Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre Author:Charles William Wilson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Was There A Public Place Of Execution At Jerusalem In The Time Of Christ1! The view that there was a public place of execution at Jerusalem is ... more »supported by no direct evidence. But many writers have accepted it as being, in their opinion, in accordance with Jewish and Roman custom, and some remarks seem necessary upon what is at present known of the circumstances connected with capital punishment amongst the Jews and Romans. 1. Jewish Capital Punishment.—According to the Talmud,1 four methods of capital punishment were sanctioned by Jewish law—stoning, burning, decapitation, and strangling (Sanhedrin vii, 1). Of these it is only necessary to take the first and third into consideration. The penalty of decapitation, or death by the sword, is not sanctioned directly by the Divine command. Its indirect sanction is deduced from a comparison of the words in Ex. xxi, 20, " he shall surely be punished," with those in Lev. xxvi. 25, " and I will bring a sword upon you that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant" (Sanhedrin vii, 1). The instances of execution by sword or spear recorded in the Bible are due either to Divine direction (Ex. xxxii, 27); to individual action, prompted by Divine impulse (Num. xxv, 7, 8; 1 Sam. xv, 33; 1 Kings xix, 1); or to an order from the King or persons in authority.2 None of the sentences appear to have been carried out at a public place of execution. 1 Le Talmad de Jerusalem, vol. x, Sanhedrin, translated by M. Schwab. 2 Judg ix, 5; 1 Sam. xxii, 18, 19; 2 Sam. i, 15, iv, 2 ; 1 Kings ii, 25, 34; 2 Kings x, 7, xxi, 4; 2 Kings xi, 16-20; 2 Cb. xxiii, 15; Jer. xxvi, 23; Matt, xiv, 10. Stoning was the primitive and popular form of execution inflicted on criminals guilty of heinous crimes. Originally everyone took part in the ...« less