25. But, then, what are our [Jewish] laws about marriage? That law
owns of a man with his wife, and that this be used only for the
procreation of children. But it abhors the mixture of a male with a
male;
and if any one do that, death is its punishment. It commands us
also, when we marry, not to have regard to portion, nor to take
a woman by violence, nor to persuade her deceitfully and knavishly;
but to demand her in marriage of him who hath power to dispose
of her, and is fit to give her away by the nearness of his kindred;
for, says the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her husband
in all things." Let her, therefore, be obedient to him;
not so that he should abuse her, but that she may acknowledge
her duty to her husband; for God hath given the authority to the
husband. A husband, therefore, is to lie only with his wife whom
he hath married; but to have to do with another man's wife is
a wicked thing, which, if any one ventures upon, death is inevitably
his punishment: no more can he avoid the same who forces a virgin
betrothed to another man, or entices another man's wife. The law,
moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids
women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it
afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will
be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and
diminishing human kind; if any one, therefore, proceeds to such
fornication or murder, he cannot be clean. Moreover, the law enjoins,
that after the man and wife have lain together in a regular way,
they shall bathe themselves; for there is a defilement contracted
thereby, both in soul and body, as if they had gone into another
country; for indeed the soul, by being united to the body, is
subject to miseries, and is not freed therefrom again but by death;
on which account the law requires this purification to be entirely
performed.