phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Taken into adultery

Posted by Smokey Stover on December 01, 2009 at 22:32

In Reply to: Taken into adultery posted by RRC on December 01, 2009 at 16:35:

: : What is the meaning of "to be taken into adultery"? Here's the whole sentence: "It was one of those rainy late afternoons when the toy department of Woolworth's on the Fifth Avenue is full of women who appear to have been taken into adultery and who are now shopping for a present to carry home to their youngest child".

: "taken into adultery" is a reference to the impure woman Jesus saved from being stoned, mostly old paintings titled "Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery".
: John 8:4
: "and said to him, Master, this woman is now taken in adultery." (Wycliffe)
: or
: "They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act." (King James Version)

: I still couldn't tell you exactly what the author meant by using it. Perhaps they seem guilty or desperate while they're shopping?

There's a big difference between "taken in adultery" and "taken into adultery," assuming that he writer is careful enough to know the distinction. I can't imagine that any careful writer would say "taken into adultery," since the phrase is ambiguous. Does it connote white slavery (or any other color)? Seduced? Carried off, as I suppose the Sabine women must have been?
SS

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.