A Jewish council of elders meeting in Jerusalem, which during the Graeco-Roman period acquired internal administrative and judicial functions over Palestinian Jews, despite foreign domination. Convened by the high priest, its membership numbered 71, although local courts with this designation outside Jerusalem had fewer members (usually 23 or just 3) and more limited jurisdiction. After the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Jerusalem Sanhedrin was effectively replaced by a new court of sages at Jabneh.
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A Sanhedrin (Hebrew: סנהדרין; The Great Sanhedrin is an assembly of 71 of the greatest Jewish judges who constituted the supreme court and legislative body of ancient Israel. When the Temple in Jerusalem was standing, (prior to its destruction in 70 CE), the Great Sanhedrin would meet in the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple during the day, except before festivals and Shabbat.
Traditions of origin
The Greek root for the name suggests that the name was adopted during the Hellenistic period. It was not until sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple that this line was broken, and the Sanhedrin dissolved.
Jewish tradition proposes non-greek derivations of the term Sanhedrin.
Great Sanhedrin and Lesser Sanhedrin
The Talmud (tractate Sanhedrin) identifies two classes of rabbinical courts called Sanhedrin, a Great Sanhedrin and a Lesser Sanhedrin. Each city could have its own lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges, but there could be only one Great Sanhedrin of 71, which among other roles acted as a sort of Supreme Court, taking appeals from cases decided by lesser courts.
Function and procedures
The Sanhedrin as a body claimed powers that lesser Jewish courts did not have. The second highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin was called the Av Beit Din, or "Head of the Court" (literally, Beit Din = "house of law"), who presided over the Sanhedrin when it sat as a criminal court.
The Sanhedrin met in a building known as the Hall of Hewn Stones (Lishkat Ha-Gazith), which has been placed by the Talmud and many scholars as built into the north wall of the Temple Mount, half inside the sanctuary and half outside, with doors providing access both to the Temple and to the outside.
In some cases, it was only necessary for a 23-member panel (functioning as a Lesser Sanhedrin) to convene.
Early Christianity
In the Gospels
The Sanhedrin is mentioned frequently in the Gospels. When the Sanhedrin was unable to provide evidence that Jesus had committed a capital crime, the Gospels states that witnesses came forward and accused the Nazarene of blasphemy — a capital crime under Mosaic law.
Circa 30 CE, the Gospels continues, Jesus was brought before the Roman governor of Iudaea Province, Pontius Pilate, for decision.
It should be noted, however, that the New Testament also claims certain members of the Sanhedrin as followers of Jesus.
The Christian accounts of the Sanhedrin, and the role the council played in the crucifixion of Jesus, is a frequently cited as a cause of Christian anti-Semitism, and is thus normally considered a sensitive topic.
A Sanhedrin also appears in Acts 4-7 and 22:30-23:24, perhaps the one led by Gamaliel.
Opposition to Christian historical accounts
Although the New Testament's account of the Sanhedrin's involvement in Jesus' crucifixion is detailed, the factual accuracy is disputed.
Some claim that the New Testament portrays the Sanhedrin as a corrupt group of Pharisees, although it was predominantly made up of Sadducees at the time.
The opposition continues by saying that in order for the Christian leaders of the time to present Christianity as the legitimate heir to the Hebrew Scriptures, they had to devalue Rabbinic Judaism. In addition to the New Testament, other Christian writings relate that the Apostles Peter, John, Stephen, and Paul were all brought before the Sanhedrin for the blasphemous crime--from the Jewish perspective--of spreading their Gospel.
However, Streeter and others of the Tuebingen school hold that Christian New Testament writings which discuss the Sanhedrin actually may date much earlier than previously thought, so supporters claim that the NT accounts quite possibly are more accurate than thought heretofore.
According to Jewish law, it is forbidden to convene a court of justice on a holiday, such as Pesach (Passover), making it highly unusual, at best, that religious Jews could have come together to hand down a death sentence.
The Dissolution of the Classical Sanhedrin
See also: Council of Jamnia
During the period when it stood on the Temple Mount, the Sanhedrin achieved its quintessential position, legislating on all aspects of Jewish religious and political life within the parameters laid down by Biblical and Rabbinic tradition. After the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE, the Sanhedrin was re-established with reduced authority, although it was still recognized as the ultimate authority in religious matters.
The Sanhedrin was re-established in Yavneh [70-80 CE].
During the presidency of Gamliel IV ben Yehudav II, due to persecution of an increasingly Christianized Rome it dropped the name Sanhedrin, and its authoritative decisions were subsequently issued under the name of Beth HaMidrash. With the death of this patriarch, who was executed by Theodosius II for erecting new synagogues contrary to the imperial decree, the title Nasi, the last remains of the ancient Sanhedrin, became illegal to be used after 425 CE.
There are records of what may have been of attempts to reform the Sanhedrin in Arabia , in Jerusalem under the Calif 'Umar, and in Babylon (Iraq), but none of these attempts were given any attention by Rabbinic authorities and little information is available about them.
Subsequent attempts to revive the Sanhedrin
See also: Attempts to revive classical semicha
Within Judaism, the Sanhedrin is seen the last institution which commanded universal authority among the Jewish people in the long chain of tradition from Moses until the present day.
Napoleon Bonaparte's "Grand Sanhedrin"
The "Grand Sanhedrin" was a Jewish high court convened by Napoleon I to give legal sanction to the principles expressed by the Assembly of Notables in answer to the twelve questions submitted to it by the government (see Jew.
On October 6, 1806, the Assembly of Notables issued a proclamation to all the Jewish communities of Europe, inviting them to send delegates to the sanhedrin, to convene on October 20.
Attempts to re-establish the Sanhedrin in Israel
Since the dissolution of the Sanherin in 358 CE, there has been no universally recognized authority within Jewish law.
There have been rabbinical attempts to renew Semicha and re-establish a Sanhedrin by Rabbi Beirav in 1538, Rabbi Yisroel Shklover in 1830, Rabbi Aharon Mendel haCohen in 1901, Rabbi Zvi Kovsker in 1940 and Rabbi Yehudah Leib Maimon in 1949.
In October 2004 (Tishrei 5765), a group of rabbis claiming to represent varied communities in Israel undertook a ceremony in Tiberias, where the original Sanhedrin was disbanded, which they claim re-establishes the body according to the proposal of Maimonides and the Jewish legal rulings of Rabbi Yosef Karo.
Reference
^ Mishnah Sanhedrin 1B ^ Numbers 11:16^ Numbers 27:23 ]
^ Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 13b-14a
^ http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/sanhedrin.htm
^ Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 2a.
^ The Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614CE compared with Islamic conquest of 638CE ^ ibid. Yarchei Kallah, Rabbi Nassan describes "the seventy judges who comprise the Sanhedrin" ^ The dissolution of the Sanhedrin, in terms of its power to give binding universal decisions, is usually dated to 358CE when the Hillel II's mathematical Jewish Calendar was adopted.
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