do with sexual desire. In the Septuagint, ἐπιθυμέω is the word used in the commandment to not covet: You shall not covet (ἐπιθυμέω) your neighbor’s wife; you shall not covet your neighbor’s house or his field or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his draft animal or any animal of his or whatever belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17, New English Translation of the Septuagint) οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον σου οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ πλησίον σου οὔτε τὸν ἀγρὸν αὐτοῦ οὔτε τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ οὔτε τὴν παιδίσκην αὐτοῦ οὔτε τοῦ βοὸς αὐτοῦ οὔτε τοῦ ὑποζυγίου αὐτοῦ οὔτε παντὸς κτήνους αὐτοῦ οὔτε ὅσα τῷ πλησίον σού ἐστιν (Exodus 20:17, Septuagint) Matthew 5:27–28 may be a reference to Exodus 20:17, as a reminder that sin does not begin with adultery, but already when a man covets his neighbor's wife. While coveting your neighbor's wife may involve sexual desire, it is unlikely that coveting a neighbor's house or field is sexual in nature. And in most New Testament uses, the word ἐπιθυμέω does not have a clear sexual connotation, e.g. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:17, ESV) And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:15, ESV) I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. (Acts 20:33, ESV) And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. (Luke 15:16, ESV) All of these verses involve strong desire or longing, but not sexual desire. The word translated as woman is gyne, which can mean either woman or wife. Some scholars believe that Jesus is only talking about lusting after another's wife, not the attraction of a man to a woman in general. Nolland notes that sexual desire is not condemned in Matthew or in the contemporary literature, only misdirected desire. According to the laws of the time it was not adultery for a married man to sleep with an unmarried woman. Adultery was interpreted as a form of theft, and the harm came from stealing another man's wife. In Matthew 5:32 some feel Jesus will challenge this view. France states that lust is more