Quote:
Originally posted by preciousjeni
We have to recognize the culture in which it was written! Sexual immorality was absolutely forbidden and punishable by death -- this would include adultery, rape, homosexuality, etc.
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Actually I think this is an important point, one that I think is pertinent to the whole discussion.
Yes sexual imorality was outlawed by the religious authorities, but not the secular authorities. So while adaultery, rape, homosexuality, prostitution, and even masturbation was condemned and punished by the religious authorities - the case was not the same with the secular authorities. This may be mainly because the secular laws of the Greeks, Hebrews, Phoenicians or Romans recognized that a difference in cultures and practices of the various peoples of the Roman Palestine province... so if Jesus himself lived in and understood a difference between secular and religious authorities (some that he clashed with) and legal practices.