IX. 6. If any one steal a sacred vessel, or curse by Kosem, 2 or marry a heathen woman, 3 zealous people may attack them. If a priest minister in an unclean condition, 4 his brother priests do not bring him to the court, but the young attendant priests take him outside the courtyard and break open his brain with clubs. If a stranger serve in
119:2 Meaning uncertain. The majority of Jewish commentators treat as the name of an idol. A possible interpretation is, that it is an abbreviation of some transliterated unorthodox divine name, such as, for example, κοσμοπλάστης, or a disguised form of the Tetragrammaton. The criminal is then the blasphemer who utters the name "under a pseudonym" (Sanh. VII. 5). Although he cannot be legally stoned, he may become the object of irregular justice.
119:3 On the ground of Numb. 25. 6-15.
119:4 Legally, (Makkoth III. 2), he can only be punished by scourging.
120:1 See Josephus, Bell. VI. ll. 4; V. v. 2; Ant. XV. xi. 5; from which it is to be gathered that the Romans recognized that the Jews could put intruders to death. The well-known Temple barrier inscription discovered in 1871 reads: "No man of another nation to enter within the fence and enclosure round the Temple; and whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death follows." Cf. J. Armitage Robinson, St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, p. 160.
