Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:4–6, Tosefta Sanhedrin 14:1–6, and Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 111b–13b interpreted to address the law of the apostate town. The Mishnah held that only a court of 71 judges could declare such a city, and the court could not declare cities on the frontier or three cities within one locale to be apostate cities. A Baraita taught that there never was an apostate town and never will be. Rabbi Eliezer said that no city containing even a single mezuzah could be condemned as an apostate town, as instructs with regard to such a town, "you shall gather all the spoil of it in the midst of the street thereof and shall burn . . . all the spoil," but if the spoil contains even a single mezuzah, this burning would be forbidden by the injunction of , which states, "you shall destroy the names of idols . . . . You shall not do so to the Lord your God," and thus forbids destroying the Name of God. Rabbi Jonathan, however, said that he saw an apostate town and sat upon its ruins.