For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How should adulterers be punished?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:
They should be executed.
“‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” ( Leviticus 20:10)
They should not be punished.
“Now the scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in the act of adultery, and after placing her in the center of the courtyard, 4 they *said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 Now they were saying this to test Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.” (John 8:3-8)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible. See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit Leviticus 20:10 as affirming the claim “Adulterers should be executed” against John 8:3-8 as affirming “Adulterers should not be executed.” Remember the literary form of Leviticus 20:10 is law. That’s important for later.
- Leviticus 20:10 was correctly interpreted by the skeptic as affirming the claim “Adulterers should be executed.” The verse in the end states “the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.“
- It must be kept in mind that every sins is deserving of God. According to Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” See also Romans 5:12 and James 1:15.
- Paying attention to John 8:3-8 the skeptics are wrong to interpret this verse as affirming “Adulterers should not be executed.” The literary form of John 8:3-8 is historical narrative. The literary form of John 8 is not law that in share in the legal sense of Leviticus 20:10 to contradict it.
- What is going on John 8:3-8 is that the religious leaders brought to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. According to verse 6 the religious leaders want to trap Jesus. They did not follow Old Testament due process that would be required to execute a death penalty. Remember 20:10 states “the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” ( Leviticus 20:10). But here we only have the adulteress. The other participant in the sin is strangely missing. Deuteronomy 17:6 also requires two or three witnesses for death penalty offense. The witnesses did not come forth. Furthermore the witnesses are to be the ones who throw the first stones, not Jesus. Deuteronomy 17:7 states “The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall eliminate the evil from your midst.” With these violations of the process to adjudicate a death penalty offense we therefore are not surprised that Jesus would sanction the death penalty offense when the religious leaders gave him this test.
- Furthermore John 8:3-8 shows Jesus has mercy on the adulteress woman. But mercy does not mean that the Holy standard is somehow abrogated. Rather Jesus took the law seriously that He died in the place and substitute of sinners in order to forgive and show mercy to sinners. See 2 Corinthians 5:21. So its not as if Jesus showing mercy to the woman mean somehow the law was being denied. Even if it turns out the woman did not come to trust in Christ, her sins will be judged during Judgment Day. Everyone’s penalty for sins is not a question of if it gets adjudicated but when and by whom. For Christians the penalty is dealt with on the Cross by Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. For nonbelievers the law means sometimes the sins gets dealt with right now in the temporal world of our era; and definitely it will be dealt with on Judgment Day.
- There is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
[…] How should adulterers be punished? […]
Excellent insight. This really nails the core of the issue.
Shalom!
Thanks for your support as always thanks brother!!
Completely agree!
Good job explaining this. Well thought out, and all the “details” and context were considered, and it seems to me, that you gave the proper explanation of the Scripture.
Wow thank you Elder Mike for your input. This coming from an elder who have written books on the word of God makes me more encouraged with your comment!
Wells does not understand God’s mercy; he has no idea the wrath and punishment that will come to him if he does not repent. Ok, so I actually did go to his website to see if he mentions the canonical issues of the woman caught in adultery, and he does have a note. I am surprised he doesn’t talk more about that to be honest, but I guess for him to do so, he would have to do outside research.
Good for you with your Berean work! Honestly he’s very amateurish. I don’t think he can track the discussion of textual critical issues. The few quotes and citations Wells give are also very old and liberal. I think he really is not familiar with any scholarship even those that is closer to his views. I’m praying for him to repent in light of the wrath of God; but last week he added one more contradiction to his list. He’s still attacking even in his old age! Crazy to me….crazy!
Thanks for this thorough rebuttal of Steve/Stephen Wells’ alleged contradiction. By presenting this as a contradiction, Wells displays he has no Biblical knowledge regarding who Jesus was/is and the mission He came into this world to accomplish.
Steve Wells definitely doesn’t know Jesus despite all his alleged study of the Bible. That is a spiritual issue with his blindness. He’s getting older in age and I can’t believe he added another dud to his contradiction list last week. Guy is still warring against God! Scary. Let’s pray for his repentance. How are things with you in your house?
RE: Let’s pray for Well’s repentance.
Yes. Amen.
RE: yesterday
Because it rained so much early-yesterday, I put off mowing the back lawn. I may not mow it this week. Because of the prolonged dry-spell, the grass hasn’t grown much. Yesterday was a lot of puttering and resting. Today my wife and I celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary. We always have dinner at the same restaurant where we had our wedding reception.
How did your Tuesday go?
Thank you for this insight. 🙌
Aww thanks for your encouragement sister!!
Reblogged this on clydeherrin.
Good points in 7 about the violation of process and in 8 about mercy.
Thanks brother I think it does boil down to point 7 and 8. I appreciate you reading this brother Frank!!!
Thanks for entering the fray once again, Pastor Jim. The skeptic has done it again.
You are welcome! I pray God would give me strength and wisdom to tackle these contradictions and unravel it in a way that edify and educate the saints and challenge the nonbelievers. I appreciate the encouragement and support with this ongoing project!! Your comments and that of others help with search algorithm and our site has been on top of google search for specific contradictions with exact phrasing from the skeptic Annotated Bible website. Once more thank you!!
You’re welcome, Pastor Jim. I am so glad to hear that many are coming here to see your answers to these things. My prayer is that it would help believers and unbelievers alike! Love it that you are on top of the search algorithms.
Thank you as well and keep up the good work.
Amen.
And amen Maw Maw! Hope your day is blessed today, and that strength and health and love for Christ abounds this week for you!!
Thank youu and to you also.
There’s not a contradiction since mercy and non-mercy is not applied to the same person at the same time
Exactly! Amen
It matters starting with a right definition of contradiction
Nope. No contradiction here! I knew that a portion of due process hadn’t been observed but not to the extent you’ve shown here, Jim!
Thanks for reading this! That’s encouraging to hear you know ahead of time that John 8 has serious flaws with the way they went about trying to try the woman. How goes your day so far???
Can’t complain. Looks like the house central air is out but The Good Lord in His Providence has given us backups. Hope your day is going well.😊
Good work here, Jim.
Astonishing people actually think this is a contradiction. One would really have to have no understanding of basic theology at all.
Thanks for posting these, though. I am always hopeful someone who is honestly looking at theology will gain some valuable insight from your blog.
Thank you for your words of encouragement! I do think God has been using these posts on the contradictions, there’s a steady stream of search engines hits on these posts from people searching word for word the way the skeptic annotated Bible phrase the question that they think lead to a contradiction from these passages. I pray God would challenge nonbelievers who think they can slander His Word; of course I pray too for salvation for people reading them. Again once more thank you James for your support!
Glad people are directed to your site. Good lesson for believers in the Skeptics Annotated Bible as well, especially believers who still believe in neutrality. The author isn’t someone who just doesn’t get it but someone who is at odds with God.
It’s easy for someone to say they can’t believe in the Bible because it’s “loaded with contradictions” but, truth is, they hate God.
I pray for non-believers continually. God has ordered the steps to salvation for the elect. Could be your blog is a step for a few people.
Keep up the good work, your teaching is always edifying to me.
Great explanation! I have often thought more about Christ’s mercy and grace in this story than the Pharisee’s own ignorance of the Law that they were following. You really hit this one out of the park, as you usually do!
Wow thanks brother J for reading this and your kind encouragement!
Jim, I appreciate this discussion because of the contrast between the law of the Old Testament and what happened on the Cross. Sin is still sin in God’s eyes, but Jesus bears all sin to Calvary.
Thanks for reading this. So glad God deal with our sins through Christ on the Cross!
Excellent post! As ever! Thanks for sharing
Aww thanks Andy for reading this!
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