to have been dominated by Mycenaean or Dorian Greeks thereafter, and the ancient civilization disappeared from view toward the last centuries of the second millennium. While many scholars suggest that the Philistine emigration took place about the time of the destruction of Cretan cities, the Bible record shows that they entered the land of Canaan at a much earlier date.

During the first millennium B.C.E. Crete came finally under Greek domination. It is given little importance in the “Classical period,” being renowned at that time only for the exporting of expert archers as mercenaries. By the second century B.C.E. the island had become a center and hideout for pirates who preyed on Mediterranean shipping. Then, in 67 B.C.E. Pompey subdued Crete and it was made a Roman province together with Cyrene in North Africa.

PAUL’S ACTIVITY THERE

Cretan Jews and/or proselytes were among those in Jerusalem on Pentecost of 33 C.E. (Acts 2:5, 11) Perhaps as a result of this, Christianity was introduced into Crete.

The apostle Paul, on his way to Rome for trial, passed by Crete aboard a grain ship of Alexandria, about the fall of the year 58 C.E. The ship, with 276 passengers on board, “sailed under the shelter of Crete,” that is along the southern leeward side of the island where the ship was protected from the adverse northwesterly winds. From Salmone on the E coast of Crete, the ship worked its way slowly westward until reaching Fair Havens, a small bay providing anchorage at a point just before the southern coastline makes a sharp turn to the N. Here, contrary to Paul’s counsel, the decision was made to try to reach Phoenix, another harbor some forty miles (64.4 kilometers) farther up the coast. Rounding Cape Littinos (Matala), the ship “began coasting inshore” when a tempestuous E-NE wind, suddenly sweeping down from the mountainous heights, struck the ship, forcing it to heave to and run before the wind. From here the boat was driven past the island of Cauda, some thirty-five miles (56.3 kilometers) from Fair Havens.—Acts 27:6-16, 37, 38.

The evidence is that, following his two years of imprisonment in Rome, Paul visited Crete and engaged in Christian activity there during the final period of his ministry. On departing, he assigned Titus to remain in Crete to correct certain conditions among the congregations, making appointments of older men “in city after city.” (Titus 1:5) Later, when discussing congregational problems in a letter to Titus, Paul quoted the words of a Cretan prophet to the effect that “Cretans are always liars, injurious wild beasts, unemployed gluttons.” (Titus 1:10-12) These words are thought to proceed from Epimenides, a Cretan poet of the sixth century B.C.E. This estimate of the ancient Cretans was shared by the Greeks, among whom the name Cretan became synonymous with lying.

CRICKET

[hhar·golʹ].

A kind of leaping insect related to the grasshopper, though differing from the latter in that it has prominent feelers at the tip of its abdomen. Both the house cricket and the field cricket are to be found in Bible lands. Sole mention is made of this insect at Leviticus 11:22, where it is listed as being clean for food.

A number of Bible translations (AV; Yg) render the Hebrew term hhar·golʹ as “beetle,” the most typical species of which creep rather than jump. But it is generally agreed that the Hebrew word refers to a kind of leaping insect, as indicated by its being listed along with the locust. There is uncertainty, though, as to the exact leaping insect meant. Translators have variously rendered hhar·golʹ as “dropping locust” (Mo); “flying locust” (AT) and “cricket” (AS; NW; RS), and at times the Hebrew word has simply been transliterated.—Da; JB; Le.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

From the very earliest times man, made in the image of the God of justice (Ps. 37:28; Mal. 2:17), has possessed the attribute of justice. (Gen. 1:26; Isa. 58:2; Rom. 2:13-15) Jehovah’s first pronouncement of a sentence as the enforcement of justice was given to the first human pair and to the serpent, representing the Devil. The sanction for disobedience to God, which amounted to rebellion against the sovereignty of the Ruler of the universe, was death. (Gen. 2:17) Later on, knowing that men possessed the attribute of justice, Cain realized that they would want to kill him to avenge the murder of his brother Abel. But Jehovah did not appoint or authorize anyone to execute Cain, reserving the administration of retribution to himself, which he carried out by cutting off Cain’s line at the Flood. (Gen. 4:14, 15) About 900 years before the Flood, Enoch declared God’s coming execution against those who had committed ungodly deeds.—Gen. 5:21-24; Jude 14, 15.

AFTER THE FLOOD

After the Flood God issued further laws, among them being the first authorization to man to execute the penalty for murder. (Gen. 9:3-6) Later Jehovah stated concerning Abraham: “For I have become acquainted with him in order that he may command his sons and his household after him so that they shall keep Jehovah’s way to do righteousness and judgment.” (Gen. 18:19) This shows that that patriarchal society was under the laws of God, with which they were familiar. God’s view of adultery and his punishment therefor was stated to Abimelech when he told Abimelech that he was as good as dead for taking Sarah with intentions of making her his wife (although Abimelech did not know that she belonged to Abraham). (Gen. 20:2-7) Judah decreed the death penalty for Tamar for harlotry.—Gen. 38:24.

GOD’S LAW FOR ISRAEL

When Israel was organized as a nation God became their King, Legislator and Judge. (Isa. 33:22) He gave them the “Ten Words” or “Ten Commandments,” as they are often called, setting forth the principles upon which the body of about 600 other laws was based. He began the “Ten Words” with the statement: “I am Jehovah your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 20:2) This serves as the primary reason for obedience to the entire Law. Disobedience was not only a violation of the law of the Head of government but also an offense against the Head of religion, their God, and blasphemy of God was lese majesty, treason.

Under the Law the same principles applied as had governed patriarchal society. The Law, however, was more detailed and covered the whole scope of man’s activities. A. S. Diamond, in Primitive Law (1950, 2d ed., p. 90), says of the book of Deuteronomy that the rules written therein are “of a very high order of morality.” The entire Law, which is set forth in the Pentateuch, was so real and of such a high standard of morality that no man could attempt to follow the complete Law without finding that he was convicted by it as a sinner, imperfect. “The commandment is holy and righteous and good” and “the Law is spiritual,” says the apostle Paul. “It was added to make transgressions manifest.” (Rom. 7:12, 14; Gal. 3:19) It was the whole law of God for Israel, laying down the principles and official decisions of Jehovah, not just a mere gathering of a set of cases that might arise or that had already arisen.

The sanctions under the Law, therefore, would help to show sin to be “far more sinful.” (Rom. 7:13) The law of talion, like for like, set out a standard of exact justice. The Law served for the peace and tranquility of the nation, preserved the nation when Israel obeyed it, and protected the individual against the wrongdoer, compensating him when his property was stolen or destroyed.

The Ten Commandments as stated at Exodus, chapter 20, and Deuteronomy, chapter 5, do not expressly state the sanction for every violation. However, these penalties are definitely stated in other places. For a violation of the first seven commandments, the penalty was death. The punishment for stealing was restitution and compensation to the one whose property had been stolen; for false witness, retribution. The last commandment, against covetousness or wrong desire, carried with it no sanction enforceable by the judges. It transcended man-made laws in that it made every man his own spiritual policeman and got at the root or source of the violation of all the commandments. If wrong desire was indulged in, it would eventually manifest itself in a violation of one of the other nine commandments.

Major crimes under the law

Capital crimes. Under the Law the death penalty was prescribed for (1) blasphemy (Lev. 24:14, 16, 23); (2) worship of any god other than Jehovah, and idolatry in any form (Lev. 20:2; Deut. 13:6, 10, 13-15; 17:2-7; Num. 25:1-9); (3) witchcraft, spiritism (Ex. 22:18; Lev. 20:27); (4) false prophecy (Deut. 13:5; 18:20); (5) sabbath breaking (Num. 15:32-36; Ex. 31:14; 35:2); (6) murder (Num. 35:30, 31); (7) adultery (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22); (8) woman marrying with false claim of being a virgin (Deut. 22:21); (9) intercourse with engaged girl (Deut. 22:23-27); (10) incest (Lev. 18:6-17, 29; 20:11, 12, 14); (11) sodomy (Lev. 18:22; 20:13); (12) bestiality (Lev. 18:23; 20:15, 16); (13) kidnaping (Ex. 21:16; Deut. 24:7); (14) striking or reviling a parent (Ex. 21:15, 17); (15) bearing false witness, in a case where the penalty for the one testified against would be death (Deut. 19:16-21); (16) coming near to the tabernacle if not authorized.—Num. 17:13; 18:7.

In many instances the penalty named is ‘cutting off,’ usually executed by stoning. Besides this being prescribed for willful sin and abusive, disrespectful speech against Jehovah (Num. 15:30, 31), many other things are named that bear this penalty. Some of them are: failure to be circumcised (Gen. 17:14; Ex. 4:24); willful neglect of Passover (Num. 9:13); neglect of Atonement Day (Lev. 23:29, 30); making or using the holy anointing oil for ordinary uses (Ex. 30:31-33, 38); eating blood (Lev. 17:10, 14); eating sacrifice in an unclean condition (Lev. 7:20, 21; 22:3, 4, 9); eating leavened bread during festival of unfermented cakes (Ex. 12:15, 19); offering a sacrifice elsewhere than at the tabernacle (Lev. 17:8, 9); eating of communion offering on third day from day of sacrifice (Lev. 19:7, 8); neglect of purification (Num. 19:13-20); touching holy things illegally (Num. 4:15, 18, 20); intercourse with menstruating woman (Lev. 20:18); eating fat of sacrifices.—Lev. 7:25; see CUTTING OFF.

Punishments imposed by the law

Punishments under the Law given by Jehovah through Moses served (1) to keep the land clean from defilement in God’s sight. Those who practiced detestable things were cleaned out from among the people. (2) The punishments deterred crime, maintained respect for the sanctity of life, for the law of the land and its Lawgiver, God, and for one’s fellowman and, when obeyed, preserved the nation from economic failure and from moral decay with its subsequent loathsome diseases and physical deterioration.

There were no barbarous punishments prescribed by the Law. No man could be punished for another’s wrongs. The principles were clearly set forth. The judges were granted latitude, considering each case on its own merits, examining circumstances, motives and the attitudes of those accused. Justice had to be strictly rendered. (Heb. 2:2) A willful murderer could not escape the death penalty by any payment of money. (Num. 35:31) If a man was an accidental manslayer he could flee to one of the cities of refuge provided, but, confined within the boundary of the city, he was forced to realize that life is sacred and that even accidental killing could not be taken lightly, but required some compensation. Yet, working productively in the city of refuge, he was not a financial burden on the community.—Num. 35:26-28.

The sanctions for offenses were designed to give relief and compensation to the victim of a thief or damager of property. If the thief could not pay the stipulated amount he could be sold as a slave, either to the victim or to another, thus reimbursing the victim and making the criminal work for his upkeep, so that the State would not have him on its hands, as is the case where imprisonment is practiced. These laws were just and served toward the rehabilitation of the criminal.—Ex. 22:1-6.

Under the Law the death sentence was carried out by stoning. (Lev. 20:2, 27) The sword was occasionally used, especially where a large number were to be executed. (Ex. 32:27; 1 Ki. 2:25, 31, 32, 34) If a city turned apostate, all in the city were to be devoted to destruction by the sword. (Deut. 13:15) At Exodus 19:13, death by the spear or lance, or possibly the arrow, is alluded to. (See Numbers 25:7, 8.) Beheading is mentioned, although it may be that execution was carried out by another means and the corpse beheaded. (2 Sam. 20:21, 22; 2 Ki. 10:6-8) For the more detestable crimes the Law prescribed burning and hanging. (Lev. 20:14; 21:9; Josh. 7:25; Num. 25:4, 5; Deut. 21:22, 23) These sentences were carried out only after a person had been first put to death, as the cited scriptures plainly state.

Captives of war were usually executed by the sword if they were persons devoted to destruction by God’s command. (1 Sam. 15:2, 3, 33) Others who surrendered were put to forced labor. (Deut. 20:10, 11) Older translations of the passage at 2 Samuel 12:31 make it appear that David tortured the inhabitants of Rabbah of Ammon, but modern translations make it clear that he merely put them to forced labor.—See NW; AT; Mo and others.

Precipitation, that is, throwing one off a cliff or high place, was not enjoined by law, but King Amaziah of Judah inflicted this punishment on ten thousand men of Seir. (2 Chron. 25:12) The people of Nazareth attempted to do this to Jesus.—Luke 4:29.

Strict justice was enforced by the law of talion or retaliation, like for like, where injuries were deliberately inflicted. (Deut. 19:21) There is at least one recorded instance of the execution of this penalty. (Judg. 1:6, 7) But the judges had to determine on the basis of the evidence whether the crime was deliberate or due to negligence or accident, and so forth. An exception to the law of retaliation was the law dealing with a situation in which a woman tried to help her husband in a fight by grabbing hold of the privates of the other man. In this case, instead of her reproductive organs being destroyed, her hand was to be amputated. (Deut. 25:11, 12) This law demonstrates God’s regard for the reproductive organs. Also, since the woman was owned by a husband, this law mercifully took into consideration the right of the husband to have children by his wife.

The Mishnah mentions four methods of inflicting the death penalty: stoning, burning, beheading and strangling. But these latter three methods were never authorized nor commanded under the Law. The methods prescribed in the Mishnah are part of the traditions that were added, overstepping the commandment of God. (Matt. 15:3, 9) An example of the barbarous practices to which it led them is their method of executing the penalty of burning. “The ordinance of them that are to be burnt [is this]: they set him in dung up to his knees and put a towel of coarse stuff within one of soft stuff and wrapt it around his neck; one [witness] pulled one end towards him and the other pulled one end towards him until he opened his mouth; a wick [according to the Gemara (52a) it was a strip of lead] was kindled and thrown into his mouth, and it went down to his stomach and burnt his entrails.”—The Mishnah, Nezikin, Sanhedrin, p. 391, sec. 7, par. 2.

Since man has been governed by law from the beginning, either by divine law or by the law of conscience divinely implanted, it has been true that the closer men held to true worship, the more reasonable and humane were the punishments administered by their laws, and the farther away they strayed the more corrupt their sense of justice became. This becomes evident when the laws of ancient nations are compared with those of Israel.

EGYPTIAN

Little is known about the punishments imposed by the Egyptians. They administered beatings (Ex. 5:14, 16), drowning (Ex. 1:22), beheading and afterward hanging on a stake (Gen. 40:19, 22) and execution by the sword, as well as imprisonment.

ASSYRIAN

Punishments under the Assyrian Empire were very severe. They included death, mutilation (by cutting off ears, nose, lips, castration), impalement upon a stake, deprivation of burial, strokes of the rod, payment of a certain weight of lead, and royal corvee (forced labor). Under Assyrian law a murderer was handed over to the next of kin of the one murdered and, according to his choice, he could put the murderer to death or take his property. This could lead to blood feuds, for there was little control of the matter, and no cities of refuge were provided, as in Israel. The punishment for adultery was left to the husband. He could either put his wife to death, mutilate her or punish her as he saw fit, or let her go free. As he did to the wife, he was required to do also to the adulterous man. Many prisoners of war were flayed (skinned) alive, blinded or had their tongues torn out; they were impaled, burned and otherwise put to death.

BABYLONIAN

Hammurabi’s “code” (so called, but not a code as defined by lawyers today), admittedly based on earlier legislation, is a collection of decisions or “casebooks” on clay tablets, copied later (perhaps in a different style of writing) on a stele placed in the temple of Marduk in Babylon. Copies were probably placed in other cities. This stele, carried later to Susa by a conqueror, was discovered there in 1902. It is not, as has been thought by some, an ancestor of the Mosaic law. It does not seek to establish principles. Rather, its object appears to be to help the judges to decide certain cases by giving them precedents or altering previous decisions to show what ought to be done in future cases. For example, it does not set forth a sanction for murder, because there was already a recognized punishment for that, and doubtless for other common crimes. Hammurabi was not attempting to cover the whole scope of law. Each of the rules of the “code” starts off with the formula: ‘If a man does thus and so.’ Because it relates to specific instances, rather than laying down principles, it merely tells what judgment must be given to fit a certain simple set of facts. It is based mainly on laws already in existence, merely particularizing to fit certain difficult situations current in Babylonian civilization at the time.

According to some scholars’ calculations, Hammurabi ruled for forty-three years, from 1728 to 1686 B.C.E., which was over a hundred years after Abraham’s time and during the Israelites’ stay in Egypt. In no way does Hammurabi’s code prove to be an ancestor of the Mosaic law; in fact, in examining its sanctions we find it inferior. For example, there existed in Hammurabi’s “code” a “sympathetic” punishment. One of the rules states: “If [a builder] has caused the son of the owner of the house to die [because the house is faulty and collapses], one shall put to death the son of that builder.” God’s law through Moses, to the contrary, stated: “Fathers should not be put to death on account of children, and children should not be put to death on account of fathers.”—Deut. 24:16.

The penalty for theft of valuables was generally not restitution, as in the Mosaic law, but death. In certain cases of theft, restitution up to thirtyfold was required. If the man was unable to pay, he was to be put to death. Nebuchadnezzar employed dismemberment, also he used punishment by fire, as in the case of the three young Hebrew men whom he threw alive into a superheated furnace.—Dan. 2:5; 3:19, 21, 29; Jer. 29:22.

PERSIAN

We have some information about the laws of the Persians from the Bible. Under Darius the Mede, Daniel was sentenced to the lions’ pit, and his false accusers suffered retribution when they and their sons and their wives died by this means. (Dan. 6:24) Later on, King Artaxerxes of Persia instructed Ezra that he could execute judgment upon everyone not a doer of the law of Ezra’s God or of the king, “whether for death or for banishment, or for money fine or for imprisonment.” (Ezra 7:26) Ahasuerus used a stake fifty cubits high to hang Haman. Whether he put Haman to death prior to hanging is not stated. Ahasuerus also hanged the two doorkeepers who had conspired against his life.—Esther 7:9, 10; 2:21-23.

A few tablets have been found that contain the laws laid down by Darius I of Persia. In it the punishment of lashing with a whip from five stripes up to two hundred is prescribed for the man who attacks another with a weapon and injures or kills him. Impalement was the punishment sometimes administered. According to the Greek writers on Persian laws, offenses against the state, the king or his family or property, usually carried the death penalty. These punishments were often horrible. For ordinary crimes there is not much information, but mutilation of the hands or feet or blinding appear to have been common punishments.

NATIONS IN THE PALESTINE AREA

Aside from Israel, the nations in and around Palestine generally followed practices very similar to those of Assyria and Babylon: imprisonment and bonds, mutilation, blinding, killing captives of war by the sword, ripping up pregnant women and dashing their little ones to death against a wall or a stone.—Judg. 1:7; 16:21; 1 Sam. 11:1, 2; 2 Ki. 8:12.

ROMAN

Besides execution by the sword, which included beheading (Matt. 14:10), among the more common punishments were: beating with the tympanum, a wooden cudgel, the name also being applied to the post to which the prisoner was tied; scourging with a whip, sometimes knotted with bones or heavy pieces of metal or terminated with hooks; the use of crates, a panel-like or latticed wooden implement, like a shield, the prisoner being thrown into a pit, the crates laid over him and stones heaped upon it; impalement, in which some were nailed, others tied to a stake; hanging; throwing one off of a high rock; drowning; exposure to wild beasts in the arena; forcing one into gladiatorial contests; and burning. Prisoners were often confined in stocks (Acts 16:24) or chained to a soldier guard. (Acts 12:6; 28:20) The Porcian law exempted Roman citizens from flogging.

GREEK

Greek punishments were in many cases the same as those imposed by the Romans. Precipitation off a cliff or into a deep cavern, beating to death, drowning, poisoning and death by the sword were inflicted on criminals.—See crimes and punishments under individual names.

CRIMSON

See COLORS.

CRISPUS

(Crisʹpus) [curled].

The presiding officer of the synagogue at Corinth whom the apostle Paul personally baptized and whose entire household became Christians.—Acts 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:14.

CROCODILE

While the crocodile is not specifically named in most translations, at Job 41:1 Mo and AT translate the Hebrew liw·ya·thanʹ as “crocodile” (as AT does also at Psalm 104:26) and the RS includes “crocodile” in a footnote. The description that follows this verse fits closely the crocodile, one of the largest reptiles extant. The evidence indicates that crocodiles once inhabited the Nile from its mouth at the Mediterranean Sea on up to the river’s source, though they are now found only in its upper reaches. Additionally, Professor W. Corswant, in his book A Dictionary of Life in Bible Times (1956, p. 89) gives evidence of the existence of crocodiles in ancient Palestine in the marshes that lay at the mouth of the Nahr es-Zerka (river Jabbok), “called by the ancients the ‘river of crocodiles,’ and near to the town of Crocodilon [mentioned by Roman historian Pliny].” He also mentions the killing of a crocodile in Palestine as late as 1877. Unger’s Bible Dictionary (p. 61) suggests that they probably were also abundant in the river Kishon in Bible times.

At Job 41 God continues to humble Job with a vivid and poetic description of his creation, and the crocodile, often of a vicious nature, serves well in this regard when compared with an individual man. (Job 41:1-34) The larger kinds of crocodiles may reach a length of over thirty feet (9.1 meters) and weigh as much as one ton (907 kilograms). The jaws, studded with teeth, exert a tremendous pressure. Even a 120-pound (54.4-kilogram) specimen is able to exert a pressure equal to 1,540 pounds (698.5 kilograms) with its jaws. (Vss. 13, 14) The tail not only provides a powerful means of locomotion when in the water but is a dangerous weapon on land. The tail is often used to knock the crocodile’s victim toward the water, and one blow is said to be strong enough to break all four legs of a cow. The scales of its hide are plates of horn set in the leathery skin and as difficult to remove as is the human fingernail. This armor plating covers the crocodile’s entire body, and the scales on its undersides are sharp-edged. A bullet striking a glancing hit on this armor will ricochet.—Vss. 15-17.

The creature’s eyes extend upward from the head, and doubtless their luminosity when reflecting the sun at its rising is the reason for its eyes being described as “like the beams of dawn.” The impression was strong enough for the ancient Egyptians to use the crocodile’s eyes as their hieroglyphic symbol of the morning. When rising to the surface after a period of being submerged, the rapid exhalation of air by the crocodile, producing a spray through the nostrils, may have produced, in the morning sun, the ‘flash of light’ that the book of Job describes, while from its nostrils came smoky vapor. (Vss. 18-21) With no natural enemies, it can be called “king over all majestic wild beasts.”—Vs 34.

The other occurrences of the term “Leviathan” (Job 3:8; Ps. 74:14; 104:26; Isa. 27:1) may also refer to the crocodile, but the description is not explicit. The mention of the “sea” in connection with Leviathan can, in Hebrew, properly refer to any large body of water or even to a large river. But, since one of the largest kinds of crocodile is a saltwater type, the “sea” might also be understood in its usual sense. “Leviathan” is called a “sea monster” at Isaiah 27:1, the same Hebrew term (tan·ninʹ) being applied in the plural at Genesis 1:21 with regard to the creation of “great sea monsters” on the fifth creative day.—See LEVIATHAN.

CROSS

See TORTURE STAKE.

CROWN

A headgear, simple or ornate, worn by persons of distinction, such as kings, queens, other rulers, priests and individuals to be specially honored or rewarded. After the Flood crowns came to be used as symbols of authority, dignity, power, honor and reward.

The early form of the crown was evidently that of the diadem (Heb., neʹzer), a simple band that was probably first used to hold back the long hair of the wearer. However, it was adopted as a royal headdress even among peoples wearing short hair. Such fillets are represented in sculptures of Egypt, Nineveh and Persepolis. Distinctions were drawn as to honored ones in later times by the use of diadems of various colors and types of weaving or designs. Some of these bands were about two inches (c. 5 centimeters) wide and were made of linen, silk and even of silver and gold. Sometimes the diadem was worn over a cap. There were also radiated diadems (having points all around the band running out from it like rays) and there were those set with precious stones.

The Hebrew word neʹzer, in addition to meaning “diadem” (2 Chron. 23:11), can pertain to a thing “set apart” or dedicated, as in the case of the chief priest who had upon him “the sign of dedication, the anointing oil of his God.” (Lev. 21:10-12) In view of this basic meaning, the New World Translation appropriately translates neʹzer at times as “sign of dedication,” with reference to the plate of gold worn by Israel’s high priest upon his turban. On this gold plate were inscribed the words “Holiness belongs to Jehovah.”—Ex. 29:6; 39:30; Lev. 8:9.

Diadems, which were considered symbols of royalty, were worn by Hebrew kings, such as Saul. (2 Sam. 1:10) However, the main Hebrew word denoting a crown in the usual sense and generally rendered “crown” (NW) is ʽata·rahʹ, from ʽa·tarʹ, meaning “to encircle.” It does not necessarily signify a diadem. The crown (ʽata·rahʹ) David took as a prize of war