetic efforts towards the fight against it in order to gain the ability to control his mind. “Some,” writes Rev. John Climacus, - they please eunuchs by nature; and I please the everyday eunuchs, who have learned to emasculate themselves with reason, like a knife” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 21). In order to prevent an unclean thought from entering the heart, the inner temple of the soul, it is important to prevent agreement with the thought (Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 13). In connection with this, St. Theophan the Recluse advises not to allow yourself to indiscriminately see everything, hear everything and touch everything; rush to erase confusing impressions; avoid encounters with the subject of past temptations; be able to reinterpret everything you encounter for yourself in a spiritual sense (Feofan (Govorov), St. What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it. L., 19916. pp. 222-224).

Asceticism closely connects B. with lust. Lust does not mean sexual desire as such, for it is given to a person in marriage, as the force of attraction between those who unite, but a distortion of gender relations as a result of the Fall, associated with selfishness, a thirst for power: seeing in another person only an object for satisfaction. A Christian in marriage on the path to combating sin faces the most difficult task of separating sexual feelings from “lust,” for lust in marriage distorts its goal and, therefore, is B. A monk (and a Christian who has renounced marriage) faces the task of fighting sin through the complete mortification of sexual feeling with the aim of its transformation into a new, spiritual person.

Lustful passion can take unusual forms: overly passionate denunciation of B. in other people with relishing various details, or a type of spiritual self-deception, when relationships with the Lord, prayer, experience of His presence are clearly intertwined with an unhealthy state of the neuro-genital system (see: Barnabas (Belyaev), bishop pp. 159-160). B. easily gets along with love for his neighbor (Ibid. P. 321): “Those inclined to voluptuousness are often compassionate and merciful, quick to tears and affectionate” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15.46); at the same time, prodigal passion can flow into Pharisaic pride and dislike for people as an apparent way of protection from B.

B., like any other passion, is overcome by humility, a virtuous life according to God’s commandments, and opening oneself to the action of God’s grace through the sacraments of the Church. “... Just as chastity is higher than human nature, so the final victory over fornication does not depend on us, but is a gift from God,” which “can only be found in the humble, therefore, without humility it is impossible to get rid of fornication” (Barnabas (Belyaev), ep. p. 166). The Holy Fathers admit that the battle with lustful passion is “longer than others, constant, cruel” (Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 1), for “chastity is the comprehensive name of all virtues” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15.4), and “how great is the heavenly reward for chastity, the greater is it subject to the slander of enemies” (Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 17). The mental-physical nature of B. requires special means of practical combat against it. “Don’t think about putting down the demon of fornication with objections and evidence,” says St. John Climacus, - for he has many convincing justifications for fighting against us with the help of our nature”; “present to the Lord the weakness of your nature, realizing your powerlessness in everything, and in an imperceptible way you will receive the gifts of chastity” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 24, 26; cf.: Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 5, 6 ). According to St. John Cassian the Roman, since the attack of the passion of fornication is twofold, on the body and on the soul, it is impossible to win victory except under the condition of a joint struggle of body and soul. “Body fasting alone is not enough to acquire or maintain purity of chastity,” even if it is supported by physical labor, unless it is “preceded by contrition of spirit, constant prayer... prolonged meditation on the Holy Scriptures,” combined with spiritual understanding, “and above all, if the foundation will not be laid on true humility” (Ibid. VI 1). For the victory over fornication, abstinence, solitude, silence are useful (Ibid. VI 3; Idem. Collat. V 4; Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 44).

The Lord gives the sinner time to repent. Church disciplinary practice combined Old Testament intolerance towards B. (1 Cor 5. 1-11) with pastoral loving care for the sinner: “In every kind of crime, one must first of all look at the disposition of the one being healed ... by repentance” (Grig. Nis. 8). Canon law distinguishes adultery from adultery (Grig. Nis. 4), the punishment for which is twice as severe as for adultery: “Let there be... a difference in the manner of repentance for sins of voluptuousness” (Ibid.). In ancient church institutions, under the influence of the then prevailing public morality, which had not completely outlived the legacy of pagan morality, in addition to carnal relations between unmarried people, B. was understood as the satisfaction of lust between a married man and an unmarried woman (Basil. 21), i.e. In practice, the sin of a married man was not equated with adultery (it was seen only as a violation of the husband’s conjugal rights). “It is not easy to name the reason for this,” writes St. Basil the Great, - this is the custom” (Ibid.).

A layman for B. is excommunicated from Communion for 7 years according to Vasil. 59 or 9 according to Grieg. Nis. 4, but for those “zealously undergoing repentance” the period of penance can be shortened. A monk for B. is subjected to penance as for adultery - he is excommunicated from Communion for 15 years (Vasil. 60). Clerics who fall into B. are defrocked (Ap. 25; Basil. 3), but are not deprived of Communion, since double punishment is not imposed for one crime. Anyone who rapes an unengaged maiden is excommunicated and forced to take the maiden as his wife (Ap. 67). A harlot was considered a young woman who married without the consent of her father (Basil. 38), a slave - without the consent of her master (Basil. 40), therefore marriages against the “will of those who possess” were equated with fornication (Basil. 42). For the sin of masturbation, a layman is subjected to a 40-day penance, which he must spend in dry eating, making 100 bows daily (John 10); mutual fornication is punished twice as severely (John 11); For the same sin, a woman is also subject to penance (John 13). In practice, when applying the canons, the Church takes into account the specific spiritual and historical situation.

In the “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church,” a document adopted by the Bishops’ Jubilee Council in 2000, in the section devoted to morality, the state of modern. society is characterized as a spiritual crisis (X 6), the manifestations of which include: mass rejection of God, propaganda of the idea of ​​​​a “sexual revolution”, which led to the loss of the meaning of marriage and the feeling of sinfulness of B., secularization of many. churches that bless sinful forms of gender relations. In these conditions, the Church is called upon to openly name sins, reveal their essence and show a person the path to healing.

The Church respects a marriage concluded in accordance with the current legislation of the state, not considering it B., but in the absence of a church wedding recognizes it as spiritually imperfect.

2. The theme of the “spiritual” B. of humanity is one of the main ones in the OT. God, who entered into a Covenant with His people, seemed to take His only love as a wife—the bride of Israel. But the prophets Hosea, Jeremiah. Ezekiel, in the name of God, declares that this bride turned out to be a traitor and a harlot: “...She is not My wife, neither am I her husband; Let her put away fornication from her face and adultery from her breasts, lest I strip her naked... and I will not have mercy on her children, because they are children of fornication. For their mother committed adultery... for she said: “I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water... oil and drink”” (Hosea 2.2-5; cf. Ezek. 16.15, 20, 34, 36). The expressions “to commit fornication after the gods [of the pagans]” (Exodus 34.15-16), “to go fornication after Moloch” (Lev. 20.5), “to commit fornication with the daughters of [other] people” (Numbers 25.1), “to commit fornication with kingdoms of the earth" (Isaiah 23:17), "this land commits fornication" (Hosea 1:2) - mean the loss of the people of Israel of their Divine calling. The Lord in the Gospel, following the prophets, calls the people of Israel “evil and adulterous” (Matthew 12.39; 16.4).

A person who fell away from God in paradise, who lost Him in history, has lost the true meaning of life, “got lost.” Church tradition calls a man who has fallen away from God a prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-32). The image of the prodigal son is given in liturgical hymns of penitential content: “” (prayer on “Lord, I cried” on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son). The actions of people are prodigal, testifying to their godlessness, the symbol of which was “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Rev 17.5; cf. 18.2-3). The world itself, lying in evil, lives in this sense in B. To fornicate also means to fall into schism or heresy. B. manifests itself in the form of fornication (verbalism, vanity) and in the form of fornication (superstitiousness): “Whoever is in soul and body,” says St. Isaac the Syrian, always devoted to vanity and wanderings of the mind, that fornicator” (Isaac Syr. Sermo 8).

Lit.: John of Kronstadt, St. The path to God // PSS. St. Petersburg, 1905 R. T. 6. P. 12-14, 17, 22-24, 27-28, 37; Varnava (Belyaev), bishop. Fundamentals of the Art of Holiness. N. Novg., 1996. T. 2. P. 148-181, 258; Zarin S. M. Asceticism according to Orthodox Christian teaching. M., 1996. S. 258-267; Cyprian (Kern), archimandrite. Anthropology of St. Gregory Palamas. M., 1996. S. 409-412; Shikhlyarov L., priest. Christianity and the “sexual question” // Continent. 1996. No. 91. P. 275-305; Zenkovsky V., prot. On the threshold of maturity: Conversations with youth on gender issues. Klin, 2001; Sveshnikov V., prot. Essays on Christian Ethics. M., 20012. P. 75-76; Nil Sorsky, St. Charter about skete life. Ekaterinburg, 2002. pp. 44-47.

Priest Lev Shikhlyarov

What should the innocent party do?

What should a person do if he has suffered from the weakness of someone he trusted? What to do if the other half cheated or committed adultery? This is also stated in some sacred sources.

These are the lines you can find in Romans 7:2,3. 1 Cor. 7:39: “Remarriage is possible in the event of the death of one of the partners.” And in Matthew 19:9. write the following: “The conclusion of a second union is permitted if the innocent party who suffered from adultery filed for divorce.”

And nothing else. Because what God has joined together, man cannot separate. This, by the way, is said in Matt. 19:6.

Permission to enter into a second marriage due to the sin of adultery is a sign, a reference and a reminder that even the Most High terminated the covenant with Israel, after which he entered into a New one.

What psychologists say about the passion for fornication

Having dealt with the opinion of the clergy regarding the passion of fornication, let’s move on to what psychologists think about this sin.

Psychologists say that often one problem actually has completely different roots. For example, parents come to a psychologist and complain that their child is behaving badly, but in reality they themselves do not give him any free will. Or a person complains that everyone is treating him unfairly, although in reality he himself does not pay due attention to other people.

The same thing happens with the passion of fornication. When a specialist begins practical work with a patient, he often finds a whole range of completely different reasons, violations, and problems.

When considering sexual addiction, it should be noted that it has existential spiritual components - a deep unconscious fear of death, repressed by a feeling of inner devastation, inner loneliness.

It happens that completely different violations occur:

• different types of psychological childhood trauma;
• sexual abuse (if it occurred in adolescence);
• bad, pathological relationships in the child’s family.

All the factors described above begin to “throw” a person into dependence on sex, because in this way he tries to look for a kind of “anesthesia” for himself, an illusory consolation. In reality, of course, he does not receive any consolation, but only begins to fall deeper into this addiction, losing healthy and correct life guidelines.

The passion for fornication is actually a much more fundamental problem than just addiction to sex. It has a significant connection with the spiritual sphere of the individual. Fornication is a kind of departure, an escape of a person from something, in some cases - a search for a false goal.

The personality begins to wander, trying to find something, its soul is in tossing, but it is looking in the wrong place, and therefore does not find anything.

This applies not only to fornication, but also to other passions. The main goal of every passion is to take possession of a person at all levels: physical, mental and spiritual. It is by the spiritual level that one can determine a person’s connection with the Creator.

Therefore, fighting passion does not simply mean eliminating lustful thoughts from your head, as many may mistakenly think. This means fighting for a person’s personality, for his improvement, in the Christian religion - for the salvation of the souls of the righteous.

If a person turns to a psychologist for help, then his task will be not simply to indicate a means of confronting this passion, but to guide the person in such a way that he begins to reveal the best properties of his soul and learns to fully accept himself. Then, ultimately, through self-disclosure, all lustful thoughts will disappear from thoughts.