On the eve of PassoverYeshua was hanged. For forty days before the execution a herald went forth and cried, ÒHe is going to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in hisfavor, let him come forward and plead on hisbehalf.Ó But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of Passover. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a