provided her husband never engaged in forbidden sexual relations in his life. If, however, her husband ever engaged in forbidden relations, the [bitter] waters do not check [the fidelity of] his wife." The rabbinical interpretation of is that when a woman accused of adultery who was innocent drinks the bitter water, even if she was previously unable to conceive, she will now conceive and give birth to a male. Cessation of the ordeal According to Mishnah, the practice was abolished some time during the first century CE under the leadership of Yohanan ben Zakkai. If it had not been abolished then according to Jewish Law the ritual would have ceased with the fall of the Temple (in approximately the year 70 CE), as it should not have been performed elsewhere. Explanations in rabbinical literature vary concerning cessation of the practice. Yohanan Ben Zakkai stated: Rav Hanina of Sura said: Christian references Although the actual ordeal was not practiced in Christianity it was referenced by Christian writers through the ages in relation to both the subject of adultery, and also the wider practice of trial by ordeal. Additionally, some early Christian legends, such as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, embroider the life of Mary, mother of Jesus with accounts including Mary (and even Joseph) undergoing a version of the ordeal. Textual analysis Biblical critics from the 19th and early 20th centuries argued, based on certain textual features in the passage, that it was formed by the combination of two earlier texts. For example, the text appears to suggest first that the offering should occur before the ordeal (), and then that it should occur after it (). Due to the awkwardness of the idea that the wife has to drink the potion twice, textual scholars argue that either the first drinking must be a later addition to the text, or that the whole account of the ordeal must be spliced together from two earlier descriptions. Similarly, noting that there are two descriptions of the location for the ritual (in the presence of a priest () and before Yahweh ()) and two occasions on which the punishment for the woman is mentioned ( and ), the division into two earlier documents, first suggested by Bernhard Stade is typically as follows: one account is the ordeal and sacrifice before God, in which the possible miscarriage/abortion results from drinking the potion; the other is merely