Excommunication

Excommunication

    The Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

According to the Talmud, there were three grades of excommunication among the Jews. The first was called niddin, and those on whom it was pronounced were not permitted for thirty days to have any communication with any person unless at a distance over four cubits (about 6 feet). They were not prohibited from attending public worship, though they could not, during the thirty days, enter the temple by the ordinary gate. They were not allowed to shave during that time, and were required to wear garments of mourning.

The second was called cherem, and was pronounced on those who remained openly disobedient under the first. It was of greater severity than the other, and required the presence of at least ten members of the congregation to make it valid. The offender was formally cursed, was excluded from all intercourse with other people, and was prohibited from entering the temple or synagogue.
The third was shammatha, and was inflicted on those who persisted in their stubborn resistance to authority. By this they were cut off from all connection with the Jewish people, and were consigned to utter perdition.

The Talmud assigns as the two general causes for excommunication, money and epicurism. The first refers to those who refused to pay the moneys that the court directed them to pay; the second refers to those who despised the Word of God or of the scribes—both being put on an equal basis.

Excommunication is alluded to in Matthew 18:17; John 9:34; 12:42; 16:2. Some think Jesus in Luke 6:22 refers to the several grades of excommunication noted: “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake” (KJV).


James M. Freeman and Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 517–518.