Head of the Sanhedrin, it lasted for thirty days. In later times, however, it only rested for

one day on the guilty person.35 Perhaps St. Paul referred to this 'rebuke' in the

expression which he used about an offending Elder.36 He certainly adopted the practice

in Palestine,37 when he would not have an Elder 'rebuked' although he went far beyond

it when he would have such 'entreated.' In Palestine it was ordered, that an offending

Rabbi should be scourged instead of being excommunicated.38 Yet another direction of

St. Paul's is evidently derived from these arrangements of the Synagogue, although

applied in a far different spirit. When the Apostle wrote: 'An heretic after the first and

second admonition reject;' there must have been in his mind the second degree of

Jewish excommunication, the so-called Niddui (from t he verb to thrust, thrust out, cast

out). This lasted for thirty days at the least, although among the Babylonians only for

seven days.39 At the end of that term there was 'a second admonition,' which lasted

other thirty days. If still unrepentant, the thi rd, or real excommunication, was

pronounced, which was called the Cherem , or ban, and of which the duration was

indefinite. Any three persons, or even one duly authorised, could pronounce the lowest

sentence. The greater excommunication (Niddui) - which, happily, could only be

pronounced in an assembly of ten - must have been terrible, being accompanied by

curses,40 41 and, at a later period, sometimes proclaimed with the blast of the horn.42 43

If the person so visited occupied an honourable position, it was the custom to intimate

his sentence in a euphemistic manner, such as: 'It seems to me that thy companions

are separating themselves from thee.' He who was so, or similarly addressed, would

only too well understand its meaning. Henceforth he would sit on the ground, and bear

himself like one in deep mourning. He would allow his beard and hair to grow wild and

shaggy; he would not bathe, nor anoint himself; he would not be admitted into an

assembly of ten men, neither to public prayer, nor to the Academy; though he might

either teach, or be taught by, single individuals. Nay, as if he were a leper, people would

keep at a distance of four cubits from him. If he died, stones were cast on his coffin, nor

was he allowed the honour of the ordinary funeral, nor were they to mourn for him. Still

more terrible was the final excommunication, or Cherem , when a ban of indefinite

duration was laid on a man. Henceforth he was like one dead. He was not allowed to

study with others, no intercourse was to be held with him, he was not even to be shown

the road. He might, indeed, buy the necessaries of life, but it was forbidden to eat or

drink with such an one.44