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Show THE JEWISH SlJlIEIiniJI. Till; supreme court of the Jirw-it Jirw-it tho time of oar Sivior, the one '.hat rendered the first death sei tence over Him, was the M-calle ;reat SanhrJrini. It consisted o eventy-one persfn, prIdeJ ovei y tlie high rriesl. The member fere young, learueil rabbis of hili reiuUtion among the people. The jrere all suprusetl to kuow til-three til-three most common languages ol die tiaie Hebrew, Greek ami Latin, as well as the vernacular tongue of the country. When smaller ollsnie were to l tried, as few as twenty-three members mem-bers constituted a ininruai, but when inyboily wasaccu-ed of an ciflemi that mlht cost him ills life, every member of the Siuhedrim mil-,, be present, to make the sentence legal. Hie sessions were lield regulatl every MnJayan 1 Thursday morning, morn-ing, and very selJom, if ever, on a lay prrcediug a festival, wherefore some have supposed thtt the sentence sen-tence against our Lord was pronounced and executed on n Thursday, Instead of, a; conrnonly believed, on a Fridiy, the day J-fore J-fore tlie great Sabbath. The deliberations of tho court took place within the precinct? of the teniple. aud were as public a po-slb!e. There were no prosecuting prosecut-ing ntlorueysan J no counsels for the defense. But tile axusatlou was niadu in writing and was read to the accused. If the charge was denied, witnesses were called and examined. The accused liad a right to object to the wUuesea, and his objections were considered and pa-9l upon. The witnes-es were solemnly charged to spezir the truth: "Ite-member," "Ite-member," the presiding high priest said, '-that a great responsibility rests upon you. For a life is now involved, the I0-.1 ol which can never be recovered. Should the aecuscd on your account be sentenced sen-tenced to death, his Mood will be ujwu you, and also the blood of tlio-e who would have been his descend ants, had he lived, who through you are deprived of the earth: God will hold you accountable." Witnesses had to give a thorough account of themselves auJ also suite tlie precise hour, day aud month when the alleged crime had Ivcu committed; they had also to gji'e whit they had done to prevent the crime. Contradiction in the testimony testi-mony rendered the witness incompetent. incom-petent. When the testimony lia'd been taken, tho members of the Sanhedrim Sanhe-drim gave their opinion. Jaih one spoke audibly enough to be heard by all present. Wheu all nad delivered their opinions two scribes collected the votes auJ a simple majority was decisive. If the decision was !a favor ot the ai j nused,hc was imme .lately liberated, but if a verdict of guilty had been rendered, he was retained in prison and tlie seoteuce was set for tlie next session ot the court. In the meantime tho member tf tbeSanhedrim were bound by the law to meditate on the case aud to talk it over with each other. They neru not allowed'to partake of auy hut the plainest food, norof wine, or to indulge in auy social enjoyments. On the third d ly, tliey re-assembled. Those who previou-ly hail voted against the accused could now, if tliey haJ chaugeJ their minds, ctt another vote, but those who had voted for him ha 1 no. legally, this opportunity. When tho death sentence finally j had been pronounced, the culprit was at onco conveyed to the place of execution. Tlio members of the court continued iu session. Out-1 side cf the courtroom a man was , stationed with a red flag. Another I accompanied the convict on horseback. horse-back. If so ue new testimony , should happen to be produced while' ' the convict was on the way to Ids 1 execution, a sign from the man ' with the red flag called him hick, ; and he was granted a heaiiugagaln. I As many as fi ve times such a re-1 bearing was allowed. 1 Ou the way to the execution the culprit was preceded by a messenger I whoat intervals called out: 1 convicted of Uis irrlnie or is now led out to execution. Witnesses are (here followed the names). Jf anybody lias anything to so say in his lavor, lie must do so u itiiout dc-lav." If the following quotation from Talmud can be relied upon as an expression ex-pression of the sentiments of the people, it mtit be admitted thr.l human life was held in high regarJ. It says: "A court which pronounces one death sentence in seven years may ha considers! a IiiooJthlr-ty court." Itabbi kllez-r thinks once iu seventy years is enough, while two other rabbi-, Akiba and Tar-phon, Tar-phon, express themselves agaiustall capital punishment. The above description of the Sanhedrim San-hedrim is taken chiefly from Jew ish writers and is no doubt sub-tantially correct. When compared with the accounts of the condemnation cf Christ, as given by the Kvaugellsts, the fact is very strikingly brought out that the proceedings against Him were illegal from first tu last, Caiaphas was at that time tliu presiding pre-siding high priest. His father-in-law Annas had, by the Itoniau rulers, beencimpeilcd to vacate the office in favor of Caiaphas. But he was the one that in the estimation of tho people still nas the real chlei of the court. Wheu our Savior, therefore, had been captured, He was hurried CIT to the house of Annas, where Ue, iu the night, was condemn! to death, altliough no legal session could be held till the morning. Then, to give the proceedings pro-ceedings some appearance of legality, legal-ity, the Siuhedrim, iu tho early morning, was called together under the presidency of Caiaphas, when the sentence was cculirmcJ. The testimony was all cantraufctory, yet 1 the witnesses were" not rrjected. Jfor was there, from all that can ba ' learned, a quorum present at that early and unu-nal hour of the day. ' And then Ho was hniricd oT befoto Filtte and delivered to hint on a Jiarge tiiat had never been preferred pre-ferred against Him before the Sn-hedrim. Sn-hedrim. Here He had been tried for blasphemy, while before Pilate He was accused of teonspiracy against the Roman government. It is saddening 'to reflect upon the fact thr Vh'e purest, the most exalted exalt-ed being that ever dwelt on this earth the Son of God had to give his life to a body of men vho,under Jiepreluxt of law, committed judicial judi-cial murder. In the year liSO an engraved plate was found Iu the city cf Aqul-la, Aqul-la, In the kingdom ol Xaples.whlcb is held to ha the official report ol t'ilate sent to tlie emperor of Itome bout tho crucifixion of our Lord. It has the following text: 'In tlie seventeenth year of the government of the- Emperor Tiberius Tiber-ius and on the 23th day of the mintli Xi-an, in the city of Jerusalem, Jerusa-lem, Pontics Pilate, Procurator ot ludea, in ihu case of tho accused, rabbi Je-hua, of Naiaretb, states: that he Is accused and convinced 01 having had treacherous connection. a .til a view of putting aside thi itoniiu sovereignty over Judea, whim crime, according to i!aian law is punith i'!e with death; and he furthel -tate,s that tna sirua person has ueeu accu-ed aud convicted of having hav-ing dl-bonored aud blasphemed the Mosaic law, which by the Jews i considered holy: to which otlense, according to tiie assertions of the Jews aud according to several during the tiial quoted passages ol the rtiora. theiroAnGod.ha, affixed tlie ieualtyof death: I therefore sentence tlie accused to death by crucifixion; and Commission the centurion .Qurllus Cornelius to execute tills sentence, and I comma com-ma nd him to take tne sentenced to the place of execution at once." This document, which by many writers lias been accepted as genu-inu, genu-inu, mentions as witnesses for Jesus, iClieser, A-dcrius, Antonius, Jacob, Cams, Samuel. Isaac, Pbineas, Eripps:-, Agrippa, Annas, Judas and Xicodcmu", no doubt the one that visited Him during the night I and who al-o was a member of the Siuhedrim. As His accusers are mentioned Caiaphas, Audi", Simeon, Sime-on, Dathar, Gamaliel, Judas, Levi, Xafhthalln and J aims. |
