Getting Stoned

I just came across (yet another) instance of a Xian making reference to Yeshu presumably telling a crowd who were about to stone an adulteress: let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.

It's a great line for a novel or a Hollywood blockbuster, but it never happened.

There never were any stonings.

What is lost in your 4th generation translation is that the Hebrew words for removing stones and understanding are very similar. The Oral Law, which we have that you do not, made actual stoning absolutely impossible. What Torah is saying is: clear the stones out of the path of those who sin and those who are confused. If they persist, however, bombard them with knowledge.

I'll tell you another reason that story cannot be true.
Mobs did not carry out sentences of the Courts. The Judges themselves would have had to carry out the sentence.
The Judges were way too old to pick up heavy stones and pelt someone to death.

It is extremely painful to be bombarded with the knowledge of Truth - as you have just learned.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

DoreenDotan@gmail.com