We’re getting away
from it now, in the kangaroo courts of Human Rights Tribunals and college
campus inquisitions, but due process used to be a thing.
Built into the Law of Moses were several important procedural provisions designed to ensure that
justice was done, including the oft-quoted “On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death
on the evidence of one witness.” First century Jews applied this principle
across the board. It was the essence of fairness.
Yet we have it on the authority of several gospel writers that in the case of the Lord Jesus, the rulebook went out the window, as it did at Stephen’s trial and in
Jewish attempts to get their hands on the apostle Paul.
In first century Judea, the kangaroos were out in force.