G
GKC
Guest
It was a method of voting.It seems like what steve b has been saying about counting colored beads to determine the truth of Holy Scripture is to be taken figuratively and not literally, which is how some scholars take much of what is written in the Gospel of St. John. Some of the gospel is historical of course, but much of what is said in the fourth gospel does not align itself easily with what is reported in the Synoptic Gospels.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Seminar
Scroll down to “Methodology” for the bead bit.