Originally Posted by DBT
Originally Posted by Thunderstick
Originally Posted by DBT
Originally Posted by Thunderstick

Quote
A person normally gathers wood because wood is needed. Which makes it a fair assumption that the man was gathering sticks because he needed sticks for his fire.


This was not a "normal" case. It did not happen on a regular basis therefore your normal assumption for motive is erroneous.


How do you know the rate. You are making that assumption.

Provide another prior example to this case. You are missing the obvious as they would not have brought him to Lord to ask for guidance on the death penalty if they had prior precedent.



There is no way to know the circumstances, the account is too brief.

However, it is unlikely that in the history of the tribe of Israel that he was the first to careless on the Sabbath. The account written may have been something used as an example of the consequences of breaking the Sabbath.

It's not like everyone was likely to siit immobile on the Sabbath in the fear of overreaching the boundaries of what is or is not defined as 'rest.' It's doubtful that people did absolutely nothing....so breaking the Sabbath would be open to interpretation.


Perhaps the gatherer of sticks was just unlucky to be caught in an activity that his captors thought was excessive...they themselves were outside camp doing whatever they were doing when they caught him.


However, this is all irrelevant to the issue of the contradiction between two opposing descriptions of the nature of God, one that is forgiving (let those without sin cast the first stone), the other ordering the death of a man by public stoning for a minor transgression.



You just can't stop building your case on speculation while ignoring the laws that prescriptively addressed it. Then you go to NT and borrow from a different code. You seem intent on making inconsistent arguments and you keep changing your alleged original contradiction. If you had a case at the outset you would not feel compelled to keep revising it.