“ ‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
World English Bible
Leviticus 20:10
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓ - Modern English
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- TCENT Text-Critical English New Testament A modern reasoned-eclectic New Testament (2022) · CC BY 4.0
- F35 Family 35 New Testament Wilbur Pickering's Byzantine-priority New Testament, with text-critical commentary notes · CC BY-SA 4.0
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- KJV King James Version Public Domain
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Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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How should adulterers be punished?
Leviticus 20:10 commands the execution of both the adulterer and the adulteress. The pericope adulterae in John 7:53-8:11 has Jesus refuse to condemn a woman caught in adultery and instead invite the sinless to throw the first stone — effectively suspending the death penalty.
Critical scholarship: Genuinely disputed among scholars.
Law & ethics
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Does the Bible approve of capital punishment?
The Pentateuchal legal codes prescribe death by stoning, burning, or general execution for an enormous range of offenses: murder (Gen 9:6; Num 35:30), striking or cursing a parent (Exod 21:15, 17), witchcraft (Exod 22:18), bestiality (Exod 22:19), idolatry (Exod 22:20), Sabbath-breaking (Exod 31:14-15; 35:2), adultery (Lev 20:10), incest (Lev 20:11-14), male homosexuality (Lev 20:13), blasphemy (Lev 24:16), kidnapping (Exod 21:16), loss of virginity before marriage (Deut 22:13-21), and rape victims who didn't cry out loudly enough (Deut 22:23-24). Genesis 4:15 has God explicitly *prevent* the execution of Cain — the first murderer — by placing a protective mark on him.
Critical scholarship: Usually considered reconciled.
Law & ethics
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Commandments (1)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
- To execute capital punishment by strangulation when prescribed Leviticus 20:10
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Other verses examined for the same kind of question or claim
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
One of these tensions involves a difference in wording across manuscripts or translations. Examine the original language on Lemma →
Cite this page
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Leviticus 20:10 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/leviticus/20/10?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).