Excerpt from The Trial of Jesus Christ: A Legal Monograph Hence modern Jewish writers have referred to it without hesitation as including the code of criminal law in existence at the date of the high-priestship of Annas and Caiaphas. Of course this cannot be matter of demonstration in the case of all portions of a book which was not finally reduced to writing until centuries had passed. But the evidence shows that the development of the Mishna. In the direction of precaution against legal injustice or negli gence was exceptionally early and strong. Its earliest period coincided with the time of the Men of the Great Synagogue, stretching from the Return from the Captivity to about 220 b.c. Their work has been summed up in the lead ing aphorism of the Pifrke Aroth, which runs, Be cautious and Slow in judgment, send forth many disciples, and make a fence round the lone.1 And this age, which ih culcated caution in judicial action before all other things, was succeeded by the so-called age of the Sanhedrin, which for the next four hundred years worked out that caution in detail. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.