God prescribed stoning for adultery, blasphemy, and homosexuality

The Torah contains a detailed legal code governing ancient Israelite society, and within it are numerous offenses punishable by death—with stoning as the prescribed method for many, including adultery, blasphemy, and male homosexual acts.¹ These were not peripheral regulations but central commands attributed directly to God as part of the covenant at Mount Sinai.² Their presence in Scripture raises a fundamental question: do these capital laws reflect timeless divine principles or the values of a specific historical and cultural context?

Adultery

The seventh commandment states simply, "You shall not commit adultery."³ The penalty for violating it is specified elsewhere in the legal code.

Leviticus 20:10 prescribes the death penalty for both parties in an adulterous relationship:

"If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." Leviticus 20:10 (English Standard Version)⁴

The Hebrew "mot yumat" (מוֹת יוּמָת), translated "shall surely be put to death," is an emphatic construction using both the infinitive absolute and imperfect forms of "to die"—underscoring the certainty of the penalty.⁵ Deuteronomy 22:22 repeats the law in nearly identical language.⁶

While Leviticus 20:10 does not specify the method of execution, Deuteronomy 22:23-24 details a specific case involving a betrothed virgin and prescribes stoning:

"If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife." Deuteronomy 22:23-24 (English Standard Version)⁷

Several features stand out. Betrothal was treated as legally binding as marriage itself, making sex with a betrothed woman tantamount to adultery.⁸ Execution was public, carried out "at the gate of that city" as both communal act and deterrent.⁹ Both parties received the death penalty, reflecting equal culpability for consensual adultery.¹⁰

The law did distinguish between consensual adultery and rape. Deuteronomy 22:25-27 specifies that if the encounter occurred in a field where the woman's cries would not be heard, only the man was executed; the woman was considered an innocent victim.¹¹ The presumption was that in the city, failure to cry out indicated consent, while in the countryside the woman had no recourse.¹²

The method of execution was stoning—the community throwing stones at the condemned until death.¹³ Deuteronomy 17:7 establishes the procedure: "The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people."¹⁴ Witnesses threw the first stones, followed by the broader community—deterring false testimony by making accusers directly responsible for the consequences.¹⁵

Blasphemy

Blasphemy—speaking against or cursing God—was another capital offense. The clearest statement appears in Leviticus 24:

"Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death." Leviticus 24:16 (English Standard Version)¹⁶

This law emerges from a narrative. In Leviticus 24:10-23, a man of mixed Egyptian-Israelite parentage "blasphemed the Name" during a fight.¹⁷ The Israelites imprisoned him while Moses consulted God. The response: "Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him."¹⁸

The laying of hands on the blasphemer's head had symbolic weight. Some interpreters understand it as transferring guilt back onto the offender, removing its taint from the community.¹⁹ Others see it as solemn testimony that the witnesses heard the blasphemous words and accept responsibility for the execution.²⁰ Either way, the ritual underscores the gravity: blasphemy was not merely a social crime but a direct affront to God that defiled the entire community.²¹

The law applied equally to Israelites and resident foreigners ("the sojourner as well as the native").¹⁶ The rationale was theocratic: YHWH was not merely Israel's deity but their king, and blasphemy was tantamount to treason.²²

The New Testament records blasphemy charges playing a central role in the trial of Jesus. When he answered the high priest's question "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" by saying "I am," the high priest tore his garments: "You have heard his blasphemy." The council condemned him as deserving death.²³

Homosexuality

The Levitical Holiness Code contains two prohibitions against male homosexual acts. Leviticus 18:22 states: "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination."²⁴ Leviticus 20:13 repeats the prohibition and specifies the penalty:

"If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Leviticus 20:13 (English Standard Version)²⁵

The Hebrew "to'evah" (תּוֹעֵבָה), translated "abomination," appears frequently in Leviticus for practices considered ritually or morally repugnant, often involving purity laws or foreign religious practices.²⁶ The term also covers idolatry, child sacrifice, and eating unclean animals—practices fundamentally incompatible with Israelite identity.²⁷

Like the adultery law, this prohibition uses the emphatic "mot yumat" construction. The phrase "their blood is upon them" is a legal formula indicating the executed bear responsibility for their own deaths.²⁸ The same phrase appears in Leviticus 20:9, which prescribes death for cursing one's parents.^{29, 30}

Scholars debate the scope of these laws. Some argue the prohibitions target specific practices like cultic prostitution or pederasty rather than all same-sex relationships.³¹ The text itself, however, makes no such distinctions—the language is broad and unqualified.³² Others note that these laws sit within the Holiness Code alongside ritual purity regulations most modern readers (including most Christians) do not observe, such as prohibitions on mixed fabrics or trimming one's beard.³³

What the text says is clear: Leviticus 20:13 prescribes death for male homosexual acts. While it does not specify stoning, stoning was the standard method for capital sentences under Mosaic Law.¹³ Deuteronomy 17:5-7 establishes stoning as the general procedure for capital cases, and specific cases in the law consistently use this method.¹⁴

Other capital offenses

Adultery, blasphemy, and homosexual acts were far from the only capital offenses. The Torah prescribed death for numerous violations, many by stoning.

Capital offenses requiring stoning in the Torah^{1, 34}

Some of these strike modern readers as shockingly severe. Numbers 15:32-36 records a man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. God commanded Moses: "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."³⁵ The narrative concludes: "And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses."³⁶

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 mandates that parents with "a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey" should bring him to the elders. The outcome: "Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones."³⁷ Rabbinic tradition later interpreted this law so narrowly it could rarely if ever be applied, but the plain text prescribes execution for persistent disobedience to parents.³⁸

Historical practice

How often were these laws actually enforced? The Hebrew Bible contains surprisingly few narratives of judicial stoning, particularly for adultery or homosexuality.³⁹ The most detailed case concerns Achan, who violated the ban on taking plunder from Jericho; he and his entire family were stoned to death in the Valley of Achor.⁴⁰

Both the Sabbath-breaker in Numbers 15 and the blasphemer in Leviticus 24 required special divine consultation, suggesting that even during the wilderness period the death penalty was not automatic.^{35, 17}

By the Second Temple period, rabbinic tradition had developed procedural requirements that made capital convictions nearly impossible. The Mishnah required two eyewitnesses, advance warning to the perpetrator, acknowledgment of that warning, and commission of the offense in the witnesses' sight.⁴¹ A Sanhedrin that executed one person in seven years was called "destructive"; Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah said one in seventy years deserved the label.⁴²

These later restrictions should not be read back into the biblical period, however. King Josiah's reform included executing the priests of the high places (2 Kings 23).⁴³ Elijah executed 450 prophets of Baal after the contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:40).⁴⁴ These may reflect royal or prophetic authority rather than normal judicial procedure, but they show that capital punishment for religious violations was practiced, not merely theoretical.

The New Testament context

The famous pericope of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) records one attempted stoning.⁴⁵ Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus: "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"⁴⁶ Jesus' response—"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her"—dispersed the accusers.⁴⁷

This passage does not appear in the earliest manuscripts of John and was likely not original to the text, but it reflects some memory of how the law functioned in first-century practice.⁴⁸ Religious leaders invoked Mosaic Law to justify stoning; Jesus challenged and abandoned it.

The first Christian martyr, Stephen, was stoned for blasphemy. After his speech before the Sanhedrin, the crowd "rushed together at him" and "cast him out of the city and stoned him."⁴⁹ The execution followed the Leviticus 24 pattern: accusation, removal from the city, communal stoning.⁵⁰

Theological questions

If God prescribed death by stoning for adultery, blasphemy, homosexual acts, Sabbath-breaking, and rebellion against parents, what does that reveal about God's character?

Traditional Christian theology distinguishes "civil" and "ceremonial" laws from the "moral law" that remains binding. Dietary restrictions were specific to Israel's theocracy; moral prohibitions (the Ten Commandments) remain universally valid.⁵¹ But this framework struggles with capital laws. If the prohibition of adultery is universal, what about the penalty? If stoning for adultery was just when God commanded it, why would it become unjust later?

Some theologians argue the specific punishments were culturally conditioned applications of universal principles. God accommodated the law to ancient Near Eastern norms, where capital punishment for severe offenses was standard.⁵² The moral principles (sexual fidelity, honoring God) are permanent; the penalties were adapted to their setting and need not be replicated today.

This raises a follow-up: if the penalties reflect human cultural standards rather than God's perfect justice, how do we determine which parts of the law reflect God's character and which merely reflect ancient culture?

Other interpreters take the laws at face value. These penalties were appropriate for a nation in direct covenant with God, where violations were not merely civil crimes but threats to the community's standing before God.⁵³ The severity demonstrated the seriousness of sin and maintained communal holiness.

But this position must grapple with its implications. Does executing a man for gathering firewood on the wrong day reflect perfect justice? Does stoning sexually active gay men reflect the righteous judgment of a perfectly good God? If these punishments were just when God commanded them, why do most modern readers—including most Christians and Jews—find them morally abhorrent?

Ancient Near Eastern context

The Mosaic codes did not emerge in a vacuum. Comparing them with other ancient law codes reveals what was distinctive about Israelite law.

The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE) prescribed death for adultery by drowning: "If the wife of a man has been caught lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the water."⁵⁴ But the husband could pardon his wife, and the king could then pardon the adulterer.⁵⁵ The Middle Assyrian Laws (c. 1076 BCE) gave the husband full discretion: he could execute, mutilate, or pardon his adulterous wife.⁵⁶

Compared to these codes, Mosaic Law was both more egalitarian and more severe. More egalitarian because both the man and woman received the same penalty, rather than treating the woman as the husband's property.⁵⁷ More severe because it allowed no option for pardon or monetary compensation—the penalty was death, non-negotiable.⁵⁸

Capital punishment for blasphemy appears more distinctive to Israelite law. Other ancient cultures punished offenses against the gods, but systematic execution for verbal offenses against deity is not widely paralleled in surviving Near Eastern codes.⁵⁹ This likely reflects Israel's strict monotheism and the understanding of YHWH as divine king whose honor was the foundation of the covenant community.⁶⁰

Modern application and moral evaluation

No mainstream Jewish or Christian denomination today advocates implementing these capital laws. Orthodox Judaism does not carry out biblical capital punishment—the Sanhedrin no longer exists and the procedural requirements make conviction nearly impossible.⁶¹ Christianity broadly teaches that Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law and its civil penalties no longer apply, though denominations differ on which moral prohibitions remain binding.⁶²

Some theocratic movements have advocated for biblical law, however. Christian Reconstructionism, associated with theologian R.J. Rushdoony, argued for implementing Old Testament civil law including capital punishment for adultery, homosexuality, and blasphemy.⁶³ This remains a fringe position, but it represents a logically consistent application of the claim that biblical law reflects God's unchanging moral standards.

Several nations with Islamic legal systems still prescribe capital punishment for adultery, and a small number apply death penalties for blasphemy or homosexuality.⁶⁴ These modern applications demonstrate that the question is not purely academic—it has real consequences for how religious texts shape law.

For those who do not accept biblical law as binding, the capital laws raise questions about the moral character of biblical religion. A God who commands stoning for consensual sexual acts, Sabbath-breaking, or irreverent speech is difficult to reconcile with modern moral intuitions about justice and proportionality. Defenders must argue either that these commands were never meant to reflect ideal justice, that our moral intuitions are wrong, or that the commands should be understood differently than they read on the surface.

What the text says

Whatever one's theological interpretation, the text is clear. Leviticus 20:10: both parties in adultery "shall surely be put to death."⁴ Leviticus 24:16: the blasphemer "shall surely be put to death" and "all the congregation shall stone him."¹⁶ Leviticus 20:13: if a man lies with a male as with a woman, "they shall surely be put to death."²⁵

These are not obscure regulations. They are explicit commands in major legal sections of the Torah, presented as divine instructions given to Moses at Sinai. When specified, execution was by stoning—a communal act requiring witnesses to throw the first stones, followed by the broader community.¹⁴

Readers must decide how to understand these texts. They can accept them as reflecting God's justice in a specific historical context. They can view them as human constructions reflecting ancient values. They can argue the principles remain valid while the penalties were culturally conditioned. Or they can accept them as permanent moral standards that modern society has rejected.

What they cannot credibly claim is that these laws are absent from the text or ambiguous in meaning. The God of the Hebrew Bible, as presented in the Torah, prescribed death by stoning for adultery, blasphemy, and male homosexual acts. Whether that God is worthy of worship, and whether these laws should inform contemporary morality, are questions each person must answer.