10-20-2014, 03:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-20-2014, 03:18 PM by Director Michael.)
As far as the condition of marriage is concerned, and the woman's liability for adultery, it is all the same by any of those means, as long as the couple are permitted to each other within the Noahide Code and they have a domestic-partnership relationship that is recognized as such by the society around them.
However, that only applies for partners who are not forbidden to have relations with each other within the Noahide Code. Even if forbidden partners are living together and have been certified by their ruling government to be "married" within the laws of the society, they can never be considered married within Torah (G-d's) Law. An obvious example would be same-sex partners. Likewise, if the government accepted a full brother and sister as being "married" to each other, the woman would not be guilty for adultery if she had relations with another man, because she never enters into a state of marriage with her brother-partner.
However, that only applies for partners who are not forbidden to have relations with each other within the Noahide Code. Even if forbidden partners are living together and have been certified by their ruling government to be "married" within the laws of the society, they can never be considered married within Torah (G-d's) Law. An obvious example would be same-sex partners. Likewise, if the government accepted a full brother and sister as being "married" to each other, the woman would not be guilty for adultery if she had relations with another man, because she never enters into a state of marriage with her brother-partner.