{"id":28608,"date":"2011-08-24T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T02:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=28608"},"modified":"2020-12-14T21:24:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T03:24:21","slug":"paul-had-to-be-married-in-order-to-judge-criminal-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/paul-had-to-be-married-in-order-to-judge-criminal-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul had to be married in order to judge criminal cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

I read your answer and disagree.\u00a0 Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin and to qualify to judge criminal cases he had to be legally married to the daughter of a priest.\u00a0 Paul’s job under the high priest was to root out the Christians.\u00a0 Look at the second small paragraph in the\u00a0Tractate Sanhedrin<\/a>.\u00a0 If I am mistaken I would like to know.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

Let me first note that you provided no scriptural evidence. Instead, you make conjectures. You assume<\/em>\u00a0Paul had the right to judge criminal cases. “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem<\/em>” (Acts 9:1-2). Paul was given permission to arrest Christians, but he was bringing them back to Jerusalem, which implies they would be judged in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Next, “All are qualified to judge civil cases, but not everyone is qualified to judge criminal cases; as to the latter — only priests, Levites, and Israelites who may legally marry daughters of priests” [Tractate Sanhedrin<\/a>]. Notice that only those who are priests who could legally marry a daughter of a priest could judge criminal cases by Jewish law (not necessarily God’s law). But it doesn’t say the person\u00a0had<\/em>\u00a0to be married to a priest’s daughter, just potentially able to marry such a person.<\/p>\n

But really all of this is completely foolish because you have Paul’s own words that he wasn’t married. “But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:8). The arrogance of people living 2,000 years after these events who think they know more than a person’s own account is amazing.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: I read your answer and disagree.\u00a0 Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin and to qualify to judge criminal cases he had to be legally married to the daughter of a priest.\u00a0 Paul’s job under the high priest was to root out the Christians.\u00a0 Look at the second small paragraph in the\u00a0Tractate Sanhedrin.\u00a0 If…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-28608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-paul"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17744,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-it-a-requirement-to-be-married-to-be-a-member-of-the-sanhedrin-court\/","url_meta":{"origin":28608,"position":0},"title":"Was it a requirement to be married to be a member of the Sanhedrin court?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was it a requirement to be married to be a member of the Sanhedrin court? 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A marriage is formed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20210,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-handwriting-of-requirements-was-the-law-of-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":28608,"position":3},"title":"The Handwriting of Requirements Was the Law of Moses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Paul said the \"handwriting of requirements\" was \"against us\" and \"was contrary to us\" and \"He (Jesus) has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross\" (Colossians 2:14). 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