Bible Contradiction? How should adulterers be punished?

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.“
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8.  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.
9. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
10. 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.”