Stoning to Death by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 50.

Stoning to Death

By Editor

No. 445. Stoning to Death.

PLEASE explain John 8:5. Was the penalty of stoning to death placed upon all the other sins in Moses' time, such as picking up sticks on the Sabbath? C. G.

All wrongs were not punished alike under the Theocracy. The books of Moses reveal what crimes were punished with stoning; they were those which were especially demoralizing in their effect upon the people. Worshiping of false gods, open and notorious blasphemy, defiance of God, the obdurate, stubborn, and untractable son, certain forms of fornication, etc. See Lev. 20:2, 27; 24:14, 16, 23; Num. 15:35; Deut. 13:10; 17:5; 21:21; 22:21-24, etc. The case of stoning mentioned in Num. 15:35 was one of notorious and presumptuous defiance, in which God had given no special penalty; and the course pursued on that occasion shows that the case was a special one, in which God specially revealed the penalty. The man did not pick up sticks because he needed a fire, but because he wished to show that God's command amounted to nothing. The question of the Jews was: Moses says, Stone; what do you say? They thought if Jesus should say, Stone her to death, they would accuse him to the Romans of inciting to murder, but if he should say, Let her go, they would accuse him of rejecting the word of the Lord through Moses. The wisdom of Christ baffled all their wicked devices.