Other Definitions
sanhedrin (dict)
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SanhedrinSanhedrin is the name given in the mishna to the body of seventy-one sages who constituted the supreme court and legislative body in Judea during the Roman period. The make-up of the seventy-one sages included a president, vice president, and sixty-nine general members who all sat in the form of a semi-circle when in session. The Sanhedrin traced its lineage back to its formation in the time of Moses, although the Greek root for the word suggests that the institution may have developed during the Hellenistic period. The Sanhedrin ceased to exist some time after the destruction of the Second Temple. One of the requirements of being a member of the Sanhedrin is having received semicha. According to Rabbinic tradition, semicha was transmitted in an unbroken line extending from Moses to Joshua, the Israelite elders, the prophets, and finally to Ezra, Nehemiah, and the sages of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin as a body claimed powers that lesser Jewish courts did not have. As such, they were the only ones who could try the king, extend the boundaries of the Temple and Jerusalem, and were the ones to whom all questions of law were finally put. It was presided over by an officer called the Nasi. After the time of Hillel (late 1st century BCE and early 1st century CE), the Nasi was almost invariably a descendent of Hillel. The second highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin was called the Av Beit Din (Av Beth Din, or "father of the house of justice"), who presided over the Sanhedrin when it sat as a criminal court. The Sanhedrin met in a building known as Lishkat Ha-Gazith or the Hall of Hewn Stones, which has been placed by 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. The name presumably arises to distinguish it from the buildings in the Temple complex used for ritual purposes, which had to be constructed of stones unhewn by any iron implements. The Sanhedrin is mentioned frequently in the New Testament. According to the Gospels, the council conspired to have Jesus killed by paying one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, thirty pieces of silver in exchange for delivery of the rabbi into their hands. When the Sanhedrin was unable to provide evidence that Jesus had committed a capital crime, false witnesses came forward and accused the Nazarene of blasphemy. Because the council was deprived of the ability to condemn criminals to death circa 30 CE, Jesus was brought before the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for a decision concerning his fate. Some scholars believe that those passages of the New Testament that present a caricature of the Pharisees were not written during Jesus' lifetime but rather sometime after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, at a time when it had become clear that most Jews did not consider Jesus to be the messiah. At this time Christians sought most new converts from among the gentiles. They thus presented a story of Jesus that was more sympathetic to Romans than to Jews. Moreover, it was only after 70 that the Phariseeism emerged as the dominant form of Judaism. For Christian leaders at this time to present Christianity as the legitimate heir to the Old Testament Covenant, they had to devalue Rabbinic Judaism. Other Christian writings relate that the apostles Peter, John, Stephen, and Paul were all brought before the Sanhedrin at one time or another for the crime of spreading the Gospel. Some consider this to be a contradiction as most gospels were not even written until after the destruction of the Temple. However,the gospels and the acts of the apostles are actual accounts of events that happened well before the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, and are presumed to have been based on earlier sources. After the destruction of the Temple, the Sanhedrin (in some form or another) continued to meet periodically in Yavne and later in Sepphoris and Tiberias. It was presided over by a Nasi of the house of Hillel until 415 CE, when the Nasi Gamaliel VI was deposed by joint decree of Emperors Theodosius and Honorius. The Jewish anticipation for the arrival of the Messiah includes the reconstitution of this body of sages. Maimonides and other medieval commentators suggested that although the line of semicha from Moses had been broken at the dissolution of the Sanhedrin, if the sages of the Land of Israel united in suggesting a single candidate as Nasi, that individual would have semicha, and could then grant it to others and thus re-establish the Sanhedrin. Operating under these principles, a group of haredi rabbis in Israel purported to reestablish the Sanhedrin in a ceremony in Tiberias, where the original Sanhedrin was disbanded, on October, 2004 (Tishrei 5765). The authority of this body is not recognized by the Israeli government or by non-haredi streams of Judaism. References
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