FORNICATION (Heb. r11:40. taz-nooth' ; Gr. ropvcia, por-neah).
In Scripture this word occurs more frequently in its symbolical than in its ordinary sense.
FiguratiVe. (t) In the Prophets woman is often made the symbol of the church or nation of the Jews, which is regarded as affianced to Je hovah by the covenant on Mount Sinai. In Ezek. xvi there is a long description of that people un der the symbol of a female child, growing up to the stature of a woman, and then wedded to Je hovah by entering into covenant with him. There fore when the Israelites acted contrary to that covenant, by forsaking God and following idols, they were very properly represented by the sym bol of a harlot or adulteress, offering herself to all comers (Is. i:2; Jer. ii :2o; Ezek. xvi; Hos. 1:2; iii:I). And thus fornication, or adultery (which is fornication in a married state), became, and is used as the symbol of idolatry itself (Jer. iii:8, 9; Ezek. xvi:26, 29; xxiii:37). (2) Anti represented on Egyptian monuments, though dating back to a period of fifteen centuries before the Christian era, bear evidence of an advanced state of fortifications—of walls built of squared stones, or of squared timber judiciously placed on the summit of scarped rocks, or within the cir cumference of one or two wet ditches, and fur nished on the summit with regular battlements to protect the defenders.
(2) More Ancient System. All these are of later invention than the accumulation of unhewn or rudely chipped, uncemented stones, piled on each other in the form of walls, in the so-called Cyclopean, Pelasgian, Etruscan and Celtic styles, where there are no ditches, or towers, or other gateways than mere openings occasionally left be tween the enormous blocks employed in the work. As the first three styles occur in Etruria, they show the progressive advance of military archi christ is called the great whore and mother of har lots and abominations, because of its noted apos tasy and idolatry, and decoying others into it ; and such apostasy is called fornication, whoredom, or adultery (Rev. xvii, and xix :2). (3) Tyre sang as a harlot when by fair speeches the Tyrians en ticed the nations to renew their trade with them (Is. xxiii:15).