The Sanhedrin, The Misunderstood Body of Judgement

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

The Great Sanhedrin, a religious body,  was a part of the government of Israel and later, of just Judah.  "According to Jewish tradition, the institution of the Sanhedrin was founded by Moses, at the command of God:  Assemble for Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the peoples' elders and officers, and you shall take them to the Tent of Meeting, and they shall stand there with you."  From this point onward the Sanhedrin began with seventy elders, headed by Moses, for a total of seventy-one members. As individuals within the Sanhedrin died, or otherwise became unfit for service, new members underwent ordination, or Semicha. These ordinations continued, in an unbroken line: from Moses to Joshua, the Israelite elders, the prophets (including Ezra, Nehemiah) on to all the sages of the Sanhedrin. It was not until sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE that this line was broken, and the Sanhedrin dissolved. The dissolution of the Sanhedrin, in terms of its power to give binding universal decisions, is usually dated to 358 C.E. when Hillel II's Jewish calendar was adopted. This marked the last universally accepted decision made by that body.

                                                                     

Moses chose Aaron, his brother, to be the priest. All members of the Sanhedrin are to be sons of Aaron, to be Cohens of the tribe of Levi.  The succession was to be through one of his sons, and was to remain in his own family (Leviticus 6:15). If he had no son, the office devolved upon the brother next of age: such appears to have been the practice in the Hasmonean period. In the time of Eli, however (1 Samuel 2:23), the office passed to the collateral branch of Ithamar (see Eleazar). But King Solomon is reported to have deposed the high priest Abiathar, and to have appointed Zadok, a descendant of Eleazar, in his stead (1 Kings 2:35; 1 Chronicles 24:2–3). After the Exile, the succession seems to have been, at first, in a direct line from father to son; but later the civil authorities arrogated to themselves the right of appointment. Antiochus IV Epiphanes for instance, deposed Onias III in favor of Jason, who was followed by Menelaus.

Sanhedrin happens to be a Hebrew word but of Greek origin.  A synedrion or synhedrion (Greek: συνέδριον, "sitting together", hence "assembly" or "council"; Hebrew: סנהדרין‎, sanhedrin) is an assembly that holds formal sessions. The Latinized form is synedrium. Depending on the widely varied constitutions, it applied to diverse representative or judiciary organs of Greek and Hellenistic city-states and treaty organizations.  Jewish views say that the Sanhedrin was led by 2 leading Pharisaic scholars while the Greeks say it was by the Saducees.  I accept the Jewish view as authoritative.  

It's found in writings of rabbis meaning  the assembly of 71 ordained scholars who functioned both as a Supreme Court of the land and also as its body of legislature.  It had a leader of these 71 men, called the NASI or prince (president).   There was also the Av Beit Din or the chief/vice president/father  of the court,, who was 2nd to the Nasi, and 69 general members (Mufia). The other 69 sages sat in a semicircle facing the leaders. It is unclear whether the leaders included the high priest. They took appeals from cases which were decided by lesser courts in general usage.   Only a Sanhedrin of 71 could judge a whole tribe, a false prophet or the high priest.

There was also a Lesser Sanhedrin made up of 23 judges appointed to sit as a tribunal in each city, but there was only supposed to be one Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges.  There were Sanhedrins of 23 for capital cases and of three scholars to deal with civil or lesser criminal cases.                                                           

The duties of the Sanhedrin included the monthly proclamation of the New Moon, declaration of leap years, and decisions on state offenses and doubtful questions of Jewish law.  The Great Sanhedrin met daily during the daytime, and did not meet on the Sabbath, festivals or festival eves. It was the final authority on Jewish law and any scholar who went against its decisions was put to death as a zaken mamre (rebellious elder). 

The Sanhedrin judged accused lawbreakers, but could not initiate arrests. It required a minimum of two witnesses to convict a suspect. There were no attorneys. Instead, the accusing witness stated the offense in the presence of the accused and the accused could call witnesses on his own behalf. The court questioned the accused, the accusers and the defense witnesses.

The Great Sanhedrin dealt with religious and ritualistic Temple matters, criminal matters appertaining to the secular court, proceedings in connection with the discovery of a corpse, trials of adulterous wives, tithes, preparation of Torah Scrolls for the king and the Temple, drawing up the calendar and the solving of difficulties relating to ritual law.

In about 30 C.E., the Great Sanhedrin lost its authority to inflict capital punishment. After the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, so was the Great Sanhedrin. A Sanhedrin in Yavneh took over many of its functions, under the authority of Rabban Gamliel. The rabbis in the Sanhedrin served as judges and attracted students who came to learn their oral traditions and scriptural interpretations. From Yavneh, the Sanhedrin moved to different cities in the Galilee, eventually ending up in Tiberias.

Before 70 CE when the Romans burned down Jerusalem and Judah's 2nd Temple, the Sanhedrin met in the Temple chamber, called the Hall of Hewn Stone, which could be entered from both the priests' court and the Israelites' court.  The priests were Cohens, descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses and were from the tribe of Levi.  The Israelites were the other Jews of the remaining 11 tribes.  By the time of the Assyrian attack in 721 BCE, the best of the 10 northern tribes were taken away to Assyrian lands, kidnapped, leaving only Judah and their land intact.                       

Did King David (ruled from 1010 to 970 BCE) have a Sanhedrin?  Our tradition says, yes, since Moses founded it.  "It's widely assumed that Dovid HaMelech was the head of the Sanhedrin; see, for example, Kesef Mishneh in the beginning of Rambam's introduction to Yad HaChazaka. However, the Gemara in Berachos 4a implies that this position was held by Binayahu ben Yehoyada -- Rashi there says he was the אב בית דין. How are these reconciled? In any case, is there a source in Chazal for the assumption that Dovid HaMelech was the head of the Sanhedrin? " I'd say, quite possibly.     

                                                                 

"The earliest record of a Sanhedrin is by Josephus, former Israelite general who wrote for the Romans after being captured) who wrote of a political Sanhedrin convened by the Romans in 57 B.C.E.   Hellenistic sources generally depict the Sanhedrin as a political and judicial council headed by the country’s ruler. "(The rule was all 71 had to be Cohens  to serve on the Sanhedrin.  The Romans wouldn't have adhered to this rule, making the Roman-ordered body not kosher during this time of being overcome by the Romans).  The Sanhedrin; disappeared from the Jewish scene before the end of the 4th century CE,  for sure by 425 CE.  That's when Emperor Constantine and the Romans took and governed the Eretz Yisrael.  

Josephus describes an aristocratic council called gerousia or senate of "elders" repeatedly in his history of the Jews, both under the Greeks from the time of Antiochus the Great (Josephus, Antiquities 12:3) and under the Hasmonean high priests and princes. Josephus uses συνέδριον for the first time in connection with the decree of the Roman governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius (57 BC), who abolished the constitution and the then existing form of government of Israel. 

                                                     Maimonides                 

 During the 16th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made by Joseph Caro (1488-1575)b: Spain,  of Safed, Israel and Jacob Berab, (1475-1546)b: Spain,  applying a suggestion of Maimonides aka Moses ben Maimon,also called the Rambam, (1135-1204), born in Spain who went to Palestine and who uncovered and wrote up our 613 laws, and returned to Europe. Berab wanted to revive ORDINATION  in the land of Israel and so make possible a new Sanhedrin. Berab failed after arousing a sharp controversy.   Ordination must be having proof of one's family tree to prove they were Cohens at at this time there was no DNA proof as today.  Ordination also meant that only accepted rabbis were ones ordinated in Eretz Yisrael.  Babylonian ordination was not acceptable.  Rav in front of a name was used only by ordinated rabbis. 

An ordinated rabbi was not found in Europe!  Out of Germany came a new type of ordination out of desperation during the 14th century by rabbi Meir ha-Levi of Vienna who said that all candidates should have received a kerav semikhah (a writ of ordination)  and had been granted the title of Morenu (moreh is teacher).  Rabbi means teacher.  Obviously, this was to ensure a person of good quality who would not be breaking any rules, socially or religiously as the high standards were in Eretz Yisrael.  

Napoleon convoked a body of 71 members to confirm the decisions of the Assembly of Notables.  It consisted of 45 rabbis and 26 lay-members.  They met at a meeting on February 9, 1807 under the presidency of Joseph David Sintzheim (1745-1812), rabbi of Strasbourg, France.  Napoleon appointed him  chief rabbi of the Central Consistory  on its inception.  Its decisions,  prescribed adherence to the civil code, were subject to the general demands of Judaism.                                                     

                                          Knesset in Jerusalem

The rebirth of Israel in 1948 brought a fresh demand for a revival of the Sanhedrin,, but authoritative opinion considers the legal and constitutional difficulties at present, insuperable.   It was in October 2004 (Tishrei 5765), a group of rabbis representing varied Orthodox communities in Israel undertook a ceremony in Tiberias, where the original Sanhedrin was disbanded, in which it claimed to re-establish the body according to the proposal of Maimonides and the Jewish legal rulings of Rabbi Yosef Karo. The controversial attempt has been subject to debate within different Jewish communities.     

Herod the Great (73 BCE-4 BCE) an Idumean, was an appointee governor of Galilee by his father, Antipater, who assisted the Romans,  nominated no less than six high priests; Archelaus nominated two,  The Roman legate Quirinius and his successors exercised the right of appointment, as did Agrippa I, Herod of Chalcis, and Agrippa II. Even the people occasionally elected candidates to the office. The high priests before the Exile were, it seems, appointed for life; in fact, from Aaron to the Captivity the number of the high priests was not greater than during the sixty years preceding the fall of the Second Temple.   

There were qualifications to be the high priest.  The age of eligibility for the office is not fixed in the Law; but according to rabbinical tradition it was twenty. Aristobulus, however, was only seventeen when appointed by Herod; but the son of Onias III was too young (νηπιος) to succeed his father. The age a Levite entered the priesthood was 30 years of age (Numbers 4:3,30).

Legitimacy of birth was essential; hence the care in the keeping of the genealogical records and the distrust of one whose mother had been captured in war. The high priest had to abstain from ritual defilement. He may marry only an Israelite virgin (21:13–14). In Ezekiel 44:22 this restriction is extended to all kohanim (priests), an exception being made in favor of the widow of a priest (see Levirate marriage). According to Leviticus 21:11 he was not permitted to come in contact with the bodies of the dead, not even for his parents (regular priests could become unclean for the death of an immediate relative) Leviticus 21:1–3 ; and he was not permitted, as a sign of mourning, to leave his hair disheveled, to expose it, or to rend his garments (Leviticus 21:10 et seq.). According to Josephus, birth on foreign soil was not a disqualification; but the disqualifications of Leviticus 21:17 et seq. applied to the high priest as well as to other priests.  Josephus was not an authority on this.    

Therefore, what we see in the New Testament is of a Greek view, given by Josephus.  He depicts the Sanhedrin as a council of state presided over by a high priest which also conducted the trials of political offenders.  Some scholars believe that there were 2 different Sanhedrins,  one political and the other religious.  There is, however, no evidence for the existence of a political body except during the troubled decades which preceded the destruction of the Temple, (when Rome overcame Judah) and Rome took over all things, choosing leaders.  

Joseph Caiaphas was the High Priest from 18 to 36 CE.  He was appointed by the procurator, Valerius Gratus, meaning he was not already an accepted member of the Sanhedrin, a kosher member.  He did have connections through his wife's father, Annas, who had been a Sanhedrin member of the 71, presumably.  Both, according to Josephus's rendition, were responsible for the prosecution of Jesus and the arrest of the apostles.  Caiaphas was removed by the Syrian governor, Vitellius.  There is no guarantee that either man was a Cohen being both were  Roman appointees. 

Of Caiaphas,  the Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 15B) gives the family name as Kuppai, while the Jerusalem Talmud (Yevamot 1:6) mentions Nekifi. The Mishnah, Parah 3:5, refers to the family name as hakKof (perhaps "the Monkey", a play on his name for opposing the Pharisees).   Annas,  (also Ananus or Ananias; Hebrew: חָנָן‎, khanán; Koinē Greek: Ἅννας, Hánnas; 23/22 BC – death date unknown, probably around AD 40) was appointed by the Roman legate Quirinius as the first High Priest of the newly formed Roman province of Iudaea in AD 6 – just after the Romans had deposed Archelaus, Ethnarch of Judaea, thereby putting Judaea directly under Roman rule.

Resource

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/sanhedrin

https://brill.com/view/book/9789004384453/BP000003.xml  Greek and Israeli views-Studies in the History of the Sanhedrin, Harvard,  a book 

https://torahinmotion.org/discussions-and-blogs/sanhedrin-91-the-greek-court

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-sanhedrin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synedrion