Sanhedrim

SANHEDRIM, or Sanhedria, a corrupted Word, and form’d from the Greek Word Synedrion, which signifies an Assembly, as those of Parliaments and Sovereign Courts, where many Judges and Counsellors meet together, to consult on and determine great Affairs. The Jews call Sanhedrim or Beth-din, the House of Judgment, a Council of Seventy Senators, who assembled in an Apartment of the Temple of Jerusalem, and there determin’d the most important Affairs of the Nation. The Chief of this Assembly was called Nasi or Prince; his Deputy was called Abbeth-din¹, Father of the House of Nashi, Princeps.Judgment, and the Sub-Deputy was call’d Chacam, that is, the Wise. The rest were called Elders or Senators. The Room they Chacham, Sapiens. Senes, Senatores.met in was a Rotunda, half of which was built without the Temple, and half within; that is to say, there was one Semicircle of the Room within the Compass of the Temple, and as it was never allowed to sit down in the Temple, they tell us this Part was for those that stood up; the other Half or Semicircle extended itself without the Holy Place, and ‘twas here the Judges sat.

The Nasi or Prince sat upon a Throne at the End of the Hall, having his Deputy at his Right-hand, and Sub-Deputy at his Left. The other Senators were ranged in order on each Side. This Hall was call’d Lishcath-Haggazith,² or the Hall paved with Stones; and some think it to be the same call’d in St. John³ Lithostrotos, or paved with Stones. a They suppose what to me is very improbable, that when the Jews accused Jesus Christ before Pilate, they would not enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but prevailed with Pilate to come into the Sanhedrim, there to hear their Accusations against our Saviour.

The Rabbins pretend, that the Sanhedrim has always subsisted in their Nation from the Time of Moses, down to the Destruction of the Temple by the Romans. They date the Establishment of it from what happen’d in the Wilderness, some time after the People departed from Sinai⁴. Moses being discouraged by the continual Murmurings of the Israelites, addressed himself to God, and desired to be relieved at least from some Part of the Burden of Government. Then the Lord said to him; Gather unto me seventy Men of the Elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the Elders of the People, and Officers over them; and bring them unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there; and I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the Burden of the People with thee, that thou bear it not thy self alone. The Lord therefore poured out his Spirit upon these Men, who began from that Time to prophesy, and have not ceased from that Time. The Sanhedrim was composed of seventy Counsellors, six out of each Tribe, and Moses, as President, made up the Number seventyone⁵. To prove the uninterrupted Succession of the Judges of the Sanhedrim, there is nothing unattempted by the Partisans of this Opinion. They find a Proof where others cannot so much as perceive any Appearance or Shadow of it. Grotius may be seen in many Places of his Commentaries upon Scripture, and in his First Book De jure belli & pacis, c. 3. art. 20. and Selden in his large Work divided into three Tomes, where he treats de Synedriis veterum Hebraeorum. Lastly, our Dissertation may be consulted, concerning the Polity of the antient Hebrews, printed before our Comment upon the Book of Numbers.

As to the personal Qualifications of the Judges of this Bench; their Birth was to be untainted. They were often taken of the Race of the Priests or Levites, or out of the Number of the inferior Judges, or from the lesser Sanhedrim, which consisted only of Twenty-three Judges. See the Article JUDGES. They were to be skilful in the Law, as well Traditional as Written. They were obliged to study Magick, Divination, Fortune-telling, Physick, Astrology, Arithmetick, and Languages. The Jews say, they were to know to the Number of seventy Tongues, that is, they were to know all the Tongues, for the Hebrews acknowledged but Seventy in all, and perhaps this is too great a Number. Eunuchs were excluded from the Sanhedrim, because of their Cruelty, Usurers, decrepid Persons, Players at Games of Chance, those that had any bodily Deformities, those that had brought up Pigeons to decoy others to their Pigeon-Houses, and those that made a Gain of their Fruits in the Sabbatical Year. Some also exclude the High-priest and the King, because of their too great Power; but others will have it, that the Kings always presided in the Sanhedrim, while there were any Kings in Israel. Lastly, it was required, that the Members of the Sanhedrim should be of mature Age, rich, of handsom Countenance and Body. We speak now according to the Notions of the Rabbins, without pretending to warrant their Opinions. We have sufficiently explained our selves in this Matter, in the Dissertation referr’d to above.

The Authority of the great Sanhedrim was vastly extensive. This Council decided such Causes as were brought before it by way of Appeal from the inferior Courts. The King, the High-priest, the Prophets, were under its Jurisdiction. If the King offended against the Law, for example, if he married above eighteen Wives, if he kept too many Horses, if he hoarded up too much Gold and Silver, the Sanhedrim had him stripp’d and whipp’d in their Presence. But Whipping, they say, among the Hebrews was not at all ignominious; and the King bore this Correction by way of Penance, and himself made Choice of the Person that was to exercise this Discipline over him. Also the general Affairs of the Nation were brought before the Sanhedrim. The Right of Judging in Capital Cases belong’d to this Court, and this Sentence could not be pronounced in any other Place, but in the Hall called Laschat-haggazith; from whence it came to pass that the Jews were forced to quit this Hall, when the Power of Life and Death was taken out of their Hands, forty Years before the Destruction of their Temple, and three Years before the Death of Jesus Christ.

In the Time of Moses this Council was held at the Door of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. As soon as the People were in Possession of the Land of Promise, the Sanhedrim followed the Tabernacle. It⁶ was kept successively at Gilgal, at Shiloh; at Kirjath-jearim, at Nob, at Gibeon in the House of Obed-edom; and lastly, it was settled at Jerusalem, till the Babylonish Captivity. During the Captivity it was kept up at Babylon. After the Return from Babylon, it continued at Jerusalem to the Time of the Sicarii or Assassins. Then finding that these profligate Wretches, whose Number increased every Day, sometimes escaped Punishment by the Favour of the President or Judges, it was removed to Hanoth, which were certain Abodes situated, as the Rabbins tell us, upon the Mountain of the Temple. From thence they came down into the City of Jerusalem, withdrawing themselves by degrees from the Temple. Afterwards they removed to Jamnia, thence to Jericho, to Uzzah, to Shepharvaim, to Bethsanim, to Sephoris, last of all to Tiberias, where they continued to the Time of their utter Extinction. And this is the Account the Jews themselves give us of the Sanhedrim.

But the Learned do not agree with them Petav. de Doctrin. temp. l. 2. c. 26.in all this. Father Petau fixes the Beginning of the Sanhedrim not till Gabinius was Governor of Judea, who erected Tribunals in the five principal Cities of Judea⁷; at Jerusalem, at Gadara, at Amathus, at Jericho, at Sephora or Sephoris, a Grot. ad 1 Par. xxi. 4.City of Galilee. Grotius places the Beginning under Moses, as the Rabbins do, but he makes it determine at the Beginning of Herod’s Reign. Mr. Basnage,⁸ in his History of the Jews, at first thought that the Sanhedrim began under Gabinius; but afterwards he places it under Judas Maccabæus1 Macc. xii. 6., or under his Brother Jonathan. We see indeed, under Jonathan Maccabæus, in the Year 3860, that the Senate with the High-priest sent an Embassy to the Romans. The Rabbins say, that Alexander Janneus, King of the Jews, of the Race of the Asmoneans, appear’d before the Sanhedrim, and claim’d a Right of sitting there, whether the Senators would or no. Josephus informs us, that when Herod was but yet Governor of Galilee, he was summon’d before the Senate, where he appear’d. It must be therefore acknowledg’d, that the Sanhedrim was in Being before the Reign of Herod. It was in Being afterwards, as we find from the Gospel, and from the Acts. Jesus Christ in St. Mat. v. 22.Matthew distinguishes two Tribunals. Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a Cause, shall be in Danger of the Judgment. This, they say, is the Tribunal of the twenty-three Judges. And whosoever shall say to his Brother, Raca, shall be in Danger of the Council: That is, of the great Sanhedrim, which had the Right of Life and Death, at least generally, and before this Right was taken away by the Romans. Some think that the Jurisdiction of the Council of twenty-three extended to Life and Death also; but it is certain that the Sanhedrim was superior to this Council. See also Mark xiii. 9. xiv. 55. xv. 1. Luke xxii. 52, 66. John xi. 47. Acts iv. 15. v. 21. where mention is made of the Synedrion.

John xviii. 31.From all this it may be concluded, that the Origen of the Sanhedrim is by no means to be depended upon; for the Council of the seventy Elders established by Moses, was not what the Hebrews understand by the Name of Sanhedrim. Besides, we cannot perceive that this Establishment subsisted either under Joshua, the Judges, or the Kings. We find nothing of it after the Captivity, till the Time of Jonathan Maccabæus. The Tribunals erected by Gabinius were still very different from the Sanhedrim. This was the only one of its Kind, and fix’d at Jerusalem; whereas Gabinius establish’d five at five different Cities, which Tribunals do not appear to be subordinate one to another. Lastly, it is certain, that this Senate was in Being in the Time of Jesus Christ, and when St. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John writ their Gospels; since they are mention’d in their Writings: But the Jews inform us themselves, that they had no longer then the Power of Life and Death. See the Authors above cited concerning this Matter.

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