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@keithprosser
There are other punishments -- there are penalties and there is exile. I have to find the source for lashes but I suspect it is also biblical. Capital punishment was only one eventuality.
Ask me anything: Judaism
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@rosends
This page looks like a good suumary of biblical punishments.
Fines and 'scourging' were indeed applied for some minor offences, but the death penalty applied much more commonly than seems reasonable to us today! It was a very different world.
The story of the man stoned for picking upsticks on the sabbath is - IMO - not a historical event but serves to illustrate the importance of observing the sabbath, as a symbol of observing the rules of the YHWHist religion generally. The priests could use the story as the precedent for harsh treatment of any Hewbrew or Jew who deviated from what was laid down. Thus the priests could maintain control and discipline over the exiles, hence ensuring that Jewish identity (or rather the yhwhists' prefered version of jewish identity) was preserved.
Rather like Islam today, there was no distnction made between national/ethnic identity and religious identity; in other words no distinction between treason and blasphemy. Ergo, a sabbath breaker was a traitor, and even in today's world often treason is a capital offence where murder is not.
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@keithprosser
I understand your position but I see it as coming from a view of the text in one particular light. Judaism understands the biblical text ad the complex legal system which it establishes to be much more than the isolated anecdotes. The particular incident with the stick gatherer is discussed within Judaism and understood by some to be much more than it appears
Shalom.
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@disgusted
"The word you are conflating with socialism is fascism and your country is marching inexorably down that path."
No, I think he means Communism as hijacked by Stalin. Fascism was certainly evil too, but didn't share in Socialist ideals; Hitler believed in private ownership of property. I one met a person who said that proved he was a Capitalist, as if Capitalism was evil merely by association.