Sanhedrin: Starting with the Pregnant Woman's Execution
⚠️Hypothetical Scenario⚠️
You open your eyes and find yourself sitting among seats arranged in a semicircle, wearing the formal linen robes of a judge.
You are a member of the local council of elders of your village during the height of Ancient Israel.
Right now, a woman stands in the center of the court. The cross-examinations of the witnesses are finished. Multiple flawless matching testimonies have stepped forward, and by the strict scriptural laws of evidence, she has been found undeniably guilty of a triple threat of capital crimes: adultery, idolatry, and murder.
The sentence is absolute: execution.
But as you look down from your seat, you notice a prominent bulge at her tunic. She is with child!
The other council members sit in silence, looking along the semicircle. Suddenly, the heavy gaze of the Head Elder snaps right to you. He demands to know your counsel before the final vote is cast. The eyes of all the elders fall directly on you.
Do you rule with the strict precedent of the law to execute her immediately to purge the evil from the land, or do you attempt to find a scriptural measure to delay the sentence and save this unborn infant? Use scripture to back up your choice.
(This may be a case of me looking for 'unnecessary problems' in scripture. Anyways, it came to mind during a recent drive. I hope you can have fun with this.)