When
we began our journey over twenty-five years ago, our focus was on religion and
in our wildest dreams we could have never imagined what we would discover over
the next two and a half decades. Jeffrey Leynor was the rabbi at a Conservative
synagogue and I (Jim Myers) was the minister of a nondenominational church. One
of the primary things we wanted to understand was how two Jewish sects became two
mutually exclusive monotheistic religions – one
Jewish and one non-Jewish. But ultimately we learned much more – read entire
blog at https://lives1st.blogspot.com/2017/11/lives-1st-or-profits-1st.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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