Book Study-Prager's Rational Bible

[nili]

That's true Nili, you can't really make a case by saying something didn't happen just because there is no record of it.

I think though the Sages of the time were very careful on how they executed (no pun intended) the commandments. I think they did the same when it came to stoning or strangling people who broke them.

Which sages? What time? Upon what do you base your thinking? And, parenthetically, would you characterize Pinchas as a careful sage or, at the very least, a reasonably good role-model for one?

Thanks for the questions.

I'm referring to the Sages of the Talmud, so I guess that includes many different ones over a long period of time.

One typical "Biblical timeline" dates the Exodus to 1446 B.C.E., while the Mishnah dates to 200 C.E. and the schools of Hillel and Shammai to, perhaps, two to three centuries earlier. So you seem to be predicating assumptions about early Israelite society on (what I assume to be) a cursory impression of sages operating over a millennium later.