PASSAGES RELATING TO JESUS
81
one case of a man who has tempted others to apostasy,
which was of course the charge against Jesus (see
above, p. 51). However that may be, and I do not
feel competent to pronounce opinion on the question
of the origin of this law, the point that concerns us
here is this, that as early as the time when the To-
sephta was compiled, there was a tradition that the
condemnation of Jesus had been obtained by the
fraudulent means described above. Presumably
the
Tosephta (19) represents the oldest form of the tradi-
tion now extant ; but there is no material difference
between the three passages (19), (20), (21), so far
as
they refer to Ben Stada. They agree in saying, first,
that two witnesses were hidden in a room adjoining
the one where the accused sat ; second, that a lamp
was lit over the accused, so that the witnesses could
see as well as hear him ; third, that in the case of Ben
Stada, the witnesses brought him to the Beth Din 1
and stoned him ; fourth, that this took place in Lid
(Lydda).
(21) makes the important addition that
" they hung him on the eve of Passover." As to the
place of concealment, (19) and (20)
say that the two
witnesses were in the inner chamber and the accused
in the outer, (21) reverses the position. It is not
clear in regard to the cross-examination
described in
(21) whether the questioners are the two witnesses.
If they are, the concealment would seem to be use-
less ; if not, there is nothing to show who they are.
The uncertainty on this point, which the compiler of
the Gemara seems to feel, may be understood if there
' Beth Din, literally house of judgment, an assembly of Rabbis and their
disciples sitting as a court of justice. The term does not denote any special
tribunal.
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