Matthew 10:17

But beware of men] better, 'beware of the men,' viz. those wolves of whom I have been speaking. Councils] i.e. courts of justice generally. Scourge you in their synagogues] A synagogue was also a court of justice in which three Jewish elders sat to judge both secular and religious cases. 'Scourging,' said the rabbis, 'was by the bench of three': cp. Acts 22:19; Acts 26:11; 2 Corinthians 11:24. Wetstein quotes an interesting account of a modern Jewish scourging. It was done publicly in the synagogue in the presence of a large congregation of men and women. The man was bared to the waist. The porter tied his hands to a pillar. Then the 'precentor' approached, and scourged him with thirty-nine strokes, a Psalm being sung during the ordeal.