Your pastor will tell you that this was not a second marriage and that the words of Jesus don't mean what He says,
"And if she divorce her Husband and marry another she commits adultery." Mark 10:12
Jewish converts wanted to keep Moses’ law, and belong to Christ at the same time. Paul used the analogy of A MARRIED WOMAN WITH TWO HUSBANDS. They that know Christ's law (of the husband vs.2-3), understood that to have two husbands is ADULTERY!
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1. In the Greek she is simply called a MARRIED WOMAN (gune) with 2 men (aner): A living Aner who she is bound to, and another ANER, whose she becomes or belongs to. Since she has two ANER (men/husbands), she is an adulteress. The translation of ANER must be consistent, either man or husband, since in the Greek the same word ANER is used for both men.
Romans 7:3
So then if, while her husband (aner) liveth, she be married (genetai) to another man (aner), she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband (aner) be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man (aner). (KJV)
2. Should “genetai aner” be translated to mean married or an affair with the 2nd man?
When genetai γίνεσθαι is used together with man (ANER ἀνδρί) it means married.
Genetai γίνεσθαι with Cases; Thayer's Greek Lexicon
(a.)with the genitive TO BECOME the PROPERTY OF ANYONE,
(b.)γίνεσθαι ἀνδρί TO BECOME A MAN'S WIFE, ROMANS 7:3f (לְאִישׁ הָיָה, Lev.22:12; Ruth 1:12, etc.).
Lev. 22:12 If the priest's daughter also BE (married was added by translators) UNTO a STRANGER
Ruth 1:12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to HAVE an husband (A MAN)
How does the NIV mistranslate "to become a man’s wife"?
NIV 2011, Romans 7:3, “So then, if she has "sexual relations" with another manwhile her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.."
3. The verb tense BE MARRIED is NOT FUTURE tense, but AORIST COMPLETED - past tense.
ROMANS 7:3 (KJV) The UNDERLYING GREEK "So then if, while her husband (ANER) liveth, she be (GENETAI) married to another man (ANER), she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband (ANER) be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be (GENETAI) married (AORIST COMPLETED past TENSE) to another man (ANER).
WHICH TRANSLATION IS RIGHT? THE GREEK IS IN THE AORIST completed TENSE, PASSIVE, The KJV, Websters, ASV, RSV, Young's Literal, are right. But the NIV, ESV, NLT, etc. twist the meaning to mean that she had an affair and her remarriage occurs AFTER the death of the first husband.
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 [FUTURE TENSE,WRONG!] 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 [FUTURE TENSE, WRONG!] another man she is not an adulteress.
KJV ... though she be married PAST TENSE, RIGHT! to another man.
Paul's illustration breaks down in the New Versions: If she has an affair with another man, and her husband dies, then she is a fornicator. Is this what Paul meant?
No. We don't cease being an adulteress, to become a fornicator. We are His purchased wife, the pure bride of Christ.
Footnotes: It will become more difficult to support the permanency of marriage as these false "dynamic equivalency" i.e. paraphrases become more popular and the older translation is forgotten.
It looks like they have twisted it to mean that if she is in a relationship with another man while her husband is alive she is an adulteress, but once her husband dies, if she is still in the same relationship she is no longer an adulteress and is free to marry her adultery partner (no repentance or forsaking implied), which is wicked. This is not what Paul meant.
