If Mosaic Law was still in effect would you have been executed under it in its moral and civil aspects (not its ceremonial aspects such as working on the Sabbath)?
* Murder
* Adultery
* Bestiality[13]
* Rape [14]
* Homosexual sex[15]
* A betrothed woman who does not cry out while being raped[17]
* A woman who is found not to have been a virgin on the night of her wedding[18]
* Worshiping other gods[19][20]
* Witchcraft (Exodus 22:18)
* Taking God's name in vain or cursing God's name[21]
* Cursing a parent[22][23][24]
* Kidnapping[25]
I considered that but I ultimately voted no. I don’t curse god that often and if I knew it was a killable offense I wouldn’t do it. It’s not that important. I’m clear on the rest of the list.
If I were a Bronze Age sheep herder, I’d be so different a person that it’s hard to say, so I’m going to pretend you actually asked “If you were magically taken back to the mythical time of Moses, possessing your current personality and values, would you have ended up getting executed under that barbaric code?”
Answer: I should hope that I’d have the balls to protest and try to intervene when someone was about to be executed for one of the more ridiculous reasons above (that is, any of the reasons other than committing murder and committing rape). If I lost and were about to be executed in consequence, I think I’d scream out, “Fuck you guys and your imaginary, sadistic God.”
Atheism doesn’t count as worshipping other gods, but would it be interpreted that way back in the day? If so, that’d do me. If not - eh, cursing God’s name and cursing my parents would do for me.
I’m completely certain Bronze age monotheistic herding culture would interpret my cultural practices as the above. My only hope for survival would be to convince them that I was only traveling enroute to neighboring kingdom that they had friendly relations with, a Hittite perhaps.
For the record banging temple prostitutes counted as “worshipping other gods,” so anyone who think they might partake of those services (and apparently, it was a chronic vice among Hebrew men, even when it was ostensibly forbidden) would have something else to add to the list.
Only for women, really, or for banging somebody else’s wife. Adultery for men was basically a property crime - porking somebody else’s property. They were allowed to bang their own property (i.e. their servants/slaves/concubines).
Dio, it’s my thought here that adultery would be a crime for a married man only if he were boinking another man’s property: that is, if he were making the two-backed-beast with some fatherless, unmarried woman, he’d be free and clear. I don’t have my Bible close at hand, but perhaps you recall better. Am I correct?
Slightly off-topic, but there’s something I’ve always wondered. Is it called the Mosaic law because it’s made up of a smaller amount of laws placed painstakingly together that eventually form a comprehensive whole? As in, any law examined singularly is not a Mosaic law, only all of the laws together are?
