The Pharisaic ruling that the death penalty for murder was inflicted by decapitation is not disputed by any of the Rabbis.[58] But the method of the execution is debated. The Mishna states that the victim’s head was cut off at the throat with a sword, as the (Roman) government carried out an execution.[59] R. Jehudah (135-220 C. E.) objected that this _jus gladii_ would disfigure the victim.[60] He therefore advocated, that instead of the old method recognized by the Rabbinical tradition, the murderer’s head should be placed on a block and chopped off at the neck with an ax. The Rabbis protested that this method of beheading advocated by R. Jehudah would be far more shameful to the victim than that common to the Jews and the Romans. R. Jehudah admitted the force of their objection, but defended the method advocated by him because it was not the same as Roman custom. The Talmud then proceeds to eliminate other possible methods of killing by the sword, such as piercing or cleaving the body, by quoting the principle of the golden rule “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”[61] Therefore we must choose for him the easiest death. The comparison is then brought with the heifer that was killed to atone for bloodshed.[62] As the heifer, the substitute for the unknown murderer, was killed by having its throat cut, so the known human murderer had his throat cut and not his head chopped off at the neck, the golden rule again being quoted as authority.[63] In this case also the sources do not mention an actual case of decapitation being carried out by a Jewish court. According to the New Testament, Herod Antipas had John the Baptist killed by beheading,[64] and Agrippa I. caused James the apostle, the brother of John, to be killed by the sword.[65] But neither of these executions was ordered by a Jewish court of law. (d) _Strangulation_ The fourth method of capital punishment recognised in Pharisaic tradition is STRANGULATION (_Henek_). Strangulation does not appear in the Bible as a recognised legal method of punishment. The only Biblical instance of death by strangulation is the suicide of Ahitophel.[66]