The story of the woman caught in adultery is the sleaziest chapter in the New Testament. Everyone, but Jesus is a sinner, and the adulterous woman is perhaps the least of them
To understand why we need some background.
It was easy for a man to divorce his Wife. One famous rabbi (Hillel) held that a man could divorce his wife if she turned out to be a bad cook. But if he divorced her, he had to return the dowery unless she was convicted of adultery
In Jewish law adultery was a capital crime punishable by the savage death of stoning. The great rabbis were cultured and ethical men and did not want to enforce this. They did not condone adultery, but they recognized that the punishment was greater than the crime. So, they required that there must be two male eyewitnesses to prove anyone’s guilt for the death sentence to be imposed. Furthermore, they defined eyewitness as literally that: both witnesses had to actually see the act. This was taken so seriously that if a whole village saw someone enter a house, come out a few minutes later and a dead body was found in the house immediately after that they could not convict.
Continue reading “5th Sunday of Lent – Homily (Fr. Smith)”
