SAW. The Punishment of the Saw was not unknown among the Hebrews. It is mentioned in Daniel, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. I imagine this Punishment came originally from the Persians or the Chaldeans. I am assured that it is still in Use among the Switzers, and that they put it in Practice not many Years ago, upon one of their Countrymen guilty of a great Crime, in the Plain of Grenelles near Paris. They put him in a Kind of Coffin, and saw’d him at Length, beginning at his Head, as a Piece of Wood is sawn. Parisalis, King of Persia, caused Roxana to be sawn in two alive. Valerius Maximus Ctesias in Persic.says,1 that the Thracians sometimes made living Men to undergo this Torture: Vivos homines medios secare. The Laws of the twelve Tables, which the Romans had borrowed from the Greeks, condemned certain Crimes to the Punishment of the Saw. But the Execution of them was so rare, as Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. l. 12. c. 2. Herodot. l. 6.Aulus Gellius says, that none remembred to have seen it practised. Herodotus relates, that Sabacus, King of Egypt, received an Order in a Dream, to cut in two all the Priests of Egypt. Caius Caligula the Emperor, often condemn’d People of Condition to be sawn Sueton. in Caio.in two through the Middle; aut medios serrâ dissecuit.
This Matter is not less frequent in Scripture. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews2, speaking of the Calamities suffered by the Prophets and Saints of the Old Testament, says, there were some who had undergone the Torture of the Saw. Serrâ secti sunt. Origen3, Justin Martyr4, St. Jerome5, the Author of the Poem against Marcion, printed under the Name of Tertullian6, and several others of the Antients, have explain’d this Passage concerning the Death of Isaiah, who is said to have been put to Death by King Manasses, with a wooden Saw. This Circumstance of a Saw of Wood is perplexing; for no Saws are made of Wood; and besides, a Man could not be cut in two with such a Saw. We have elsewhere proposed our Conjecture upon this Matter, by supposing this Saw of Wood was perhaps nothing else but a Sledge loaded with Stones and Iron Spikes, with which they smooth’d the Ears of Corn, to get out the Grain. Or might it not be understood more simply of a Wood-Saw, that is, a Saw fit for sawing Wood? For there are Saws of several Kinds, for Stone, for Marble, for Iron, for Bones, for Trees, for the Use of Gardeners, for Wheelwrights, for Joiners.
Daniel also speaks of the Punishment Susan. 55.of the Saw. Even now the Angel of God hath received the Sentence of God, to cut Mat. xxiv. 51.thee in two. St. Matthew says, that the wicked Servant shall be cut in two, and thrust among the Hypocrites. The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament often makes Allusion to this Custom, when it uses the Word, to cut in two, to divide, for putting to Death. See 1 Sam. xvi. 31, 33. Exod. xix. 14. and 2 Sam. vi. 8.
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