Concept
Sanhedrin
Overview
The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic סַנְהֶדְרִין, a loanword from Koine Greek: συνέδριον, romanized: synedrion, 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence 'assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly in the ancient land of Israel.
There were two classes of Rabbinite courts called sanhedrins: Greater and Lesser. A lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges was appointed to sit as a tribunal in each city. In general usage, the Sanhedrin without qualifier usually refers to the Great Sanhedrin. There was only one Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges, which, among other roles, acted as a supreme court, taking appeals from cases that lesser courts decided. The Great Sanhedrin was presided over by the Nasi (lit. "prince", often translated as "president"), assisted by the Av Beit Din ("chief of the court").
In the Second Temple period, the Great Sanhedrin met in the Temple in Jerusalem, in a building called the Hall of Hewn Stones. The Great Sanhedrin convened every day except festivals and the sabbath day (Shabbat).
After the destruction of the Second Temple and the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt, the Great Sanhedrin moved to Galilee, which became part of the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In this period, the Sanhedrin was sometimes called the Galilean Patriarchate or Patriarchate of Palaestina, the governing legal body of Galilean Jewry. In the late 200s CE, to avoid persecution, the name Sanhedrin was dropped and its decisions were issued under the name of Beit HaMidrash (house of learning). The last universally binding decision of the Great Sanhedrin appeared in 358 when the Hebrew calendar was established. The Great Sanhedrin was finally disbanded in 425.
Over the centuries, attempts have been made to revive the institution, such as by Jacob Berab, the Grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon Bonaparte, and modern attempts in Israel.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
It was therefore the Assembly that elected their own Elders: the Apostles were onely Presidents of the Assembly to call them together for such Election, and to pronounce them Elected, and to give them the benediction, which now is called Consecration. And for this cause they that were Presidents of the Assemblies, as (in the absence of the Apostles) the Elders were, were called proestotes, and in Latin Antistities…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
States what Sanhedrin is.
All the foregoing magistrates are elected by lot, and their powers are those which have been stated. To pass on to the nine Archons, as they are called, the manner of their appointment from the earliest times has been described already. At the present day six Thesmothetae are elected by lot, together with their clerk, and in addition to these an Archon, a King, and a Polemarch. One is elected from each tribe. They…
Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution
States what Sanhedrin is.
ix. 17. Nothing mentioned of him but what he did as a general: and indeed that is all is found in his history, or in any of the rest of the judges. And Abimelech particularly is called king, though at most he was but their general. And when, being weary of the ill conduct of Samuel’s sons, the children of Israel desired a king, like all the nations to judge them, and to go out before them, and to fight their…
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
States what Sanhedrin is.
Philosophers who discussed Sanhedrin
Related ideas
- Rabbinic Judaism
- Greek language
- Galilee
- Hebrew language
- Jerusalem
- Julian (emperor)
- Maimonides
- Mishnah
- Moses
- New Testament
- Judea
- Paris
- Exegesis
- Hebrew Bible
- Vespasian
- Oxford University Press
- Loanword
- Napoleon
- Late antiquity
- Tiberias
- Bar Kokhba Revolt
- Israel
- Talmudic academies in Babylonia
- Yavne
Place in the tradition
Part of Jewish philosophy.