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Historical Background: Stoning
In today's passage, Paul is stoned in Lystra. Here's some historical background on what exactly that entailed:
"Stoning was the most common method of biblical execution (Lev 24:13–16; Deut 17:2–7), and the images of it are evocative, to say the least. Stoning was a death of surpassing brutality. Rabbinic lore describes how a man was to be thrown from a cliff and crushed on the chest with a large stone. If still alive, the victim was then pelted with smaller stones until dead. This ghastly image is magnified by the fact that stoning was a communal sentence carried out by the common people. It was excommunication from the community in the most dire sense. Furthermore, the weapons were the very stones of the land of Israel.
Most of the crimes for which stoning was prescribed were public offenses against the integrity of the community of faith, and this explains the communal nature of its method. Blasphemy, idolatry, spirit divination, false prophecy, adultery, the disobedience of a son and child sacrifice were all to be punished by stoning. A particularly heinous offense was seducing others to forsake Yahweh (Deut 13); there was to be no compassion or mercy, even between family members. Thus Achan and his family are stoned for stealing sacred spoils and “troubling” Israel (Josh 7:1–26).
The most graphic images of stoning come from the NT, with Stephen’s untimely death by stoning at the hands of a mob (Acts 7:58) and the attempted stoning of Jesus by his own townspeople (Lk 4:29). The unsettling brutality of stoning expresses the seriousness with which Israel viewed the sanctity of the community and the danger for those who transgressed. Offenders were crushed by the stones of the land and by the hands of the people." [1] (emphasis mine)
Historical Background: Stoning
In today's passage, Paul is stoned in Lystra. Here's some historical background on what exactly that entailed:
"Stoning was the most common method of biblical execution (Lev 24:13–16; Deut 17:2–7), and the images of it are evocative, to say the least. Stoning was a death of surpassing brutality. Rabbinic lore describes how a man was to be thrown from a cliff and crushed on the chest with a large stone. If still alive, the victim was then pelted with smaller stones until dead. This ghastly image is magnified by the fact that stoning was a communal sentence carried out by the common people. It was excommunication from the community in the most dire sense. Furthermore, the weapons were the very stones of the land of Israel.
Most of the crimes for which stoning was prescribed were public offenses against the integrity of the community of faith, and this explains the communal nature of its method. Blasphemy, idolatry, spirit divination, false prophecy, adultery, the disobedience of a son and child sacrifice were all to be punished by stoning. A particularly heinous offense was seducing others to forsake Yahweh (Deut 13); there was to be no compassion or mercy, even between family members. Thus Achan and his family are stoned for stealing sacred spoils and “troubling” Israel (Josh 7:1–26).
The most graphic images of stoning come from the NT, with Stephen’s untimely death by stoning at the hands of a mob (Acts 7:58) and the attempted stoning of Jesus by his own townspeople (Lk 4:29). The unsettling brutality of stoning expresses the seriousness with which Israel viewed the sanctity of the community and the danger for those who transgressed. Offenders were crushed by the stones of the land and by the hands of the people." [1] (emphasis mine)
[1] Leland Ryken, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, electronic ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 816.
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