Thank you for your kindness.
I'm not dead set on anything but the truth. Finding the truth can take us for some twists and turns. I don't believe much of what I believed as a child. As we grow; we keep an open mind as to what we "think we know." If we think that we know it all; we stop growing.
In the KJV, (אָלָ֔ה) is most often translated to curse; not that I'm promoting the KJV as the best of translations.
The verse doesn't seem to flow when using the translation "oath;" but it makes more sense with the translation "curse."
Like this:
A soul she steals a wallet.
She (the thief, the criminal) hears the owner of the wallet cursing the thief.
He (a witness to the crime) saw the crime, or knew of the crime.
He said nothing; or he did nothing to seek justice.
He bears his own iniquity.
This is my humble understanding.
I think that's a fair interpretation of the verse.
It's interesting, I think several of the translations you posted are translating "אָלָה" into one of the following: imprecation, public charge, public adjuration, a public call, notice, a public curse, adjuration, oath, etc.
But almost all of them seem to imply that both the first subject (the soul that was doing the sin) and the second subject (the witness) are the same person, which we both agree does not reflect the Hebrew. (Even if הוא is being used to emphasize that the she is now a he, the "or"s don't mix. I just don't see how they honestly arrive at that conclusion.)
Also, I think we've looked at the verse well enough to know that it doesn't really apply to the situation as recorded in John 8:1-11. I was wondering if it would contradict with how Yahushua is portrayed reacting to the situation, but I don't think it does, not even considering all of the interpretations, unless I'm missing something.
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I occurred to me that there is yet another interpretation to John 8:1-11 than the one that I gave in post
#12.
If I understand it correctly, the Romans occupying the land of Judah made it so that they couldn't do stonings, and instead they had to go through the Roman legal system. This would be why they brought Yahushua to Pilate after they tried Him in the Sanhedrin, to get permission to kill Him.
And this may be what John 8:6 means by the Pharisees "tempting him." That is, tempting Him to choose either Yahweh's Law and get in trouble with the Romans, or to reject Yahweh and side with the Romans.
With that in mind, could it be that what Christ was writing in the sand were names of Pharisees and sins they had committed worthy of stoning? And that He was basically saying, who gets to stone who first?
I mean, I suppose if they really all wanted to go through with it and all the witness wanted to witness against each other, I suppose Christ would have starting throwing stones and then left them to it, to kill each other!
I think He put their consciences on trial before they made the fateful move to say an oath, or curse to start killing each other, in order to save them from themselves, and teach them a lesson about hypocrisy, and why mercy is not self-condemning.
Just some thoughts.
Praise Yahweh!
