The life and work of St. Paul

POWER Of THE SANHEDRIN. 707
" Hall of Squares," which was beside the great Court of the Temple to th Chamijdth or
"shops" which were under two cedars on the Mount of Olives, is expressly stated to
have been due to their desire to get to a greater distance from the sacred precincts, in
order that they might not feel it so sternly incumbent upon them to inflict the strict
punishmentB of the Law.i But if, after strict and solemn voting, a man was condemned
to any of the four capital punishments, the utmost care was taken to remove from the
punishment all semblance of vindictive haste. In the case of a convicted blasphemer
the death assigned by the Law was stoning, and in Leviticus it is ordained that the
witnesses should lay their hands upon his head, and all the congregation should stone
him. 2 In Deuteronomy we read the further regulations that the hand of the witnesses
was first to be upon him 3 and this horrible duty was one of the deterrents from false
or frivolous accusation. But if we may accept the authority of the Mishna, the process
was an elaborate one. On pronunciation of the sentence the condemned was handed
over to the Shotertm or Lictors of the Sanhedrin, and led to the place of execution. An
official stood at the door of the Judgment Hall 4 holding in hia hand a handkerchief ; a
second on horseback was stationed just in sight of the first, and if, even at the last
the first
moment, any witness could testify to the innocence of the condemned,
shook his handkerchief, and the second galloped at full speed to bring back the
accused, who was himself allowed to be led back as many as four or five times if'
he could adduce a single solid proof in his own favour. Failing this he was led on
with a herald preceding him, who proclaimed his name, his crime, and the witnesses on,
whose testimony he had been condemned. At ten paces' distance from the place of
death he was bidden to confess, because Jewish no less than Roman law valued the
certainty derived from the "confitentem reum," and the Jews deduced from the story
of Achan that hia punishment would be, as regards the future world, a sufficiently
complete expiation of his crime. * A bitter draught containing a grain of frankincense
was then given him to stupefy his senses and take away the edge of terror. At four
cubits' distance from the fatal spot he was stripped bare of bis upper garments, and
according to the older and simpler plan of procedure was then stoned, the witnesses
simultaneously hurling the first stones. 6 But the later custom seems to have been more
elaborate. The place of execution 7 was twelve feet high, and one of the witnesses flung
the criminal down, back foremost, from the top, the other immediately hurling a heavy
stone upon his chest. If this failed to produce death, all who were present joined in
stoning him, and his body was subsequently hung by the hands on a tree until the fall of
evening. 8
"We may be quite sure that none of these elaborate prescriptions were followed in the
martyrdom of Stephen. He was murdered in one of those sudden outbiirsts of fury to
which on more than one occasion the life of our Lord had been nearly sacrificed.
EXCURSUS VIL (p. 94).
THE POWEB THB SANHBDBTJf TO INTLIOT DEATH.
A QTJBSTIOW has often been raised how the Sanhedrin at this time had the power of
inflicting death at all T The well-known passage of St. John, " It is not lawful for us
* The ZMnt Kenasdth or punitive decisions (AVMda Zara, 18, 2 ; Shabbath, t 15, 1). Rashi
Inferred from Dent. xvii. 10, that minor Sanhedrins outside Jerusalem could bot pronounce capital
wntences (IHnt NepJiatMth) unless the greater Sanhedrin was seated on the Temple Mount.
Lev. xxiv. 14. Deut. xvii. 7.
* All these particulars, except when otherwise stated, I derive from the tract Sanhedrin of th
Mishna, cap. vi. (Surenhus. ii., p. 234, scqq.)
*
Ta.nchv.inn, t. 39, 3 ; Sehottg. Her. H&r. ad Acts vtt. 58.
*
TcHKhwmo, M mpr. ; Deut. xvii 7. Called
rfrpon lt> Deut, xxl. M, 8J.