The hostility of synagogue officials (compare Jn 16:2) would extend as far as scourging (Mt 10:17; 23:34), recalling the more deadly scourging that the Lord himself would undergo (27:26). Local councils probably consisted of town elders, with special privileges for local priests. Synagogue scourgings probably resembled in some respects the custom we know from later sources: a strap of calf leather with interwoven thongs, brought against the condemned person's back twenty-six times and the breast thirteen times (m. Makkot 3:10-12).