Judah recognized them, and said, "She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not have relations with her again.I've always had problems when trying to figure out when one sin is worse than another. I don't buy into the "deadly sins" of Catholic teachings or any such, but I do believe there is some distinction of levels. The Jews understood that some sins required the person's death, while some merely required an animal be sacrificed in their place. While all required one death or another, the scale went from a bird to a cow, and ultimately to a person.
However, this one leaves me scratching my head. Maybe I'm just rusty on Leviticus, but I don't see how prostitution would be less than breaking a marriage promise. Perhaps I don't understand the culture and am missing significance, or perhaps my "moral scale" isn't matching God's on this. However, while I agree that both sinned by their actions (or lack thereof), I would disagree with Judah on his statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment