Hat Jesus wirklich die Todesstrafe für die Verfluchung eines Elternteils unterstützt?

⮜ Beantwortete Fragen

Die "harten Sprüche" der Heiligen Schrift sind oft diejenigen, von denen wir am meisten lernen. Sie brechen uns aus unseren kulturellen Vorurteilen heraus. Sie veranlassen uns, die Welt durch ein anderes Wertesystem zu sehen. Da das biblische Gesetz das geschriebene Spiegelbild der Natur JHWHs ist, sind die "harten Sprüche im biblischen Gesetz" diejenigen, die uns am meisten darüber lehren können, was er schätzt. Es ist das Wertesystem von JHWH, das wir verinnerlichen müssen, indem wir alles, was in unserem eigenen Wertesystem im Konflikt steht, über Bord werfen.

Wir beginnen mit Matthäus 15, wo die Schriftgelehrten (die die "Gesetzeskundigen" des ersten Jahrhunderts waren) von Jerusalem nach Gennesaret (eine Region in der Nähe von Galiläa) gereist waren. Dies zeigt, wie bedeutsam sie Jesus behandelten. Kein Schriftgelehrter wird Jerusalem verlassen, um den durchschnittlichen Straßenprediger zu pingelig zu machen. Das wäre so, wie wenn ein New Yorker Professor für Verfassungsrecht in die Second Baptist Church of Smalltown in den USA reisen würde, weil sie ihn etwas "Subversives" sagen hörten. Die Schriftgelehrten betrachteten Jesus offensichtlich als eine Bedrohung.

Natürlich waren Jesus und seine Jünger sich ihrer bewusst (Anwälte aus der Großstadt schleichen nicht an einem Ort wie Gennesaret herum). Wie üblich tat Jesus Dinge, die absichtlich eine Konfrontation mit den religiösen Führern provozieren würden. Früher war es am Sabbat(!) das Korn pflücken (Mt 12,2) und die Heilung (Mt 12,13). Jetzt widersetzten sich diese Unruhestifter der "Tradition der Ältesten":

2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread.” Matthew 15:2WEB

Natürlich gibt es kein biblisches Gesetz, das von einer Person verlangt, sich vor dem Essen die Hände zu waschen. Dies war eine Regel, die von den Pharisäern aufgestellt wurde, und Jesus erlaubte seinen Jüngern absichtlich, sie zu brechen. Jesus antwortete:

3 He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ Matthew 15:3-4WEB

Notice how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees using Biblical law. He quoted two commands from the Hebrew Scriptures: the Fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12) and another commandment from the law which mandates the civil death penalty for breaking the fifth commandment in a particularly heinous way (cursing one's father or mother, Leviticus 20:9).

Who's the hypocrite?

Let's just bracket out what Jesus says next about "Corban." You can read about this in any commentary and get a good explanation. Basically, Jesus is pointing out a tradition which the Pharisees teach, that allows people to dishonor their parents. Next, Jesus says:

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, Matthew 15:7WEB

Jesus had already, multiple times, referred to the Pharisees as "hypocrites": Matt. 6:2, 6:5, 6:16. Remember what Jesus had already proclaimed publicly:

17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 5:17-19WEB

In the current exchange with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus had just quoted from God's commandments (including the death penalty commandment) in order to show that they were "making void" God's command by their tradition.

So here's the question:

If Jesus actually came to abolish the death penalty for cursing one's parents, wouldn't Jesus be the real hypocrite, and not the Pharisees?

A sermon which you will (probably) never hear

You may never in your lifetime hear a sermon on this exchange that Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees, which talks about Jesus supporting this death penalty. You might hear plenty of sermons on Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (from John 8), because that passage is easier for antinomians to pervert. But you cannot treat Matt. 15:3-5 that way, you can only gloss over it.

God gave us the Fifth commandment ("honor your father and mother") to uphold the institution of the family, which is the foundational cultural institution of human civilization. As Paul says, it is the first (though not the last) commandment with a promise: 3 “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:3WEB.

God gave us the Eighth commandment ("thou shalt not commit adultery") to uphold the marriage covenant, which is the covenant that forms the family. It isn't surprising that he also attached a mandatory death penalty to it: Leviticus 20:18.

God gave us the Ninth commandment ("thou shalt not bear false witness") to uphold the integrity of the Biblical justice system, which is founded upon witness testimony. Again, we find a death penalty required for bearing false witness in capital cases: Deut. 19:18-21.

God attaches civil penalties to only a small number of his commandments. A civil death penalty, tied to a commandment, shows how important it is not to break it. For example, in Biblical law, if you accidentally (or even on purpose, because you were starving) ate an animal that was ceremonially "unclean," you would have to wash your clothes, and you would be ceremonially "unclean" until evening (Leviticus 11:40). That's all. And there was no civil enforcement of this penalty.

If you stole someone's sheep, and were caught, you would have to pay them back two sheep (Exodus 22:4). Compare this with British common law, for example, under which stealing a sheep (classified as "felony theft") got you the death penalty. In Biblical law, there is never a death penalty for property crime. They are always dealt with by restitution to the injured party (not restitution to the civil government).

Then there is a category of crimes which are so threatening to social order and civilization that God ordered humans to deal with them using the ultimate penalty, death. Murder, rape, adultery, kidnapping, bearing false witness in a capital trial, and others. One of these others was cursing one's father or mother. Another was striking one's father or mother.

God values the integrity of the family and respect for parental authority so much that He made these violations of the family equivalent to murder. If you think that the death penalty for striking or cursing one's parents is "too harsh," then you are showing that your value system is not like YHWH's value system. Nor is it like Jesus' value system, because he is YHWH and he quoted this command with approval.

Und das ist die Predigt über Matthäus 15, die Sie wahrscheinlich nie von einem modernen christlichen Pastor hören werden.