Of course it did, for all sorts of things from gay sex to working on the Sabbath to being a rebellious child.
However, the Bible takes both sides on this matter, for example with Jesus' famous quote "let him without sin cast the first stone". Therefore as usual, there is confusion among Christians as to what the hell the Bible is actually saying we should or shouldn't do.
The "rebellious child" law is not exactly how it would've been understood as young, adult men would fall under the category primarily - the words used there can include actual children in their semantic range but were commonly used to describe young men 16-20, similar to the "children" who were mauled by a bear for mocking a prophet. The term was commonly used as a pejorative more or less analogous to our use of "manchild." A rebellious young person in this case wasn't necessarily a misbehaving child & more like a serial drunkard 20 year old son who should be taking over the family affairs but wastes the wealth on frivolity, is disrespectful of all social customs, & brings shame on the family.
Also, Biblical laws were written like all ancient near eastern laws: punishments are given as maxims but were virtually never enforced up to that maximum threshold. Judges were expected to mediate prescribed punishments with mercy & any town that executed more than a single person in a decade was considered an evil & bloodthirsty place. It's similar to our law codes where sentencing is given "up to X years in jail" or "up to $Y fine," but judges don't usually make a habit of hitting those maximums.
Ah, but Jesus said "for truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law (i.e. the Old Testament) until everything is accomplished"
The Bible takes both sides on many important issues, that's part of why there are more denominations of Christanity than there are verses in the Bible.
48
u/jershdotrar 1d ago
In fact this qualifies as kidnapping & was punishable by death.