Troublesome Topic: HOW CLOSE DID MARY COME TO GETTING STONED TO DEATH?

If Joseph divorced her and made a formal accusation against her, she would be stoned.

If Joseph divorced her without making a formal accusation against her, she would be stoned.

If Joseph decided to follow through and marry her, then she would not be stoned.

How likely was it that Joseph would decide to marry her? Approximately a 0.1% chance.

Thus, Mary knew that Joseph needed a supernaturally inspired change of mind for her not to be stoned to death. She would not tell God how to go about doing things, but she silently hoped Joseph would also get a visit from an angel.

Mary had no need to worry. God knew that Joseph’s thoughts were in accordance with the Old Testament Law and yet there was something Joseph could not see from his perspective. A change was needed in Joseph’s thinking in order for God’s will to be accomplished.

Hadn’t the Romans withheld from the Jews the power of capital punishment?

The Romans had withheld from the Jews the power of capital punishment. On paper and in formal, very visible matters, the Jews could never exact the death penalty. However, I recall two occasions when the crowds tried to stone Jesus (Jn 8:59 & Jn 10:31, both in Jerusalem, and an additional time in Nazareth when they tried to throw Him over a cliff (Lk 4:29) because that is how a stoning often started. I think that sometimes the people got themselves into an emotional state and just did something without asking permission. Unlike Jerusalem, Galilee was not as carefully watched, and people could get away with more things. Maybe the Romans sometimes considered a Jewish stoning a favor that took another troublemaker off their hands, so the looked the other way. This legal matter made it a little less likely that Mary would be stoned, but it did not protect her completely, the risk was still there.

The next lesson in the topic The Birth of Jesus is DID JOSEPH AND MARY HAVE A WEDDING CEREMONY?

Footnotes

1

I am aware of only four types of improper sexual relations in which the Law did not require that the guilty parties be given the death penalty. 1) If there was a rape in a desolate place where even if the girl screamed, no one could hear her, she was not considered guilty; only the guy was stoned, if they could determine who it was and find him; 2) if a man had sex with a virgin that was not betrothed to any man, and he married her and paid the fine and bride-price as prescribed by the law, and he could never divorce her; 3) if a man who was betrothed to a woman had sex with her before marriage and he agreed to follow through with the marriage, neither one was stoned, but he had to pay the father of the girl whatever the father demanded, which usually meant being riddled by debt for a long time; 4) if the girl was a slave that had not yet been ransomed with a ransom payment, she would not die because the authority that had been violated was that of an owner, not a father or husband.