Hey thanks. I'm thinking adultery is illustrated in Numbers 25- when Phinehas spears a couple. There might be some kind of sex ritual happening to bring in the power of another deity. But the point is that it's occurring in Yahweh's sacred space. It's not a violation of the woman's marital status. She's Midianite, so her marriage has no status!!

Adultery has to be witnessed to be a crime. So I think the visibility in the temple space is the context there. Later, adultery registers in other ways, like treaties with foreign nations.

I think the Bible tells an evolving story in which the terms dynamically change. I think a big purpose of the Bible is to learn to read in very subtle ways- and maybe then we can learn to 'read' each other. I felt totally misread throughout my life- but I grew up Christian.