Deuteronomy 17.2-7

“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

Breaking the first commandment is serious enough to warrant such drastic punishments because, if one will not hold to the first commandment, he cannot be expected to hold to any of the others. And, since the Law of God marks out the path to life, rebellion against that Law destroys social order, upsets established institutions, and sows the seeds of misery and death in every place. This must be avoided, even if it means separating the offending ones from the community.

But notice that even accused offenders have legal protections. Justice requires that evidence be produced and witnesses be heard, and these must all agree before any act of judgment or retribution is pronounced. Notice also that those who stood as witnesses were to participate in carrying out the judgment.

In ancient Israel the death penalty was the only way effectively to purge such an evil from among the people. We must not consider that either the form of the death penalty or the frequency of it, as seen in ancient Israel, should be employed in this age of grace and the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor. 5). At the same time, we must not consider that so severe a penalty has been altogether revoked (Rom. 13:1-4).

This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.