Lovinight
Seeker of Truth!
The Bible traditionally reserves beheading for only the worst of crimes—and that’s because of beliefs about the soul.
Rabbinical law covers four deaths: stoning, slaying (decapitation), strangulation, and burning. Beheading is reserved for the most serious of all crimes—murder and idolatry. The severity of the punishment is linked to ancient beliefs about how final it was.
According to the Egyptians, the soul lives in the head, and beheading destroyed the soul completely. The beheaded had no afterlife. There was no forgiveness. There was nothing. As common as beheading seems throughout history—especially with inventions like the guillotine—it was once among the worst ways to die and among the worst things you could do to your enemy because of the permanent, absolute death that went along with it.
Later tradition also held that the beheaded were buried separately from criminals executed in other ways. Anyone beheaded had been deemed among the most wicked of people, and even burying another executed criminal beside them was considered taboo.
10 World Beliefs About The Soul - Listverse
Rabbinical law covers four deaths: stoning, slaying (decapitation), strangulation, and burning. Beheading is reserved for the most serious of all crimes—murder and idolatry. The severity of the punishment is linked to ancient beliefs about how final it was.
According to the Egyptians, the soul lives in the head, and beheading destroyed the soul completely. The beheaded had no afterlife. There was no forgiveness. There was nothing. As common as beheading seems throughout history—especially with inventions like the guillotine—it was once among the worst ways to die and among the worst things you could do to your enemy because of the permanent, absolute death that went along with it.
Later tradition also held that the beheaded were buried separately from criminals executed in other ways. Anyone beheaded had been deemed among the most wicked of people, and even burying another executed criminal beside them was considered taboo.
10 World Beliefs About The Soul - Listverse