3. Modes of Capital Punishment. The mode of capital punishment, which constitutes a material element in the character of any law, was probably as humane as the circumstances of Mo ses admitted.
(1) Stoning, Decapitation, etc. It %vas prob ably restricted to lapidation or stoning, which, by skillful management, might produce instantaneous death. It was an Egyptian custom (Exod. viii: 26). The public effusion of blood by decapitation cannot be proved to have been a Mosaic punish ment, nor even an Egyptian ; for, in the instance of Pharaoh's chief baker (Gen. x1:19), 'Pharaoh shall lift up thine head from off thee,' the mar ginal rendering seems preferable, 'shall reckon thee and take thine office from thee.' He is said to have been 'hanged' (xli:13) : which may possibly mean posthumous exposure, though no independent evidence appears of this cus tom in ancient Egypt (Wilkinson's Manners and Customs, vol. ii, p. 45). The appearance of decapitation, 'slaying by the sword,' in later times (2 Sam. iv :8; XX :21, 22; 2 Kings x :6-8) has no more relation to the Mosaic law than the decapi tation of John the Baptist by Herod (Matt. xiv: 8-12) ; or than the hewing to pieces of Agag be fore the Lord by Samuel, as a punishment in kind (I Sam. xv :33) ; or than the office of the Chereth ites (2 Sam. viii :18 ; xv:18; xx:7, 23), or heads men, as Gesenius understands by the Hebrew word, `to chop off' or 'hew down' (executioners belonging to the body-guard of the king) ; whereas execution was ordered by Moses, probably adopt ing an ancient custom, to be begun first by the witnesses, a regulation which constituted a tre mendous appeal to their moral feelings, and after wards to be completed by the people (Deut. xiii: 10; xvii :7; Josh. vii:25; John viii :7). It was a later innovation that immediate execution should be done by some personal attendant, by whom the office was probably considered as an honor (2 Sam. i:15; iv:12). Stoning therefore was, prob ably, the only capital punishment ordered by Mo ses. It is observable that neither this nor any other punishment was, according to his law, at tended with insult or torture (comp. 2 Mace. vii). Nor did his laws admit of those horrible mutila tions practiced by other nations. For instance, he
prescribed stoning for adulterers (comp. Lev. xx :to; Ezek. xxiii :25 ; xvi :38, 4o; John viii :5) ; but the Chaldwans cut off the noses of such of fenders (Ezek. xxiii :25). According to Diodo rus, the Egyptian monarch, Actisanes, punished robbers in like manner, and banished them to the confines of the desert, where a town was built called Rhinocolura, from the peculiar nature of their punishment, and where they were compelled to live by their industry in a barren and inhos pitable region (i:60). Mutilation of such a na ture amounts to a perpetual condemnation to in famy and crime. It will shortly be seen that the lex talionis, 'an eye for an eye,' etc., was adopted by Moses as the principle, but not the mode of punishment. He seems also to have understood the true end of punishment, which is not to grat ify the antipathy of society against crime, nor moral vengeance, which belongs to God alone, but prevention. 'All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more so presumptuously' (Dent. xvii: 13; xxix :20). His laws are equally free from the characteristic of savage legislation, that of in volving the family of the offender in his punish ment. He did not allow parents to be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents (Deut. xxiv :16), as did the Chaldmans (Dan. vi :24), and the kings of Israel (comp. I Kings xxi; 2 Kings ix:26).
(2) Precipitation. Various punishments were introduced among the Jews, or became known to them by their intercourse with other nations,— viz., precipitation, or throwing, or causing to leap, from the top of a rock: to which ten thousand Idunixatwere condemned by Amaziah, king of Judah (2 Chron. xxv:12). The inhabitants of Nazareth intended a similar fate for our Lord (Luke iv:29). This punishment resembles that of the Tarpeian rock among the Romans. Dichot omy, or cutting asunder, appears to have been a Babylonian custom (Dan. ii :5 ; :29; Luke xii: 46: Matt. xxiv :51) ; but the passages in the Gos pels admit of the milder interpretation of scourg ing with severity, discarding from office, etc.