The mode of capital punishment, which consti tutes a material element in the character of any law, was probably as humane as the circumstances. of Moses admitted. It was probably restricted to lapidation or stoning, which, by skilful manage ment, might produce instantaneous death. It was Egyptian custom (Exod. viii. 26). The public effusion of blood by decapitation cannot be proved to have been a Mosaic punishment, nor even an Egyptian ; for, in the instance of Pharaoh's chief baker (Gen. xl. 19), Pharaoh shall lift up thine head from off thee,' the marginal 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 custom in ancient Egypt (Wilkinson's Man ners 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 decapitation of John the Baptist by Herod (Matt. xiv. 8-12) ; or than the hewing to pieces of Agag before the Lord by Samuel, as a punishment in kind (I Sam. xv. 33) ; or than the office of Chercthites, rnz (2 Sam. viii. 18 ; xv. i8 ; xx. 7, 23), or headsman, as Gesenius understands by the word, from In:, ' to chop off' or `hew down (executioners belonging to the body-guard of the king) ; whereas execution was ordered by Moses, probably adopting an ancient custom, to be begun first by the witnesses, a regulation which consti tuted a tremendous appeal to their moral feelings, and afterwards to be completed by the people (Dent. xiii. to ; xvii. 7; Josh. vii. 25 ; John viii. 7). It was a later innovation that immediate exe cution should be done by some personal attendant, by whom the office was probably considered as an honour (2 Sam. i. 15 ; iv. 12). Stoning, therefore, was probably the only capital punishment ordered by Moses. It is observable that neither this nor any other punishment was, according to his law, attended with insult or torture (comp. 2 Maccab. vii.) Nor did his laws admit of those horrible mutilations practised by other nations. For in stance, he prescribed stoning for adulterers (comp. Lev. xx. 10 Ezek. xxiii. 25 ; xvi. 38, 4o ; John viii. 5) ; hut the Chaldwans cut off the noses of such offenders (Ezek. xxiji. 25). According to Dio dorus, the Egyptian monarch Actisanes punished robbers in like manner, and banished them to the confines of the desert, where a town was built called Rhinocolitra, from the peculiar nature of their punishment, and where they were compelled to live by their industry in a barren and inhospi table region (i. 60). Mutilation of such a nature amounts to a perpetual condemnation to infamy and crime. It will shortly be seen that the lex tallow's, 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 gratify 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 ; xix. 2o). His laws are equally free from the characteristic of savage legislation, that of involving the family of the offender in his punishment. He did not allow parents to be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents (Dent. xxiv. 16), as did the Chaldmans (Dan. vi.. 24) and the kings of Israel (comp. t Kings xxi. ; 2 Kings ix. 26). Va rious 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 io,000 Idummans were condemned by Ama ziah, king of Judah (2 Chron. xxv. 12). The inha bitants of Nazareth intended a similar fate for our Lord (Luke iv. 29). This punishment resembles that of the Tarpeian rock among the Romans. Dichotomy, or cutting asunder, appears to have been a Babylonian custom (Dan. ii. 5 ; iii. 29 ; Luke xii. 46 ; Matt. xxiv. 51) ; but the passages in the gospels admit of the milder interpretation of scourging with severity, discarding from office, etc. Beating to death, Ttl.oraluoybs, was a Greek punish ment for slaves. It was inflicted on a wooden frame, which probably derived its name from resembling a drum or timbre] in form, on which the criminal was bound and beaten to death (2 Maccab. vi. 19, 28 ; comp. v. 3o). In Josephus (de Maccab.) the same instrument is called rpoxbs, or wheel' (secs. 5, 9). Hence to beat upon the tympanum, to drum to death, is similar to break ing on the wheel' (Heb. xi, 35). David inflicted this among other cruelties upon the inhabitants of Rabbath•ammon (1 Chron. xx. 3). Fighting with wild beasts was a Roman punishment, to which criminals and captives in war were sometimes con- 1 deinned (Adam, Roman Antiq., p. 344 ; 2 Tim. iv. 17 ; comp. I Cor. xv. 32). Drowning with a heavy weight around the neck, was a Syrian, Greek, and Roman punishment. This, therefore, being the custom of the enemies of the Jews, was introduced by our Lord to heighten his admonitions (Matt, xviii. 6). Josephus records that the Galileans, revolting from their commanders, drowned the partizans of Herod (Antiq. xiv. 15. 10). The Persians bad a singular punishment for great crimi nals. A high tower was filled a great way up with ashes, the criminal was thrown into it, and the ashes, by means of a wheel, were continually stirred up and raised about him till he was suffo cated (2 Maccab. xiii. 4-6). The lion's den was a Babylonian punishment (Dan. vi.), and is still cus tomary in Fez and Morocco (see accounts of by Hoest, c. ii. p. 77). Bruising and pounding to death in a mortar is alluded to in Prov. xxvii. 22. For crucifixion, see the Article.
Posthumous insults offered to the dead bodies of criminals, though common in other nations, were very sparingly allowed by Moses. He permitted only hanging on a tree or gibbet ; but the expo sure was limited to a day, and burial of the body at night was commanded (Dent. xxi. 22). Such persons were esteemed cursed of God' (comp.
Josh. viii. 29 ; x. 26 ; 2 Sam. iv. 12)—a law which the later Jews extended to crucifixion (John xix. 31, etc. ; Gal. iii. 13). Hanging aline may have been a Canaanitish punishment, since it was practised by the Gibeonites on the sons of Saul (2 Sam. xxi. 9). Another posthumous insult in later times consisted in heaping stones on the body or grave of the executed criminal (Josh. vii. 25, 26). To make heaps' of houses or cities is a phrase denot ing complete and ignominious destruction (Is. xxv.
2 ; Jer. ix. i 1). Burning the dead body seems to have been a very ancient posthumous insult. It was denounced by Judah against his daughter-in law Tamar, when informed that she was with child (Gen. xxxviii. 24). Selden thinks that this means merely branding on the forehead (De 7us-e IV: et G., vii. 5). Moses retained this ancient ig nominy for two offences only, which from the nature of things must have been comparatively rare—viz., for bigamy with a mother and her daughter (Lev. xx. 14), and for the case of a
priest's daughter who committed whoredom (xxi. 9). Though burning' only be specified in these cases, it may be safely inferred that the previous death of the criminals, probably by lapidation, is to be understood (comp. Josh. vii. 25). Among the heathens this merciful preliminary was not always observed, as, for instance, in the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. iii.) Among the minor corporal punishments ordered by Moses, was scourging, or the infliction of blows on the back of an offender with a rod. It was limited by him to forty stripes—a number which the Jews in later times were so careful not to ex ceed, that they inflicted but thirty-nine (2 Cor. xi. 24). It was to be inflicted on the offender lying on the ground, in the presence of a judge (Lev. xix. 20 ; Dent. xxii. 18 ; xxv. 2, 3). We have abundant evidence that it was an ancient Egyptian punishment. Nor was it unusual for Egyptian superintendents to stimulate labourers to their work by the persuasive powers of the stick. Women received the stripes on the back, while sitting, from the hand of a man ; and boys also, some times with their hands tied behind them. The modern inhabitants of the valley of the Nile retain the predilection of their forefathers for this punish ment. The Moslem say, Nezel min e'senna e'nebOot baraka min Allah :" The stick came down from heaven a blessing from God.' Corporal punishment of this kind was allowed by Moses, by masters to servants or slaves of both sexes (Exod. xxi. 20). Scourging was common in after times among the Jews, who associated with it no disgrace or inconvenience beyond the physical pain it occa sioned, and from which no station was exempt (Prov. xvii. 26; comp. x. 13 ; Jer. xxxvii. 15-20). Hence it became the symbol for correction in general (Ps. lxxxix. 32). Solomon is a zealous advocate for its use in education (Prov. xiii. 24 ; xxiii. 13, 14; comp. Eccles. xxx. I). In his opinion the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil, and stripes the inward parts of the belly' (Prov. xx. 3o). It was inflicted for ecclesiastical offences in the synagogue (Matt. x. 17 ; Acts xxvi. ti). The Mosaic law, however, respecting it, affords a pleasing contrast to the extreme and un limited scourging known among the Romans, but which, according to the Porcian law, could not be inflicted upon a Roman citizen (Cicero, Pro Rabirio, 3 ; ad Pamil. X. 32; in Vern/11,V. 53 ; comp. Acts xvi. 22-37 ; xxii. 25). Reference to the scourge with scorpions—i.e., a whip or scourge armed with knots or thorns—occurs in i Kings xii. It. So in Latin, scorpio means virga nodosa vel aculeata.' Retaliation, the lex talionis of the Latins, and the civrore7rovOds of the Greeks, is doubtless the most natural of all kinds of punishment, and would be the most just of all, if it could be instantaneously and universally inflicted. But, when delayed, it is apt to degenerate into revenge. Hence the de sirableness that it should be regulated and modified by law. The one-eyed man, mentioned by Dio dorus Siculus (xii.), complained that if he lost his remaining eye, he would then suffer more than his victim, who would still have one left. Phavorinus argues against this law, which was one of the twelve tables, as not admitting literal execution, because the same member was more valuable to one man than another : for instance, the right hand of a scribe or painter could not be so well spared as that of a singer. Hence that law, in later times, was administered with the modification, Ni cum eo pacet,' except the aggressor came to an agreement with the mutilated person, de talione redimenda, to redeem the punishment by making compensation. Moses accordingly adopted the principle, but lodged the application of it in the judge. `If a man blemish his neighbour, as he bath done so shall it be done to him. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, breach for breach' (Exod. xxi. 23-25 ; Lev. xxiv. 19-22). His system of com pensations, etc., occurs in Exod. xxi. He, how ever, makes wilful murder, even of a slave, always capital, as did the Egyptians. Roman masters had an absolute right over the life of their slaves (Juvenal, vi. 219). The Egyptians doomed the false accuser to the same punishment which he en deavoured to bring on his victim, as did Moses (Deut. xix. 19). Imprisonment, not as a punish ment, but custody till the royal pleasure was known, appears among the Egyptians (Gen. xxxix. zo, 21). Moses adopted it for like purposes (Lev. xxiv. 12). In later times it appears as a punish ment inflicted by the kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chron. xvi. to ; i Kings xxii. 27 ; Jer. xxxvii. 21) ; and during the Christian era, as in the in stance of John (Matt. iv. 12), and Peter (Acts xii. 4). Murderers and debtors were also committed to prison ; and the latter ' tormented' till they paid (Matt. xviii. 30 ; Luke xxiii. 19). A com mon prison is mentioned (Acts IS) ; and also an inner prison or dungeon, which was sometimes a pit (Jer. xxxviii. 6), in which were ' stocks' (Jer. xx. 2 ; xxix. 26 ; Acts xvi. 24). , Prisoners are alluded to (Job iii. 18), and stocks (xiii. 27). Banishment was impracticable among the Jews. It was inflicted by the Romans on John (Rev. i. 9). Cutting or plucking of the hair is alluded to (Is. 1. 6 ; Neh. xiii. 25). Excision, or `cutting off from his people,' is denounced against the uncir cumcised as early as the covenant with Abraham (Gen. xvii. 14). This punishment is expressed in the Mosaic law by the forinuke—‘ that soul shall be destroyed from its people' (Lev. xvii. 9, to) ; ' from Israel' (Exod. xii. 15) ; ' from the midst of the congregation' (Num. xix. 2o) ; it shall be de stroyed' (Lev. xvii. 14 ; xx. 17) ; which terms sometimes denote capital punishment (Exod. xxxi. 14; comp. xxxv. 2; Num. xv. 32, etc.) [ANA THEMA. j Ecclesiastical punishments are prescribed, as might be expected, under a theocracy, but these were moderate. Involuntary transgressions of the Levi tical law, whether of omission or commission, were atoned for by a sin-offering (Lev. iv. 2, etc. ; v. I, This head embraced a rash or neglected oath, keeping back evidence in court (Lev. iv. 2, etc. ; v. I ; iv. 7), breach of trust, concealment of property when found, or theft, even when the of fender had already cleared himself by oath, but was now moved by conscience to make restitution. By these means, and by the payment of twenty per cent beyond the amount of his trespass, the of fender might cancel the crime as far as the church was concerned (Lev. vi. 1-7 ; Num. v. 6- to). Adultery with a slave was commuted from death to stripes and a trespass-offering (Lev. xix. 20-22). All these cases involved public confession and the expenses of the offering.
Future punishment. —Though the doctrine of a future state was known to the ancient Hebrews, yet temporal punishment and reward were the im mediate motives held out to obedience. Hence the references in the O. T. to punishment in a future state are obscure and scanty. [See IIADES ; HEAVEN ; HELL.]—J. F. D.