Since, with reference to the enticer to idolatry, the Bible<ref>Deut. xiii 10 [A. V. 9]</ref> employs the term Harag = "to slay" ("Thou shalt surely slay him"), and this is immediately explained by the addition<ref>ib. 11 [A. V. 10]</ref>, "Thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die," it follows that the term "harag" used in reference to the beast likewise means to slay by stoning. And as for the criminal himself, his sentence is the same as that of the beast in connection with which he is mentioned.<ref>Sifra, l.c. x.; Sanh. 54b</ref> In the case of the instigator to communal apostasy (''maddiaḥ'') the law reads <ref>Deut. xiii. 6 [A. V. 5]</ref>, "He hath spoken . . . to thrust thee out of the way of the Lord," and in that of the enticer of individuals (''mesit'') the identical expression is used: "He hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord"<ref>ib. 11 [A. V. 10]</ref>; hence as in the latter case stoning is the penalty, so it is in the former.<ref>Sifre, Deut. 86; Sanh. 89b</ref> Finally, concerning the witch, it is said<ref>Ex. xii. 17 [A. V. 18]</ref>, "Thou shalt not suffer her to live," and elsewhere<ref>ib. xix. 13</ref> the expression, "Shall not live," is used in connection with "He shall surely be stoned"; therefore in the first case the particular penalty is to be the same as in the second.<ref>Mek., l.c.; Sanh. 67a</ref>

According to these conclusions, rabbinic law based on Pentateuchal authority, expressed or inferred, affixes death by stoning to each of the following eighteen crimes:

As in the several classes included in the above category (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 14) rabbinic jurisprudence establishes the particular punishment of the criminal on the basis of Gezerah shawah, so in most cases of the following category the particular punishment is deduced from Gezerah shawah. Thus, with reference to bigamy with mother and daughter the law reads.<ref>Lev. xx. 14</ref> "It is wickedness" (''Zimmah hi''), and because elsewhere.<ref>ib. xviii. 17</ref>the identical expression is used with reference to criminal conversation of man with female relatives of other degrees, rabbinic law affixes the penalty which the Pentateuch attaches to the former also to the latter.<ref>Sanh. ix. 1, 75a; Sifra, K.edoshim, ix. 17</ref> On the same principle the Rabbis establish the penalty for such conversation with relatives within certain ascending degrees, comparing them with the descending degrees of like removes, explicitly mentioned in the Bible.<ref>Yeb. 21a et seq.; Yer. Sanh. ix. 26d; Yer. Yeb. ii. 3d</ref>

The crimes punished in rabbinic law with death by burning are accordingly the following ten:

The nine cases of incest here enumerated (2-10) subject the perpetrator to the penalty of burningonly when the crime is committed during the life of his legal wife.<ref>Yeb. 95a; Sanh. 76b; see Maimonides, "Yad," Issure Bi'ah, i. 5</ref>

Two crimes only are punished by slaying:

To the three modes of capital punishment explicitly mentioned in the Pentateuchal laws, rabbinic law adds a fourth; viz., strangulation. In post-Biblical jurisprudence this is the penalty incurred by the perpetrator of any one of the crimes to which the Pentateuch affixes death, without specifying the mode of death and where no conclusions from Gezerah shawah can be deduced. The Rabbis argue thus: No death-sentence pronounced in the Bible indefinitely may be construed with severity; on the contrary, it must be interpreted leniently. And since the Rabbis viewed strangulation as the easiest of deaths, they decided that the undefined death-sentence of the Pentateuchal code means strangulation. Moreover, the Bible frequently speaks of death sent "by Heaven" for certain sins.<ref>for example: Gen. xxxviii. 7, 10; Lev. x. 7, 9</ref> and as the death visited by Heaven leaves no outward mark, so must the death inflicted by a human tribunal leave no outward marks, and that is possible only in an execution by strangulation.<ref>Mek., Mishpat.im, 5; Sifra, K.edoshim, ix. 11; Sanh. 52b</ref>

By strangulation the following six crimes are punished: