God’s Unfaithful Wife (Ortlund, Jr.): A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery (NSBT Vol. 2) / January 01, 1996

Requires Accordance 11.2 or above.

Also available in the 42-volume NSBT bundle. See list of other NSBT volumes.

The biblical theme of spiritual adultery stands in all its bluntness for a deeply offensive sin—the unfaithfulness of God’s covenant people in departing from Yahweh, their husband, and going after false gods.

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. begins by showing how the Genesis vision of human marriage provides the logic and coherent network of meanings for the story of Israel’s relationship with Yahweh. He traces the specific theme of marital unfaithfulness, first through the historical books of the Old Testament and then through the prophets, particularly Hosea, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Turning to the New Testament he also shows how the sad story of Israel’s adultery is transcended by the vision of ultimate reality in Christ and his church—the Bridegroom and the Bride.

This beautifully written book, a New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, is marked by careful exegesis and deep sensitivity. It is that rare thing—a work of scholarship that calls readers to love God with an ardor that suffuses all of life.

Note: This book was previously published under the title Whoredom.

About the Series:
Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprised by New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

New Studies in Biblical Theology volumes focus on three areas:

• the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relationship to other disciplines
• the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought from a particular biblical writer or text
• the delineation of a biblical theme across the biblical corpus

While volume notes interact with the best of recent research, the text of each work avoids untransliterated Greek and Hebrew or too much specialist jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelicalism, but they also engage a variety of other relevant viewpoints and significant literature.