Johnny Skeptic

During the first few years after Jesus died and supposedly rose from the dead, there must have been Jews living far away from Palestine who did not know anything about Jesus. Were they still killing Jews who worked on the Sabbath Day, and who committed other crimes under Old Testament law that were punishable by death?

Malachi151

This question doesn't even make any sense.

There is no indication in the Jewish writings of any knowledge or relation to the Jesus story until around the 4th century. It had basically no influence on Judaism during the 1st century at all.

What did have a major effect, however, was the destruction of Judea, during which the Temple was destroyed and the ways that Jews proctised their faith was radically altered.

Some stuff related to that here:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/vi...2&letter=P#927

J-D

According to the accounts I recall reading (I'm sorry I can't give you any sources for this), capital punishment had effectively ceased to be applied under Jewish law long before the time of Jesus. The teachers of the law couldn't get round the fact that the Scripture called for the death penalty in certain cases, but they had introduced procedural requirements which were virtually insurmountable barriers: for example, two eyewitnesses had to testify to the crime, and what's more they had to testify that they had warned the defendant in advance. There is a Talmudic saying that a court which passed one death sentence in seven years would be considered a bloodthirsty court, and a response by another rabbi that a court which passed one death sentence in seventy years would be considered a bloodthirsty court.

DCHindley

JS,

Jewish law applied only in the holy land. There were differences of opinion over how far that extended from Jerusalem. The temple operated as a government sanctioned temple state (sort of like a Greek city state) which held sway over a certain amount of land, probably a good chunk of the province of Judea (except royal land and other land appropriated by this or that conquerer over the years). So, legally, Jewish law could only be enforced by temple authorities in Judea. In other areas, like the diaspora, Jews had the right to operate their own law courts, and so could impose some sort of punishments but I'd imagine that this would not include the death penalty. Some Jews living in areas that were once part of the old kingdom of Israel/Juda (like Galilee), if they had the means to do so, would voluntarily make themselves and the land under their control subject to the Jewish laws regarding tithing, etc, but again I doubt they could enforce a death sentence (except as vigilantes, and some may have done just that).

DCH

J-D

I figured out a good Google search for you:

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...nalty%22&meta=