StrongerBible

moicheuō

μοιχεύω

GreekG3431“commit adultery”

Appears 15 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:27Mat 5:28Mat 5:32Mat 19:18Mrk 10:19Luk 16:18 (2×)Luk 18:20Jhn 8:4Rom 2:22 (2×)Rom 13:9Jas 2:11 (2×)Rev 2:22
Root family
Word studymoy-KHYOO-ohverb

What moicheuō means

to commit adultery: to break a marriage by sexual unfaithfulness to one's spouse.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

The word names one specific act: breaking a marriage by giving to someone else what belongs to one's husband or wife. It is narrower than the general word for sexual immorality (πορνεύω), which covers illicit sex of any kind. Adultery is the betrayal of a marriage in particular, and it stands as the seventh of the Ten Commandments, cited again and again in the New Testament as shorthand for covenant-breaking.

Jesus stretches the word in two directions without changing what it means. He moves it inward, so that a lustful look has "already" committed adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28), and he applies it to divorce and remarriage, calling the new union adultery against the first (Luke 16:18). In both cases the act is still adultery; Jesus simply refuses to let it stay on the surface of outward behavior.

Scripture also turns the word toward God. In Revelation 2:22 those who follow the false prophet "Jezebel" are said to commit adultery with her, echoing the Old Testament prophets who pictured Israel's idolatry as a betrayed marriage. The nearest Hebrew word (נָאַף) lives the same double life, naming both a broken marriage and a people unfaithful to their God.

Nuances

1athe literal act: sexual unfaithfulness that violates a marriage, and the commandment against it.
Mat 5:27Mat 19:18Mrk 10:19Luk 18:20Jhn 8:4Rom 2:22 (2×)Rom 13:9Jas 2:11 (2×)
1badultery of the heart: lustful intent that Jesus counts as the act itself.
Mat 5:28
1cadultery through divorce and remarriage: remarrying after divorce, or marrying a divorced person, treated as adultery against the first marriage.
Mat 5:32Luk 16:18 (2×)
1dfigurative unfaithfulness: betraying God through idolatry or false worship, pictured as a broken marriage.
Rev 2:22

What scholars say about moicheuō

The lexica treat the verb as denoting the specific act of adultery, distinguished from the broader πορνεύω (illicit sexual activity generally) and belonging to a word group that includes the noun μοιχεία, the abstract μοιχαλίς, and the agent noun μοιχός. BDAG and LSJ record both the absolute use (predominant in the Decalogue citations of Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, Romans 13:9, James 2:11) and the transitive use with the accusative of the person in Matthew 5:28. In the Synoptic remarriage sayings the middle deponent μοιχάομαι largely supplies the forms; the boundary between the two verbs is not sharp, and both render the same act. The figurative sense at Revelation 2:22 is a transferred use drawn from the Old Testament prophetic marriage metaphor (Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel), where the Septuagint regularly translates Hebrew נָאַף with this Greek verb. Hauck's TDNT article surveys the Jewish and Greco-Roman background and the Septuagint's role as the bridge for the figurative usage.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed., s.v. μοιχεύωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. μοιχεύωlexicon
  • Friedrich Hauck, "μοιχεύω, μοιχεία, μοιχός, μοιχαλίς," in TDNT 4:729-735dictionary
  • Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed., §88.276lexicon

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of μοιχεύω

aorist active subjunctive 2s

μοιχεύσῃς

Mrk 10:19, Luk 18:20, Jas 2:11

future active indicative 2s

μοιχεύσεις

Mat 5:27, Mat 19:18, Rom 13:9

present active indicative 2s

μοιχεύεις

Rom 2:22, Jas 2:11

present active indicative 3s

μοιχεύει

Luk 16:18, Luk 16:18

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐμοίχευσεν

Mat 5:28

aorist passive infinitive

μοιχευθῆναι

Mat 5:32

present active infinitive

μοιχεύειν

Rom 2:22

present active participle accusative m p

μοιχεύοντας

Rev 2:22

present passive participle nominative f s

μοιχευομένη

Jhn 8:4