As two scholars on the role of women in the ancient world, Mitchell Carroll and the Reverend Alfred Brittain, have noted, that betrothal and those espousals are “as sacred as…marriage…. The woman was not allowed to withdraw from the contract, and the man could not fail to fulfill his promise unless he gave her a formal bill of divorcement for cause, as in the case of marriage; the laws relating to adultery were also applicable.”13 If that is true, the whole of Christianity may be predicated on Mary’s adultery.
