Capital punishment in Judaism
Capital punishment in traditional Jewish law has been defined in Codes of Jewish law dating back to medieval times, based on a system of oral laws contained in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, the primary source being the Hebrew Bible. In traditional Jewish law there are four types of capital punishment: a) stoning, b) burning by ingesting molten lead, c) strangling, and d) beheading, each being the punishment for specific offenses. Except in special cases where a king can issue the death penalty, capital punishment in Jewish law cannot be decreed upon a person unless there were a minimum of twenty-three judges (Sanhedrin) adjudicating in that person's trial who, by a majority vote, gave the death sentence, and where there had been at least two competent witnesses who testified before the court that they had seen the litigant commit the offense. Even so, capital punishment does not begin in Jewish law until the court adjudicating in this case had issued the death sentence from a specific place on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem.
Sefer Torah
Illustration in 1883 encyclopaedia of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin council
Monument to Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain
The Ten Commandments
Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times.
Saint Stephen, first martyr of Christianity, painted in 1506 by Marx Reichlich (1460–1520) (Pinakothek of Munich)
Virasundra is stoned to death on the order of Rajasinha II of Kandy (Sri Lanka, c. 1672)
The Sabbath-breaker Stoned. Artistic impression of episode narrated in Numbers 15. James Tissot c.1900
The Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron (1480–1482), by Sandro Botticelli, Sistine Chapel, Rome.