A similar modification was very early introduced in the treatment accorded to the scapegoat. Instead of the scapegoat being sent forth into the wilderness, as the Bible describes,[23] it was in practise precipitated from a rock. Similarly, the Pharisaic tradition early substituted precipitation for stoning in the case of human punishment. According to a convincing emendation of a Talmudic text suggested by L. Ginzberg,[24] precipitation had taken the place of lapidation at least as early as the time of R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, (fl. 75 C. E.). The Rabbis held lapidation to be the most severe of the four death penalties, and precipitation was regarded as a humane modification of it. The Mishna states that the victim was thrown from twice a man’s height, i. e., about 11 feet. But if you wish to ensure a certain and easy death, asks the Talmud, why not cast him from a greater height? The answer is given because that would lacerate the body.[25] The words “his blood shall be on him”[26] were taken as implying that he shall be so killed that the blood shall remain _in_ him. The change in method advocated by the Pharisees therefore seems to have had for its purpose the desire to make the death more humane, certain and speedy, and to preserve the body so far as possible from being mangled. The custom of giving to the one condemned a wine compounded with myrrh to dull the senses,[27] would be another expression of this desire to rob the punishment of its horror and pain. (b) _Burning_ The second death penalty, that of BURNING (_Serefah_), is prescribed by the Biblical law for a priest’s daughter who commits adultery, and for the crime of incest with mother and daughter.[28] The house of the guilty may also have been burnt.[29] There is no reason to doubt that this punishment in Biblical times involved the actual burning of the living victim.[30]