Lugubert

John or not, there are aspects that puzzle me. What had the girl of John 8:3 done? Was she a 13 year old girl who had been caught kissing another guy than him to whom her parents had sold (sorry!) given her? Or what was her "sin"?

This is a question that is rather dear to me. After hearing my NT teacher (Religious studies 101, I think you'd call it) explain that she probably was no more than 12 or 13, because she otherwise would have been married, deserving strangling, not stoning, for adultery, I at long last started reading the Bible and interpreting the texts on my own. You'll have no problems in understanding my conclusions.

yummyfur

I'm not sure that the person who wrote the story was all that up on the intricacies of Jewish law, or when that Jewish law was actually implemented. Second, what is the source for strangulation being the punishment for married adulterous women? Often a person's dead body was hanged after they were executed by stoning, could this be what you are refering to? If so, then we don't really know if the women in the story was intended by the writer to be married or not.

Peter Kirby

This article argues that "the woman is a re-married divorcee, at fault not with the Mosaic Law, but with the teaching of Jesus on divorce."

best wishes,
Peter Kirby

Amaleq13

How strong of an argument from silence would you consider Paul's failure to mention this story to be?

Amaleq13

anders,

I'm going to add "- what crime?" to your thread title to help differentiate it from the other two Pericope de Adultera threads.

-Amaleq13, BC&H moderator

Peter Kirby

My feeling is that there is a 2%-5% chance that Paul would have mentioned this story if he were aware of it: P( MentionStory | KnewStory ). I believe one could use Bayes' Theorem, then, to guage the argument from silence here.

But who said anything about historicity??

best wishes,
Peter Kirby

Amaleq13

Nobody, but my first thought upon reading "the teaching of Jesus on divorce" was that divorce is one of the few things Paul is alleged to have referred to as a teaching from Jesus.

Was divorce a hot topic in 1st century Judaism?

Rick Sumner

As well as the New Testament, we find Jesus' position echoed in the DSS (11QTemple and CD), and debated in the Mishnah.

Regards,
Rick Sumner

Amaleq13

Sounds like the answer is "yes" but not just in the 1st century, correct?

Toto

One divorce in particular - Herod divorced the daugher of King Aretas to marry the wife of his living brother. John the Baptist lost his head after he criticized this violation of the law.