Capital punishment in Judaism information

Capital punishment in traditional Jewish law has been defined in Codes of Jewish law dating back to medieval times, based on a system of oral laws contained in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, the primary source being the Hebrew Bible. In traditional Jewish law there are four types of capital punishment: a) stoning, b) burning by ingesting molten lead, c) strangling, and d) beheading, each being the punishment for specific offenses. Except in special cases where a king can issue the death penalty, capital punishment in Jewish law cannot be decreed upon a person unless there were a minimum of twenty-three judges (Sanhedrin) adjudicating in that person's trial who, by a majority vote, gave the death sentence, and where there had been at least two competent witnesses who testified before the court that they had seen the litigant commit the offense. Even so, capital punishment does not begin in Jewish law until the court adjudicating in this case had issued the death sentence from a specific place (formerly, the Chamber of Hewn Stone) on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem.^[1]

^ Jerusalem Talmud (Horayot 2a): "They do not make a person liable until such instruction comes forth from the Chamber of Hewn Stone. Said Rabbi Yohanan: The reason being is that there is a teaching that [explicitly] states, 'From that place which the Lord shall choose' (Deuteronomy 17:10)." Cf. Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 31a–b; Avodah Zarah 8b), where the Sanhedrin intentionally removed themselves from the Chamber of Hewn Stone (לשכת הגזית‎) on the Temple Mount and sat in the Hanuth, and thence removed themselves to other places (known as the ten migratory journeys of the Sanhedrin) so that the court could not execute an offending Jew, since the 23 judges needed to condemn a man to die would formerly convene in the Temple Mount to decide on capital cases.

[1] Jerusalem Talmud (Horayot 2a): "They do not make a person liable until such instruction comes forth from the Chamber of Hewn Stone. Said Rabbi Yohanan: The reason being is that there is a teaching that [explicitly] states, 'From that place which the Lord shall choose' (Deuteronomy 17:10)." Cf. Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 31a–b; Avodah Zarah 8b), where the Sanhedrin intentionally removed themselves from the Chamber of Hewn Stone (לשכת הגזית‎) on the Temple Mount and sat in the Hanuth, and thence removed themselves to other places (known as the ten migratory journeys of the Sanhedrin) so that the court could not execute an offending Jew, since the 23 judges needed to condemn a man to die would formerly convene in the Temple Mount to decide on capital cases.

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