Stoning

Stoning was the prescribed method of capital punishment in the Mosaic law for offenses including idolatry (Deut. 13:10), blasphemy (Lev. 24:14–16), adultery (Deut. 22:21), Sabbath-breaking (Num. 15:35), and disobedience to parents (Deut. 21:21). The procedure typically involved the witnesses to the crime casting the first stones (Deut. 17:7), with the community participating afterward, distributing guilt for the execution across the community rather than concentrating it in an executioner. The condemned was usually first thrown down from an elevation before the stones were cast.

Notable stonings in the biblical narrative include the execution of Achan and his household for the sin of taking devoted things (Josh. 7:25), the judicial murder of Naboth by Jezebel's arrangement (1 Kings 21), and the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:59). Paul was stoned at Lystra and left for dead (Acts 14:19). Stoning also appears as a metaphor for the rejection of prophets: Jesus laments that Jerusalem "stonest them that are sent unto thee" (Matt. 23:37).