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111-414: Gibbeting is the use of a gallows -type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet ( / ˈ dʒ ɪ b ɪ t / ) was also used as a method of public execution , with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within

222-461: A hypothesis continues to have adherents in Israel and North America. The majority of scholars today continue to recognize Deuteronomy as a source, with its origin in the law-code produced at the court of Josiah as described by De Wette, subsequently given a frame during the exile (the speeches and descriptions at the front and back of the code) to identify it as the words of Moses. However, since

333-467: A quill (or other permitted writing utensil) dipped in ink. Written entirely in Hebrew , a sefer Torah contains 304,805 letters, all of which must be duplicated precisely by a trained sofer ("scribe"), an effort that may take as long as approximately one and a half years. Most modern Sifrei Torah are written with forty-two lines of text per column ( Yemenite Jews use fifty), and very strict rules about

444-409: A body could backfire against a monarch, especially if the monarch was unpopular. The rebels Henry of Montfort and Henry of Wylynton, enemies of Edward II , were drawn and hanged before being exhibited on a gibbet near Bristol . However, the people made relics of these bloody and mutilated remains out of respect and later used the relics in violent protest. Miracles were even reported at the spot where

555-590: A broken neck rather than through strangulation , especially if extra weights were fixed to their ankles. During the era of public execution in London , England, a prominent gallows stood at Tyburn , on what is now Marble Arch . Later executions occurred outside Newgate Prison , where the Old Bailey now stands. Torah The Torah ( / ˈ t ɔːr ə / or / ˈ t oʊ r ə / ; Biblical Hebrew : תּוֹרָה Tōrā , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law")

666-404: A cow's skin with the horns at ear level to crush his head gradually as the skin dried out. On 4 February 1820, six British pirates were hanged on their vessel in the middle of the harbour at Valletta . Thereafter, their bodies were hung in gibbets erected at the bastions of Fort Ricolli . Lieutenant Hobson of HMS  Spey , in the tender Frederick , had apprehended them and their vessel in

777-471: A decent burial. James Cook was a bookbinder convicted of the murder of his creditor Paas, a manufacturer of brass instruments, in Leicester . During an attempted robbery, Cook beat Paas to death, and then took the body to his home, where he cut it into pieces and burned it to try to hide the evidence of the crime. He was executed on Friday, 10 August 1832, in front of Leicester prison. Afterwards: The head

888-468: A gibbet can still be seen in the Westgate Museum at Winchester . The Old Testament and Torah law forbid gibbeting beyond sunrise of the next day that the body is hanged on the tree. Public crucifixion with prolonged display of the body after death can be seen as a form of gibbeting. Gibbeting was one of the methods said by Tacitus and Cassius Dio to have been used by Boudica 's army in

999-554: A gibbet erected close to the low-water mark by the sea or a tidal section of a river. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged by the tide three times. In London , Execution Dock is located on the north bank of the River Thames in Wapping ; after tidal immersion, particularly notorious criminals' bodies could be hung in cages a little farther downstream at either Cuckold's Point or Blackwall Point , as

1110-628: A gibbet is also called "hanging in chains". Gibbeting was a common law punishment, which a judge could impose in addition to execution. As a sentence for murder, this practice was codified in England by the Murder Act 1751 . It was most often used for traitors , robbers , murderers , highwaymen , and pirates and was intended to discourage others from committing similar offenses. The structures were therefore often placed next to public highways (frequently at crossroads) and waterways. Exhibiting

1221-665: A great number of tannaim , the oral tradition was written down around 200 CE by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi , who took up the compilation of a nominally written version of the Oral Law, the Mishnah ( משנה ). Other oral traditions from the same time period not entered into the Mishnah were recorded as Baraitot (external teaching), and the Tosefta . Other traditions were written down as Midrashim . After continued persecution more of

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1332-687: A new generation can grow up and carry out the task. The book ends with the new generation of Israelites in the " plains of Moab " ready for the crossing of the Jordan River . Numbers is the culmination of the story of Israel's exodus from oppression in Egypt and their journey to take possession of the land God promised their fathers . As such it draws to a conclusion the themes introduced in Genesis and played out in Exodus and Leviticus: God has promised

1443-430: A pit, enclosed in a small shed, built into the gallery of a prison wing (with the beam resting in brackets on opposite walls), or in a purpose-built execution suite. Gallows can also be temporary. In some of the cases, they were even moved to the location of the crime. In England, pirates were typically executed using a temporary gallows, at low tide in the intertidal zone , then left for the sea to wash over them during

1554-533: A program of nationalist reform in the time of Josiah (late 7th century BCE), with the final form of the modern book emerging in the milieu of the return from the Babylonian captivity during the late 6th century BCE. Many scholars see the book as reflecting the economic needs and social status of the Levite caste, who are believed to have provided its authors; those likely authors are collectively referred to as

1665-633: A redactor: J, the Jahwist source, E, the Elohist source, P, the Priestly source , and D, the Deuteronomist source. The earliest of these sources, J, would have been composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE, with the latest source, P, being composed around the 5th century BCE. The consensus around the documentary hypothesis collapsed in the last decades of the 20th century. The groundwork

1776-474: A rocky outcrop within Port Jackson , is the location of Fort Denison and a former gibbeting site. Thomas Hill, a convict, was sentenced to a week on the rock in iron chains with only bread and water to consume; these conditions are said to have "literally pinched his gut", giving the island its current name. The rock was levelled in the 1790s, and a gibbet installed in 1796. Another convict, Francis Morgan,

1887-502: A scaffold or gibbet used for execution by hanging . The term " gallows " was derived from a Proto-Germanic word galgô that refers to a "pole", "rod" or "tree branch". With the beginning of Christianization, Ulfilas used the term galga in his Gothic Testament to refer to the cross of Christ , until the use of the Latin term (crux = cross) prevailed. Gallows can take several forms: Gallows may be permanent, partly acting as

1998-561: A smuggling gang known as the Hawkhurst Gang , operated along the South coast of England between Kent and Dorset; their violent crimes coincided with the authorities desire to punish smugglers on the South coast and deter others from smuggling. Of the 75 members of the gang that were caught and convicted 14 were sentenced to gibbeting. Unusually the bodies were distributed around the area as a deterrent, rather than near where they lived, or

2109-423: A symbol of justice. The French word for gallows, potence , stems from the Latin word potentia , meaning "power". Many old prints of European cities show such a permanent gallows erected on a prominent hill outside the walls, or more commonly near the castle or other seat of justice. In the modern era the gallows were often installed inside a prison; freestanding on a scaffold in the yard, erected at ground level over

2220-508: A warning to other waterborne criminals of the possible consequences of their actions (such a fate befell Captain William Kidd in May 1701). There were objections that these displays offended foreign visitors and did not uphold the reputation of the law, though the scenes even became gruesome tourist attractions. In some cases, the bodies would be left until their clothes rotted or even until

2331-460: A world which is good and fit for mankind, but when man corrupts it with sin God decides to destroy his creation, using the flood, saving only the righteous Noah and his immediate family to reestablish the relationship between man and God. The Ancestral history (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen people. At God's command Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his home into

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2442-537: Is Targum . The Encyclopaedia Judaica has: At an early period, it was customary to translate the Hebrew text into the vernacular at the time of the reading (e.g., in Palestine and Babylon the translation was into Aramaic). The targum ("translation") was done by a special synagogue official, called the meturgeman ... Eventually, the practice of translating into the vernacular was discontinued. However, there

2553-1001: Is also considered a sacred book outside Judaism; in Samaritanism , the Samaritan Pentateuch is a text of the Torah written in the Samaritan script and used as sacred scripture by the Samaritans ; the Torah is also common among all the different versions of the Christian Old Testament ; in Islam , the Tawrat ( Arabic : توراة‎ ) is the Arabic name for the Torah within its context as an Islamic holy book believed by Muslims to have been given by God to

2664-614: Is arguably the most important book in the Bible, as it presents the defining features of Israel's identity: memories of a past marked by hardship and escape, a binding covenant with God, who chooses Israel, and the establishment of the life of the community and the guidelines for sustaining it. The Book of Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle , which they had just built (Leviticus 1–10). This

2775-538: Is called a Sefer Torah ("Book [of] Torah"). They are written using a painstakingly careful method by highly qualified scribes . It is believed that every word, or marking, has divine meaning and that not one part may be inadvertently changed lest it lead to error. The fidelity of the Hebrew text of the Tanakh, and the Torah in particular, is considered paramount, down to the last letter: translations or transcriptions are frowned upon for formal service use, and transcribing

2886-514: Is done with painstaking care. An error of a single letter, ornamentation, or symbol of the 304,805 stylized letters that make up the Hebrew Torah text renders a Torah scroll unfit for use, hence a special skill is required and a scroll takes considerable time to write and check. According to Jewish law, a sefer Torah (plural: Sifrei Torah ) is a copy of the formal Hebrew text handwritten on gevil or klaf (forms of parchment ) by using

2997-572: Is followed by rules of clean and unclean (Leviticus 11–15), which includes the laws of slaughter and animals permissible to eat (see also: Kashrut ), the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), and various moral and ritual laws sometimes called the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17–26). Leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following God's commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Leviticus 17 establishes sacrifices at

3108-458: Is found neither in the Torah itself, nor in the works of the pre-Exilic literary prophets . It appears in Joshua and Kings , but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus (according to academic Bible criticism). In contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were "The Book of Moses" and "The Book of

3219-416: Is punctuated by a series of covenants with God , successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah ) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob). The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Torah, immediately following Genesis. The book tells how the ancient Israelites leave slavery in Egypt through the strength of Yahweh ,

3330-452: Is regardless of whether that yod appears in the phrase "I am the LORD thy God" ( אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ , Exodus 20:2) or whether it appears in "And God spoke unto Moses saying" ( וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה; וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, אֲנִי יְהוָה. Exodus 6:2). In a similar vein, Rabbi Akiva ( c.  50  – c.  135 CE ), is said to have learned a new law from every et ( את ) in

3441-479: Is the Arabic name for the Torah, which Muslims believe is an Islamic holy book given by God to the prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel . The Torah starts with God creating the world , then describes the beginnings of the people of Israel , their descent into Egypt, and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai . It ends with the death of Moses , just before the people of Israel cross to

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3552-681: Is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible , namely the books of Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy . In Christianity , the Torah is also known as the Pentateuch ( / ˈ p ɛ n t ə tj uː k / ) or the Five Books of Moses . In Rabbinical Jewish tradition it is also known as the Written Torah ( תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב , Tōrā šebbīḵṯāv ). If meant for liturgic purposes, it takes

3663-516: Is the fifth book of the Torah. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of Moab , shortly before they enter the Promised Land. The first sermon recounts the forty years of wilderness wanderings which had led to that moment, and ends with an exhortation to observe the law (or teachings), later referred to as the Law of Moses ;

3774-576: Is widely seen as a product of the Persian period (539–332 BCE, probably 450–350 BCE). This consensus echoes a traditional Jewish view which gives Ezra , the leader of the Jewish community on its return from Babylon, a pivotal role in its promulgation. Many theories have been advanced to explain the composition of the Torah, but two have been especially influential. The first of these, Persian Imperial authorisation, advanced by Peter Frei in 1985, holds that

3885-507: The parashot for the Torah on the Aleppo Codex . Conservative and Reform synagogues may read parashot on a triennial rather than annual schedule, On Saturday afternoons, Mondays, and Thursdays, the beginning of the following Saturday's portion is read. On Jewish holidays , the beginnings of each month, and fast days , special sections connected to the day are read. Jews observe an annual holiday, Simchat Torah , to celebrate

3996-691: The Deuteronomist . One of its most significant verses is Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema Yisrael , which has become the definitive statement of Jewish identity : "Hear, O Israel: the L ORD our God, the L ORD is one." Verses 6:4–5 were also quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:28–34 as part of the Great Commandment . The Talmud states that the Torah was written by Moses, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, describing his death and burial, being written by Joshua . According to

4107-684: The Jerusalem Talmud . Since the greater number of rabbis lived in Babylon, the Babylonian Talmud has precedence should the two be in conflict. Orthodox and Conservative branches of Judaism accept these texts as the basis for all subsequent halakha and codes of Jewish law, which are held to be normative. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism deny that these texts, or the Torah itself for that matter, may be used for determining normative law (laws accepted as binding) but accept them as

4218-433: The Mishnah one of the essential tenets of Judaism is that God transmitted the text of the Torah to Moses over the span of the 40 years the Israelites were in the desert and Moses was like a scribe who was dictated to and wrote down all of the events, the stories and the commandments. According to Jewish tradition , the Torah was recompiled by Ezra during Second Temple period . The Talmud says that Ezra changed

4329-606: The Oral Torah which comprises the Mishnah , the Talmud , the Midrash and more. The inaccurate rendering of "Torah" as "Law" may be an obstacle to understanding the ideal that is summed up in the term talmud torah ( תלמוד תורה , "study of Torah"). The term "Torah" is also used to designate the entire Hebrew Bible . The earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been "The Torah of Moses". This title, however,

4440-467: The Persian period , with possibly some later additions during the Hellenistic period. The words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe ( sofer ) in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read every Monday morning and Thursday morning at a shul (synagogue) but only if there are ten males above the age of thirteen. Reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases of Jewish communal life. The Torah

4551-513: The Promised Land of Canaan . Interspersed in the narrative are the specific teachings (religious obligations and civil laws) given explicitly (i.e. Ten Commandments ) or implicitly embedded in the narrative (as in Exodus 12 and 13 laws of the celebration of Passover ). In Hebrew, the five books of the Torah are identified by the incipits in each book; and the common English names for

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4662-438: The Tabernacle , and all the teachings were written down by Moses , which resulted in the Torah that exists today. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world , and was used as the blueprint for Creation. Though hotly debated, the general trend in biblical scholarship is to recognize the final form of the Torah as a literary and ideological unity, based on earlier sources, largely complete by

4773-487: The Tabernacle , the means by which he will come from heaven and dwell with them and lead them in a holy war to possess the land, and then give them peace. Traditionally ascribed to Moses himself, modern scholarship sees the book as initially a product of the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), from earlier written and oral traditions, with final revisions in the Persian post-exilic period (5th century BCE). Carol Meyers , in her commentary on Exodus suggests that it

4884-665: The prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel . The word "Torah" in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה , which in the hif'il conjugation means 'to guide' or 'to teach'. The meaning of the word is therefore "teaching", "doctrine", or "instruction"; the commonly accepted "law" gives a wrong impression. The Alexandrian Jews who translated the Septuagint used the Greek word nomos , meaning norm, standard, doctrine, and later "law". Greek and Latin Bibles then began

4995-487: The synagogue in the Ark known as the "Holy Ark" ( אֲרוֹן הקֹדשׁ aron hakodesh in Hebrew.) Aron in Hebrew means "cupboard" or "closet", and kodesh is derived from "kadosh", or "holy". The Book of Ezra refers to translations and commentaries of the Hebrew text into Aramaic , the more commonly understood language of the time. These translations would seem to date to the 6th century BCE. The Aramaic term for translation

5106-424: The 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah's reforms (including his court's production of a law-code) have become heavily debated among academics. Most scholars also agree that some form of Priestly source existed, although its extent, especially its end-point, is uncertain. The remainder is called collectively non-Priestly, a grouping which includes both pre-Priestly and post-Priestly material. The final Torah

5217-406: The 19th and 20th centuries CE, new movements such as Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism have made adaptations to the practice of Torah reading, but the basic pattern of Torah reading has usually remained the same: As a part of the morning prayer services on certain days of the week, fast days, and holidays, as well as part of the afternoon prayer services of Shabbat, Yom Kippur, a section of

5328-546: The Aylestone Tollgate. According to The Newgate Calendar : Thousands of persons were attracted to the spot, to view this novel but most barbarous exhibition; and considerable annoyance was felt by persons resident in the neighbourhood of the dreadful scene. Representations were in consequence made to the authorities, and on the following Tuesday morning instructions were received from the Home Office directing

5439-580: The Exodus story was composed to serve the needs of a post-exilic Jewish community organised around the Temple, which acted in effect as a bank for those who belonged to it. A minority of scholars would place the final formation of the Pentateuch somewhat later, in the Hellenistic (332–164 BCE) or even Hasmonean (140–37 BCE) periods. Russell Gmirkin, for instance, argues for a Hellenistic dating on

5550-427: The God who has chosen Israel as his people. Yahweh inflicts horrific harm on their captors via the legendary Plagues of Egypt . With the prophet Moses as their leader, they journey through the wilderness to Mount Sinai , where Yahweh promises them the land of Canaan (the " Promised Land ") in return for their faithfulness. Israel enters into a covenant with Yahweh who gives them their laws and instructions to build

5661-478: The God-given land of Canaan , where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob . Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the agency of his son Joseph , the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus . The narrative

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5772-420: The Israelites that they shall become a great (i.e. numerous) nation, that they will have a special relationship with Yahweh their god, and that they shall take possession of the land of Canaan. Numbers also demonstrates the importance of holiness, faithfulness and trust: despite God's presence and his priests , Israel lacks faith and the possession of the land is left to a new generation. The Book of Deuteronomy

5883-659: The Oral Law was committed to writing. A great many more lessons, lectures and traditions only alluded to in the few hundred pages of Mishnah, became the thousands of pages now called the Gemara . Gemara is written in Aramaic (specifically Jewish Babylonian Aramaic ), having been compiled in Babylon. The Mishnah and Gemara together are called the Talmud. The rabbis in the Land of Israel also collected their traditions and compiled them into

5994-511: The Oral and the written Torah were transmitted in parallel with each other. Where the Torah leaves words and concepts undefined, and mentions procedures without explanation or instructions, the reader is required to seek out the missing details from supplemental sources known as the Oral Law or Oral Torah. Some of the Torah's most prominent commandments needing further explanation are: According to classical rabbinic texts this parallel set of material

6105-551: The Pentateuch is read from a Torah scroll. On Shabbat (Saturday) mornings, a weekly section (" parashah ") is read, selected so that the entire Pentateuch is read consecutively each year. The division of parashot found in the modern-day Torah scrolls of all Jewish communities (Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite) is based upon the systematic list provided by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah , Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and Torah Scrolls , chapter 8. Maimonides based his division of

6216-548: The Persian authorities required the Jews of Jerusalem to present a single body of law as the price of local autonomy. Frei's theory was, according to Eskenazi, "systematically dismantled" at an interdisciplinary symposium held in 2000, but the relationship between the Persian authorities and Jerusalem remains a crucial question. The second theory, associated with Joel P. Weinberg and called the "Citizen-Temple Community", proposes that

6327-493: The Tabernacle as an everlasting ordinance, but this ordinance is altered in later books with the Temple being the only place in which sacrifices are allowed. The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Torah. The book has a long and complex history, but its final form is probably due to a Priestly redaction (i.e., editing) of a Yahwistic source made some time in the early Persian period (5th century BCE). The name of

6438-485: The Torah (Talmud, tractate Pesachim 22b); the particle et is meaningless by itself, and serves only to mark the direct object . In other words, the Orthodox belief is that even apparently contextual text such as "And God spoke unto Moses saying ..." is no less holy and sacred than the actual statement. Manuscript Torah scrolls are still scribed and used for ritual purposes (i.e., religious services ); this

6549-512: The Torah and its laws first emerged in 444 BCE when, according to the biblical account provided in the Book of Nehemiah (chapter 8), a priestly scribe named Ezra read a copy of the Mosaic Torah before the populace of Judea assembled in a central Jerusalem square. Wellhausen believed that this narrative should be accepted as historical because it sounds plausible, noting: "The credibility of

6660-405: The Torah has multiple authors and that its composition took place over centuries. The precise process by which the Torah was composed, the number of authors involved, and the date of each author are hotly contested. Throughout most of the 20th century, there was a scholarly consensus surrounding the documentary hypothesis , which posits four independent sources, which were later compiled together by

6771-580: The Torah was introduced by Ezra the Scribe after the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity ( c.  537 BCE ), as described in the Book of Nehemiah . In the modern era, adherents of Orthodox Judaism practice Torah-reading according to a set procedure they believe has remained unchanged in the two thousand years since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE). In

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6882-400: The Torah") is a Jewish religious ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll . The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the Torah scroll (or scrolls) from the ark , chanting the appropriate excerpt with traditional cantillation , and returning the scroll(s) to the ark. It is distinct from academic Torah study . Regular public reading of

6993-534: The Torah", which seems to be a contraction of a fuller name, "The Book of the Torah of God". Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the 'Pentateuch' ( / ˈ p ɛ n . t ə ˌ t juː k / , PEN -tə-tewk ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : πεντάτευχος , pentáteukhos , 'five scrolls'), a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria . The " Tawrat " (also Tawrah or Taurat; Arabic : توراة‎ )

7104-458: The Torah, should be the source for Jewish behavior and ethics. Kabbalists hold that not only do the words of Torah give a divine message, but they also indicate a far greater message that extends beyond them. Thus they hold that even as small a mark as a kotso shel yod ( קוצו של יוד ), the serif of the Hebrew letter yod (י), the smallest letter, or decorative markings, or repeated words, were put there by God to teach scores of lessons. This

7215-487: The ankles, the knees, the thighs, the bowels the breast and the shoulders; the hands were hung by the side and covered with pitch, the face was pitched and covered with a piece of white cloth. The gibbet was a one-foot (30 cm) in diameter with strong bars of iron up each side. The post was fixed into a one-and-a-half-long-ton (1,500 kg) stone base sunk into the Slake. The body was soon removed by fellow miners and given

7326-412: The authentic and only Jewish version for understanding the Torah and its development throughout history. Humanistic Judaism holds that the Torah is a historical, political, and sociological text, but does not believe that every word of the Torah is true, or even morally correct. Humanistic Judaism is willing to question the Torah and to disagree with it, believing that the entire Jewish experience, not just

7437-422: The authority of the United States. However, a gang of Cuban pirates were gibbeted in New York c.  1815 . The January 1921 issue of The National Geographic Magazine contains two photographs of gibbet cages, referenced as "man-cages," in use in Afghanistan. Commentary included with the photograph indicates that the gibbet was a practice still in active use. Persons sentenced to death were placed alive in

7548-414: The basis that the Elephantine papyri , the records of a Jewish colony in Egypt dating from the last quarter of the 5th century BCE, make no reference to a written Torah, the Exodus , or to any other biblical event, though it does mention the festival of Passover . In his seminal Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels , Julius Wellhausen argued that Judaism as a religion based on widespread observance of

7659-409: The bodies were almost completely decomposed, after which the bones would be scattered. In cases of drawing and quartering , the body of the criminal was cut into four or five portions, with the several parts often gibbeted in different places. So that the public display might be prolonged, bodies were sometimes coated in tar or bound in chains. Sometimes, body-shaped iron cages were used to contain

7770-416: The bodies were hanging. Although the intention was deterrence, the public response was complex. Samuel Pepys expressed disgust at the practice. There was Christian objection that prosecution of criminals should end with their death. The sight and smell of decaying corpses was offensive and regarded as "pestilential", so it was seen as a threat to public health. Pirates were sometimes executed by hanging on

7881-424: The book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites. Numbers begins at Mount Sinai , where the Israelites have received their laws and covenant from God and God has taken up residence among them in the sanctuary . The task before them is to take possession of the Promised Land. The people are counted and preparations are made for resuming their march. The Israelites begin the journey, but they "murmur" at

7992-601: The books are derived from the Greek Septuagint and reflect the essential theme of each book: The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Torah. It is divisible into two parts, the Primeval history (chapters 1–11) and the Ancestral history (chapters 12–50). The primeval history sets out the author's (or authors') concepts of the nature of the deity and of humankind's relationship with its maker: God creates

8103-412: The cage and remained there until some undefined time weeks or months after their deaths. In 1837, five years after the practice had ceased in England, the body of John McKay was gibbeted near the spot where he had murdered Joseph Wilson near Perth , in the colony of Van Diemen's Land . There was a great outcry, but the body was not removed until an acquaintance of Wilson passed the spot and, horrified by

8214-566: The cage variation is the gibbet iron, on display at the Atwater Kent Museum in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania. The cage, created in 1781, was intended to be used to display the body of convicted pirate Thomas Wilkinson, so that sailors on passing ships might be warned of the consequences of piracy; Wilkinson's planned execution never took place, so the gibbet was never used. An example of an iron cage used to string up bodies on

8325-438: The changing attitudes toward the practice. William Jobling was a miner hanged and gibbeted for the murder of Nicholas Fairles, a colliery owner and local magistrate , near Jarrow , Durham . After being hanged, the body was taken off the rope and loaded into a cart and taken on a tour of the area before arriving at Jarrow Slake, where the crime had been committed. Here, the body was placed into an iron gibbet cage. The cage and

8436-431: The completion and new start of the year's cycle of readings. Torah scrolls are often dressed with a sash, a special Torah cover, various ornaments, and a keter (crown), although such customs vary among synagogues. Congregants traditionally stand in respect when the Torah is brought out of the ark to be read, while it is being carried, and lifted, and likewise while it is returned to the ark, although they may sit during

8547-454: The custom of calling the Pentateuch (five books of Moses) The Law. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom , theory , guidance , or system . The term "Torah" is used in the general sense to include both Rabbinic Judaism 's written and oral law , serving to encompass the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history, including

8658-524: The decomposing corpses. For example, in March ;1743 in the town of Rye, East Sussex , Allen Grebell was murdered by John Breads. Breads was imprisoned in the Ypres Tower and then hanged, after which his body was left to rot for more than 20 years in an iron cage on Gibbet Marsh. The cage, with Breads's skull clamped within the headframe, is still kept in the town hall. Another example of

8769-411: The district, where such a spectacle would be likely to prove a warning, and prevent a repetition of the murders which have of late been prevalent in the neighbourhood". Hanging a body in chains was a post execution punishment that was used for those criminals who had committed heinous crimes such as murder. Smugglers were not usually hung in chains post execution. However during the mid eighteenth century

8880-425: The entire Hebrew Bible . The Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash . Rabbinic tradition's understanding is that all of the teachings found in the Torah (both written and oral) were given by God through the prophet Moses , some at Mount Sinai and others at

8991-541: The following forty years, though many non-Orthodox Jewish scholars affirm the modern scholarly consensus that the Written Torah has multiple authors and was written over centuries. All classical rabbinic views hold that the Torah was entirely Mosaic and of divine origin. Present-day Reform and Liberal Jewish movements all reject Mosaic authorship, as do most shades of Conservative Judaism . Torah reading ( Hebrew : קריאת התורה , K'riat HaTorah , "Reading [of]

9102-667: The following high tides. John the Painter was hanged in 1777 from the mizzenmast of HMS Arethusa for arson in royal dockyards , the highest temporary gallows erected in British history. The only surviving New Drop gallows in the UK is in Rutland County Museum . The gallows was portable and was set up on the gaol (jail) gatehouse roof when needed. This gallows was first used in 1813 to hang two burglars. The New Drop design

9213-471: The form of a Torah scroll ( Hebrew : ספר תורה Sefer Torah ). If in bound book form , it is called Chumash , and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries ( perushim ). In rabbinic literature , the word Torah denotes both the five books ( תורה שבכתב "Torah that is written") and the Oral Torah ( תורה שבעל פה , "Torah that is spoken"). It has also been used, however, to designate

9324-763: The former English commander Rowland York and hanged and gibbeted it as a reminder of York's treachery in 1587. He had handed over the Zutphen sconce to the Spaniards after the English army under the Earl of Leicester was defeated by the Spaniards in the Battle of Zutphen . In 838, the Iranian hero Babak Khorramdin had his hands and feet cut off by the Abbasid Caliphate and was then gibbeted alive while sewn into

9435-706: The harbour at Smyrna. During the colonial era , Bird Island and Nix's Mate island in Boston Harbor were used for gibbeting pirates and sailors executed for crimes in Massachusetts. Their bodies were left hanging as a warning to sailors coming into the harbor and approaching Boston. In 1755, a slave named Mark was hanged in Cambridge, Massachusetts , and then gibbeted in chains in Charlestown, Massachusetts ; twenty years later, Paul Revere passed

9546-453: The hardships along the way, and about the authority of Moses and Aaron . For these acts, God destroys approximately 15,000 of them through various means. They arrive at the borders of Canaan and send spies into the land. Upon hearing the spies' fearful report concerning the conditions in Canaan, the Israelites refuse to take possession of it. God condemns them to death in the wilderness until

9657-556: The massacre of Roman settlers in the destruction of Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St. Albans) in AD 60–61. During the 17th and 18th centuries, gibbets were a common sight in Bermuda. Located in Smith's Parish at the entrance to Flatt's Inlet is Gibbet Island , which was used to hang the bodies of escaped slaves as a deterrent to others. The small island

9768-658: The middle of the 2nd century BCE. Adler explored the likelihhood that Judaism, as the widespread practice of Torah law by Jewish society at large, first emerged in Judea during the reign of the Hasmonean dynasty , centuries after the putative time of Ezra. By contrast, John J. Collins has argued that the observance of the Torah started in Persian Yehud when the Judeans who returned from exile understood its normativity as

9879-431: The narrative appears on the face of it." Following Wellhausen, most scholars throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries have accepted that widespread Torah observance began sometime around the middle of the 5th century BCE. More recently, Yonatan Adler has argued that in fact there is no surviving evidence to support the notion that the Torah was widely known, regarded as authoritative, and put into practice prior to

9990-467: The noose around the person's neck while he or she was on a ladder or in a horse-drawn cart underneath. Removing the ladder or driving the cart away left the person dangling by the neck to slowly strangle. A noted example of this type of execution in the USA was the hanging of British spy John André in 1780. Later, a "scaffold" with a trapdoor tended to be used, so victims dropped down and died quickly from

10101-469: The observance of selected, ancestral laws of high symbolic value, while during the Maccabean revolt Jews started a much more detailed observance of its precepts. Rabbinic writings state that the Oral Torah was given to Moses at Mount Sinai , which, according to the tradition of Orthodox Judaism , occurred in 1312 BCE. The Orthodox rabbinic tradition holds that the Written Torah was recorded during

10212-524: The passing of the mantle of leadership from Moses to Joshua and, finally, the death of Moses on Mount Nebo . Presented as the words of Moses delivered before the conquest of Canaan, a broad consensus of modern scholars see its origin in traditions from Israel (the northern kingdom) brought south to the Kingdom of Judah in the wake of the Assyrian conquest of Aram (8th century BCE) and then adapted to

10323-544: The position and appearance of the Hebrew letters are observed. See for example the Mishnah Berurah on the subject. Any of several Hebrew scripts may be used, most of which are fairly ornate and exacting. The completion of the Sefer Torah is a cause for great celebration, and it is a mitzvah for every Jew to either write or have written for him a Sefer Torah. Torah scrolls are stored in the holiest part of

10434-409: The reading itself. The Torah contains narratives, statements of law, and statements of ethics. Collectively these laws, usually called biblical law or commandments, are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses ( Torat Moshɛ תּוֹרַת־מֹשֶׁה ), Mosaic Law , or Sinaitic Law . Rabbinic tradition holds that Moses learned the whole Torah while he lived on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights and both

10545-470: The remains of Mark on his famous ride. Six men were executed by gibbeting under civil authority in the Southern Colonies . In Virginia, three men accused of piracy were executed by gibbeting in 1700. In South Carolina, three men were executed by gibbeting: one accused of poisoning in 1744, and two accused of murder in 1754 and 1759. There have been no recorded executions using this method under

10656-556: The removal of the gibbet. Although the practice of gibbeting had been abandoned by 1834 in Britain, during the British Raj of India in 1843, Charles James Napier threatened to have such structures built in parallel to any attempt to practice Sati , the ritualized burning of widows, to execute the perpetrators. Works of art depicting gibbeting include: Gallows In modern usage the term has come to mean almost exclusively

10767-539: The scene of the crime. In 1751, an Act of Parliament stipulated that "in no case whatsoever shall the body of any murderer be suffered to be buried"; the cadaver was either to be publicly dissected or left "hanging in chains". The use of gibbeting had been in decline for some years before it was formally repealed by statute in 1834. In Scotland, the final case of gibbeting was that of Alexander Gillan in 1810. The last two men gibbeted in England were William Jobling and James Cook, both in 1832. Their cases are good examples of

10878-418: The scene were described thus: The body was encased in flat bars of iron of two and a half inches in breadth, the feet were placed in stirrups, from which a bar of iron went up each side of the head, and ended in a ring by which he was suspended; a bar from the collar went down the breast, and another down the back, there were also bars in the inside of the legs which communicated with the above; and crossbars at

10989-502: The script used to write the Torah from the older Hebrew script to Assyrian script, so called according to the Talmud, because they brought it with them from Assyria. Maharsha says that Ezra made no changes to the actual text of the Torah based on the Torah's prohibition of making any additions or deletions to the Torah in Deuteronomy 12:32 . By contrast, the modern scholarly consensus rejects Mosaic authorship, and affirms that

11100-451: The second Priestly. By contrast, John Van Seters advocates a supplementary hypothesis , which posits that the Torah was derived from a series of direct additions to an existing corpus of work. A "neo-documentarian" hypothesis, which responds to the criticism of the original hypothesis and updates the methodology used to determine which text comes from which sources, has been advocated by biblical historian Joel S. Baden, among others. Such

11211-509: The second reminds the Israelites of the need to follow Yahweh and the laws (or teachings) he has given them, on which their possession of the land depends; and the third offers the comfort that even should Israel prove unfaithful and so lose the land, with repentance all can be restored. The final four chapters (31–34) contain the Song of Moses , the Blessing of Moses , and narratives recounting

11322-765: The spectacle of McKay's rotting corpse, pleaded with the authorities to remove it. The place where this occurred was just to the right (when travelling towards Launceston, not to be confused with the private road with the same name) on the Midlands Highway on the northern side of Perth. In the Colony of Western Australia , gibbeting of executed Indigenous people continued into the mid-1850s. In 1855, Aboriginal men Yandan and Yoongal were executed in Perth for separate murders, with their bodies then "conveyed under escort to York , there to be suspended in some conspicuous part of

11433-567: Was displayed on a spike after his death, after monarchists disinterred his body during the restoration of the monarchy. The leaders of the Anabaptist movement in Münster were executed in 1536; their dead bodies were gibbeted in iron cages hanging from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church, and the cages are still on display there today. Similarly, following his execution by hanging in 1738, the corpse of Jewish financier Joseph Süß Oppenheimer

11544-465: Was gibbeted in a human-sized bird cage that hung outside of Stuttgart on the so-called Pragsattel (the public execution place at the time) for six years, until the inauguration of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg , who permitted the hasty burial of his corpse at an unknown location. After the siege and capture of the city of Zutphen in 1591 by the Anglo-Dutch army, the English dug up the body of

11655-722: Was hanged for it, and her body hung in chains. Her story has become legendary in Quebec , and she is the subject of numerous books and plays. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy used Hangman's Beach on McNab's Island in Halifax Harbour to display the hanged bodies of deserters, in order to deter the crews of passing warships. Pinchgut Island (originally Mat-te-wan-ye in the local Aboriginal language ; later, Rock Island when renamed by Governor Arthur Phillip ),

11766-417: Was laid with the investigation of the origins of the written sources in oral compositions, implying that the creators of J and E were collectors and editors and not authors and historians. Rolf Rendtorff , building on this insight, argued that the basis of the Pentateuch lay in short, independent narratives, gradually formed into larger units and brought together in two editorial phases, the first Deuteronomic,

11877-490: Was not very effective as the drop was too short to break the neck cleanly. If a crime took place inside, gallows were sometimes erected—and the criminal hanged—at the front door. In some cases of multiple offenders it was not uncommon to erect multiple temporary gallows, with one noose per condemned criminal. In one case a condemned strangled to death in agony for forty minutes until he finally died from asphyxiation . Hanging people from early gallows sometimes involved fitting

11988-435: Was originally transmitted to Moses at Sinai, and then from Moses to Israel. At that time it was forbidden to write and publish the oral law, as any writing would be incomplete and subject to misinterpretation and abuse. However, after exile, dispersion, and persecution, this tradition was lifted when it became apparent that in writing was the only way to ensure that the Oral Law could be preserved. After many years of effort by

12099-459: Was sent to New South Wales for life following a murder conviction in 1793; he later killed again in 1796 and was hanged in chains on Pinchgut in November 1796. Morgan's dead body and, later, skeleton remained on display on the island for four years. Robert Aske , who led the rebellion against Henry VIII known as Pilgrimage of Grace , was hanged in chains in 1537. The head of Oliver Cromwell

12210-497: Was shaved and tarred, to preserve it from the action of the weather; and the cap in which he had suffered was drawn over his face. On Saturday afternoon his body, attired as at the time of his execution, having been firmly fixed in the irons necessary to keep the limbs together, was carried to the place of its intended suspension. His body was to be displayed on a purpose-built gallows 33 feet (10 m) high in Saffron Lane near

12321-533: Was used for this purpose because it was not on the mainland and therefore satisfied the beliefs of locals who did not want gibbets near their homes. Marie-Josephte Corriveau (1733–1763), better known as "La Corriveau", is one of the most popular figures in Québécois folklore. She lived in New France, was sentenced to death by a military tribunal of twelve British officers for the murder of her second husband,

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