01-20-2009, 01:00 AM
Spyridon Wrote:I've been reading the books of Moses, and there are a great deal of sins that call for stoning a person to death. Being Torah observant, is there any sin in modern times that calls for capital punishment? And what do non-Messianic Jews believe regarding stoning, since they claim to be the only true Torah-observant Jews?
Jewish law has such strict requirements of witnesses that it was virtually impossible to enact the death penalty.
There had to be two male witnesses who warned the perpetrator ahead of time that the act warranted the death
penalty, he had to agree he understood this and that he was going to commit the offense anyway, and the
two witnesses must observe the crime being committed. The perpetrator's own testimony or confession was
not allowable.
On top of that, only the Sanhedrin could enact the death penalty after the trial. Since we have no Sanhedrin, there
is no way currently to enact the death penalty, no matter what the sin.