• Disfellowshiping—How to View It
    The Watchtower—1981 | September 15

    • 3. What was the situation of a Jew expelled from the synagogue?

      3 In the first century C.E. the Jews under Roman rule did not have the authority to administer the death penalty. (John 18:28-31) But a Jew guilty of violating the Law could be expelled from the synagogue. An effect of this severe punishment was that other Jews would shun or avoid the expelled person. It is said that others would not even have commercial transactions with him beyond selling him the necessities of life.a​—John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2.

  • Disfellowshiping—How to View It
    The Watchtower—1981 | September 15

    • a “Henceforth he was like one dead. He was not allowed to study with others, no [social] intercourse was to be held with him, he was not even to be shown the road. He might, indeed, buy the necessaries of life, but it was forbidden to eat or drink with such an one.”​—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, by A. Edersheim, Vol. II, p. 184.