Ex. xxiv. 14.QUESTION. Quæstio. This Word is often put for Dispute, Difficulty, Suit at Law. Si quid natum fuerit quæstionis, if any Difficulty should arise. St. Paul would have 2 Tim. ii. 23. Tit. iii. 9.his Disciples Timothy and Titus, to avoid vain Questions, or vain Disputes, which are only concerning Genealogies, and the Sense of the Law, because this kind of Questions are more apt to give Offence than to Edify. The wise Man says, that he knew Eccles. vii. 30.God created Man upright; but that he has perplexed himself with a Thousand Questions, and incumbered himself with a Thousand tiresome and intricate Disputes.
Question or Punishment. ‘Twas a Custom among the Romans, to put Criminals to the Question, by whipping them, not with Rods, but with Whips or Scourges. Some Cornel. Menoch. Pis.think, that the Offender was stripp’d to his Waist, and that his Hands were ty’d to a Pillar, that his Back might be stretch’d out to receive the Blows. Others will have it, Lud. de Dieu.that his Hands were fastened to a Stake drove into the Ground, of a Foot and half, or two Foot high; so that the Criminal stooping with his Face towards the Ground, might present his naked Back to the Soldiers. Lastly, others are of Opinion, a that the Soldiers tied him Neck and Heels, and held him stretch’d out upon the Ground, while other Soldiers beat him all over his Body. This way of whipping is still common among the Orientals.
When St. Paul made an Oration to the Acts xxii. 21.People at Jerusalem, and related to them the Manner of his Conversion, they listned to him very attentively till he came to that Part of his Discourse, where he told them that God had sent him to preach to the Gentiles; then they raised their Voices, and cried out, that he was not fit to live, and were going to put him to death. Lysias the Tribune gave Command, that he should be put to the Question; but when they were binding him, Paul asked a Centurion there present, Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman Citizen, and uncondemn’d? The Centurion acquainted the Tribune with it, who presently came to Paul, and asked him whether or no he was a Roman Citizen? he continued to affirm it; then those that were to put him to the Question retired, and Lysias caus’d him to be unbound.