List of capital crimes in the Torah
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According to the Torah or the Law of Moses, these are some of the offenses which may merit the death penalty.
Religious practices
[edit]- Sacrificing to gods other than Yahweh.[1]
- Sacrificing offspring to Molech.[2]
- Worshipping Baal Peor.[3]
- A prophet who says to follow gods other than Yahweh.[4]
- A person who follows gods other than Yahweh.[5]
- A false prophet, one whose prophecies do not come to pass.[6]
- Necromancy, according to the Masoretic Text; specifically those who are masters over ghosts (Hebrew: Ba'al ob) and those who gain information from the dead (Hebrew: Yidde'oni).[7] The Septuagint instead condemns gastromancy (Greek: eggastrimuthos), and enchantment (Greek: epaoidos).[8]
- According to the Masoretic Text, practitioners of kashaph[9] – incanting maleficium. According to the Septuagint version of the same passages, pharmakeia[10] – poisoners; drug users for the purposes of hallucinogenic experiences.[citation needed] Historically this passage has been translated into English using vague terminology, condemning witchcraft (or sorcery) in general.[11]
- Blaspheming Yahweh.[12]
- Working on the Sabbath.[13][14][15]
- Being a non-Levite ("common man") and approaching the tabernacle.[16]
Sexual practices
[edit]- Being participant in sexual activity, in which a betrothed woman loses her virginity to another man[17]
- Raping a betrothed woman in the countryside.[18]
- Adultery with a married woman.[19] Both parties are to die.
- A woman falsely representing herself as a virgin before the marriage ceremony, thereby forcing her betrothed to marry her for life and pay her father 100 shekels as required by the Law.[20]
- Marrying one's wife's mother.[21] This was in addition to one's wife; death is by burning.
- Certain forms of incest, namely if it involves the father's wife or a daughter-in-law.[22] Other forms of incest receive lesser punishment; sexual activity with a sister/stepsister is given excommunication for a punishment;[23] if it involves a brother's wife or an uncle's wife it is just cursed[24] and sexual activity with an aunt that is a blood relation is merely criticised.[25]
- Certain sexual activities between males (Hebrew: zakhar) involving what the Masoretic Text literally terms lie lyings (of a) woman (Hebrew: tishkav mishkvei ishah),[26][27][28] and the Septuagint literally terms beds [verb] the woman's/wife's bed (Greek: koimethese koiten gynaikos);[29][30] the gender of the target of the command is commonly understood to be male.[31][32]
- Bestiality.[33][34] Both the human and the animal are to die.
- Prostitution by the daughter of a priest; death is by burning.[35]
Homicide
[edit]- Murder, believed by Jews to apply to non-Jews as well.[36][37][38][39] Sanctuary at the altar was not permitted.
- If an ox has gored in the past and the owner has been warned about the behavior of the ox but has failed to confine it, and it gores and kills another person, the owner is to be put to death. If the interested party requires payment of a fee death is not required. If a slave is killed the owner of the ox is to pay a fine. The ox itself is to be stoned in all cases of lethal goring.[40]
Parental discipline
[edit]- Smiting a parent.[41]
- Cursing a parent.[42][43]
- A son who persists in disobeying his parents.[44][45]
Courts
[edit]- Disobeying the decision of the court.[46]
- False witness to a capital crime.[47]
Kidnapping
[edit]See also
[edit]- 613 commandments
- Capital punishment in Judaism
- Capital punishment
- Christian views on the Old Covenant
- Crime and punishment in the Bible
- Death penalty in the Bible
- Draco (lawgiver)
- Jewish ethics
- Religion and capital punishment
- Sanhedrin
- Seven Laws of Noah
- Twelve Tables
- Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible
References
[edit]- ^ Exodus 22:19
- ^ Leviticus 20:1–5
- ^ Numbers 25:1–9
- ^ Deuteronomy 13:2–10
- ^ Deuteronomy 17:2–7
- ^ Deuteronomy 18:20–22
- ^ Leviticus 20:27
- ^ Leviticus 20:27 (LXX)
- ^ Exodus 22:18
- ^ Exodus 22:17 (LXX); note that verse numbering in the Septuagint doesn't correspond exactly with the Masoretic Text
- ^ Exodus 22:18
- ^ Leviticus 24:10–16
- ^ Exodus 31:14–15
- ^ Exodus 35:2
- ^ Numbers 15:32–36
- ^ Numbers 1:51, Numbers 3:10 and Numbers 3:38
- ^ Deuteronomy 22:23–24
- ^ Deuteronomy 22:25–27
- ^ Leviticus 20:10
- ^ Deuteronomy 22:13–21
- ^ Leviticus 20:14
- ^ Leviticus 20:11–12
- ^ Leviticus 20:17
- ^ Leviticus 20:20–21
- ^ Leviticus 20:19
- ^ Coogan, Michael (October 2010). "4. Thou Shalt Not: Forbidden Sexual Relationships in the Bible". God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says (1st ed.). New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group. pp. 116–117, 140. ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9. OCLC 505927356. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
It is arbitrary to assert on the basis of biblical authority that some of them, such as sex between men, are intrinsically wrong, whereas others, such as wearing clothing made from wool and linen, are not: the biblical writers themselves make no such distinction. Few who argue that homosexuality is wrong – to say nothing about incest, adultery and bestiality – because the Bible says so, would enforce the death penalty for these offences as the Bible also commands.
- ^ Leviticus 20:13
- ^ Leviticus 18:22
- ^ Leviticus 18:22 (LXX)
- ^ Leviticus 20:13 (LXX)
- ^ Leviticus 20:13
- ^ Leviticus 18:22
- ^ Exodus 22:18
- ^ Leviticus 20:15–16
- ^ Leviticus 21:9
- ^ Genesis 9:6
- ^ Exodus 21:12–14
- ^ Leviticus 24:17–23
- ^ Numbers 35:9–34
- ^ Exodus 21:28–32
- ^ Exodus 21:15
- ^ Exodus 21:17
- ^ Leviticus 20:9
- ^ Deuteronomy 21:18–21
- ^ Ehrman, Bart (2009). "Eight. Is faith possible?". Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). HarperCollins e-books. p. 281. ISBN 978-0061173943. OCLC 317877487.
My view is that everyone already picks and chooses what they want to accept in the Bible.6 The most egregious instances of this can be found among people who claim not to be picking and choosing. I have a young friend whose evangelical parents were upset because she wanted to get a tattoo, since the Bible, after all, condemns tattoos. In the same book, Leviticus, the Bible also condemns wearing clothing made of two different kinds of fabric and eating pork. And it indicates that children who disobey their parents are to be stoned to death. Why insist on the biblical teaching about tattoos but not about dress shirts, pork chops, and stoning?
- ^ Deuteronomy 17:8–13
- ^ Deuteronomy 19:15–21
- ^ Exodus 21:16
- ^ Deuteronomy 24:7
