Romans 7:3
3
So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
Read Romans 7:3 Using Other Translations
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.
What does Romans 7:3 mean?
John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
Romans 7:3
So then if while her husband liveth
True indeed it is, that whilst her husband is alive, if
she be married to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress;
she will be noted and accounted of as such everybody, except in
the above mentioned cases:
but if her husband be dead;
then there can be no exception to her marriage:
she is free from the law;
of marriage, by which she was before bound:
so that she is no adulteress;
nor will any reckon her such; she is clear from any such
imputation:
though she be married to another man;
hence it appears that second marriages are lawful.
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(New International Version Bible Online)
