A Karaite reading of the Adultery Test

Post title aside, I don't know if what follows is actually how Karaites read the Torah  passages which describe the Trial by Ordeal to which woman were subjected on the suspicious say-so of their husbands.

(Aside: isn't that horrific? A guy gets a little jealous, and he can force his wife to suffer a humiliating public ordeal. Show of hands: Who wants to see that restored after Messiah arrives?)

I'm using the words "Karaite reading" because I wish to point out what the text actually says (and what it seems to mean) beneath the familiar interpretations. If the word Karaite offends you, pretend I used another title.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject I also wish to point out that many of these interpretations have become so familiar, we often don't remember where the text ends and the interpretation starts. For instance, you may not realize it, but the text says the test applies to a women who has actually had sex, and not a women who merely had some alone time with a known paramour.

Read it all after the jump


The Adultery Test

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, and a man lies with her and has penetrative intercourse with her [=וְשָׁכַב אִישׁ אֹתָהּ שִׁכְבַת זֶרַע] and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act, [Numbers 11-14]

So far, we're clear: Only a woman who has had sex is subject to the Trial. Things get less clear with the next sentence, which reads:

וְעָבַר עָלָיו רוּחַ קִנְאָה וְקִנֵּא אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וְהִוא נִטְמָאָה אוֹ עָבַר עָלָיו רוּחַ קִנְאָה וְקִנֵּא אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וְהִיא לֹא נִטְמָאָה

The Rabbis take this as: But a spirit of jealousy had [already] come upon him and he [had already] become jealous of his wife, and she was defiled, or, a spirit of jealousy had [already] come upon him and he was jealous of his wife, and she was not defiled.

An equally plausible reading is: Then a spirit of jealousy [may] come over him, and he will become jealous regarding his wife, she having been defiled, or a spirit of jealoust may come over him and he will be jealous about his wife, she having not been defiled.

The issue is: When did the indiscretion occur, before or after the husband's jealousy?

The Rabbis say she is subjected to the Test because she caused her husband additional grief after he was already jealous, and had already warned her to stay away from the object of his jealousy. However, it might be simpler, in light of 11-14, to say that the issue is merely this: A man suspects his wife is pregnant, but does not believe that he is the father.

Am I being clear? The traditional view is the women is subject to the Trial for secluding herself with a man (a witnessed act) after her suspicious husband (suspicious because of what transpired in 11-14) warned her to stay away from him. My reading is she may or may not have gone off in secret with a man, (11-14) but her husband is currently jealous because he now suspects that she is pregnant and thinks another man is the father -- perhaps because he has been away or uninterested in his wife. .

The merit of the Rabbis reading, is it gives the woman the extra protection of a warning. She can't be hauled into the Temple and embarrassed unless the husband's suspicion was formally articulated before a subsequent indiscretion, an indiscretion that was witnessed.

The merit of the alternative reading is that it fits better with what is to follow and with what has already been said. "Hidden.... undetected... no witness..." make is abundantly clear that the Trial is activated when a husband has no concrete evidence of a sexual betrayal. 

the man shall then bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of memorial, a reminder of iniquity. ‘Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the Lord, 17 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and [j]he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. [Numbers 15-17]

The Rabbis say that the woman drinks from an  earthenware vessel because "she served her paramour wine in a valuable goblet." As the whole point of the Trial is to prove the very existence of the paramour, this rabbinic touch seems presumptive and unfair. More likely the cheap glass is part of the humiliation (which is also presumptive and unfair, I guess)

The priest shall then have the woman stand before the Lord and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose,

More humiliation. Note the Test still has not been performed. The woman being publicly shamed at the Temple gates might be innocent of any crime.  

and place the grain offering of memorial [k]in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse.
The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be [l]immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse;  if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you”  (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people by the Lord’s making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell; and this water that brings a curse shall go into your [stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away.” And the woman shall say, “Amen. Amen.”

What does the water actually do? Belly can be womb, thigh can be a euphemism for vagina. And what happens? I propose the potion is something created to cause a miscarriage. The point, again, seems that she is suspected of being pregnant. And because her husband has (legitimately or not) disowned the fetus, she is brought to the Temple for a paternity test, which, should she fail, becomes a forced abortion.

If we say that the priests and rabbis knew that the Trial was nonsense, and that they knew the potion would always cause a miscarriage, something more ominous is happening. Instead of an honest test, this is a religiously sanctioned way for a man to kill off a fetus, growing inside his wife, if he suspects that fetus belongs to someone else.

‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall [p]wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24 Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness.

Go into her is וּבָאוּ בָהּ, which is the common biblical euphemism for sex.

The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar; 26 and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. 27 When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will [s]waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

But no death penalty. Though the Rabbis reasoned that she dies later, this is not said. 

But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be exempted and bear seed =[וְנִקְּתָה וְנִזְרְעָה זָרַע]

Two possible meanings here: The Rabbis say that she conceives afterwards with her husband. They read וְנִזְרְעָה זָרַע as "she will be sown with seed" by her husband later. It may also mean that she remains sown with the seeds already planted in her. If we say that she was brought to the Temple because her husband believed she was pregnant, the Trial of Ordeal is not meant to prove the woman's loyalty but the paternity of the fetus. If it belongs to someone else, a miscarriage is magically produced. But if the pregnancy is legitimate, the Ordeal exempts the woman and allows her to  remains sown with [her husband's] seed.

29 ‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself, 30 or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. 31 Moreover, the man will be free from [u]guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’”

Such a nasty rule: If the woman is guilty of straying she "bears her guilt" But if she is proven innocent what happens to her husband for publicly shaming her? Nothing. Subjecting his wife to the cruelty of the ordeal is his prerogative. 

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