The Trial of Jesus. Walter M. Chandler
for the sacred and the solemn it is a priceless literary treasure.
As an historical factor the Talmud has only remotely affected the great currents of Gentile history. But to Judaism it has been the cementing bond in every time of persecution and threatened dissolution. It was carried from Babylon to Egypt, northern Africa, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Poland. And when threatened with national and race destruction, the children of Abraham in every land bowed themselves above its sacred pages and caught therefrom inspiration to renewed life and higher effort. The Hebrews of every age have held the Talmud in extravagant reverence as the greatest sacred heirloom of their race. Their supreme affection for it has placed it above even the Bible. It is an adage with them that, "The Bible is salt, the Mischna pepper, the Gemara balmy spice," and Rabbi Solomon ben Joseph sings:
"The Kabbala and Talmud hoar
Than all the Prophets prize I more;
For water is all Bible lore,
But Mischna is pure wine."
More than any other human agency has the Talmud been instrumental in creating that strangest of all political phenomena—a nation without a country, a race without a fatherland.
CHAPTER II
HEBREW CRIMINAL LAW—CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
Hebrew jurisprudence provided four methods of capital punishment: (1) Beheading; (2) Strangling; (3) Burning; (4) Stoning.
Crucifixion was unknown to Hebrew law. This cruel and loathsome form of punishment will be fully discussed in the second volume of this work.
Thirty-six capital crimes are mentioned by the Pentateuch and the Talmud.
Beheading was the punishment for only two crimes:
(1) Murder.
(2) Communal apostasy from Judaism to idolatry.
Strangling was prescribed for six offenses:
(1) Adultery.
(2) Kidnaping.
(3) False prophecy.
(4) Bruising a parent.
(5) Prophesying in the name of heathen deities.
(6) Maladministration (the "Rebellious Elder").
Burning was the death penalty for ten forms of incest—criminal commerce:
(1) With one's own daughter.
(2) With one's own son's daughter.
(3) With one's own daughter's daughter.
(4) With one's own stepdaughter.
(5) With one's own stepson's daughter.
(6) With one's own stepdaughter's daughter.
(7) With one's own mother-in-law.
(8) With one's own mother-in-law's mother.
(9) With one's own father-in-law's mother.
(10) With a priest's daughter.[65]
Stoning was the penalty for eighteen capital offenses:
(1) Magic.
(2) Idolatry.
(3) Blasphemy.
(4) Pythonism.
(5) Pederasty.
(6) Necromancy.
(7) Cursing a parent.
(8) Violating the Sabbath.
(9) Bestiality, practiced by a man.
(10) Bestiality, practiced by a woman.
(11) Sacrificing one's own children to Moloch.
(12) Instigating individuals to embrace idolatry.
(13) Instigating communities to embrace idolatry.
(14) Criminal conversation with one's own mother.
(15) Criminal conversation with a betrothed virgin.
(16) Criminal conversation with one's own stepmother.
(17) Criminal conversation with one's own daughter-in-law.
(18) Violation of filial duty (making the "Prodigal Son").[66]
The crime of false swearing requires special notice. This offense could not be classified under any of the above subdivisions because of its peculiar nature. The Mosaic Code ordains in Deut. xix. 16–21: "If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong … and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother … and thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Talmudic construction of this law awarded the same kind of death to him who had sworn falsely against his brother that would have been meted out to the alleged criminal, if the testimony of the false swearer had been true.
Imprisonment, as a method of punishment, was unknown to the Mosaic Code. Leviticus xxiv. 12 and Numbers xv. 34 seem to indicate the contrary; but the imprisonment therein mentioned undoubtedly refers to the mere detention of the prisoner until sentence could be pronounced against him. Imprisonment as a form of punishment was a creation of the Talmudists who legalized its application among the Hebrews. According to Mendelsohn, five different classes of offenders were punished by imprisonment:
(1) Homicides; whose crime could not be legally punished with death, because some condition or other, necessary to produce a legal conviction, had not been complied with.
(2) Instigators to or procurers of murder; such, for instance, as had the deed committed by the hands of a hireling.
(3) Accessories to loss of life, as, for instance, when several persons had clubbed one to death, and the court could not determine the one who gave the death blow.
(4) Persons who having been twice duly condemned to and punished with flagellation for as many transgressions of one and the same negative precept, committed it a third time.
(5) Incorrigible offenders, who, on each of three occasions, had failed to acknowledge as many warnings antecedent to the commission of one and the same crime, the original penalty for which was excision.[67]
Flagellation is the only corporal punishment mentioned by the Pentateuch. The number of stripes administered were not to exceed forty and were to be imposed in the presence of the judges.[68] Wherever the Mosaic Code forbade an act, or, in the language of the sages, said "Thou shalt not," and prescribed no other punishment or alternative, a Court of Three might impose stripes as the penalty for wrongdoing. Mendelsohn gives the following classification:
Flagellation is the penalty of three classes of offenses:
(1) The violation of a negative precept, deadly in the sight of heaven.
(2) The violation of any negative precept, when accomplished by means of a positive act.
(3) The violation of any one of the prohibitive ordinances punishable, according to the Mosaic