Mishnah Sanhedrin

During the Roman period, Jewish authorities lost the right to inflict capital punishment, a situation that was only further entrenched after the destruction of the Temple and its court in 70 CE. This did not prevent the rabbis from “scripting” a ritual of execution as a way of exploring the ethics of judicial death and positioning themselves as authoritative figures, as seen here in m. Sanhedrin 6:1–3.

Another set of laws unenforceable in the Roman period were those of Deuteronomy 21:18–21, concerning the conviction and execution of a “stubborn and rebellious son.” Nevertheless, in m. Sanhedrin 8:1–5 the rabbis devote their extraordinary exegetical skills to this biblical passage in what may be seen as an exercise in moral critique of an unpalatable scriptural law. Through a hyperliteral reading of the law’s language, the rabbis create an impossibly high bar for conviction, thereby ensuring that “there never has been a stubborn and rebellious son, and never will be” (see “Bavli Sanhedrin”).