Similarly in Num. xxvii. 19, the phrase is all the Congregation [relaa i] a-maw-y-6, °Midi' multitudo], while in Lev. xvi. 17 we have 9np-m [rao-a universus ccetus Israel, the entire assembly of Israel]. We should have no difficulty in supposing that every member of the 'Edah was present at such meetings as these, in the lifetime of Moses and before the nation was dispersed throughout its settlements in Canaan, were it not that we occasionally find, in later times, an equally ample designation used, when it is im possible to believe that the nation could have as sembled at one place of meeting ; e. g., in Josh. xxii 12, where the whole congregation of the children of Israel' is mentioned ; and again still later, as at the dedication of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings viii. 14 ; 2 Chron. i. 5. (2.) From this impossibility of personal attendance in the national congregation, we should expect to find a representative constitu tion provided. Accordingly, in Num. i. 16, we read of persons called 71yi1ON111), not, as in A. V., renowned of the C. ; but, wont to be called to the C. (Michaelis, Laws of Moses, trans., i. 230). In xvi. 2, they are still more explicitly styled 4,..11p 711V, i.e., chiefs of the C. who are called to the Convention [o-b-pcX?Iro1 fiovVijr, qui tern pore concilii vocabuntur]. While in Exod. xxxviii. 25 occurs the phrase myrt Tipm, those deputed to the assembly, which exactly describes delegated per sons. From Josh. xxiii. 2 and xxiv. 1, it would appear that these deputies were—(1) 'The elders' (called rum 4)71, 'elders of the C.', in Lev. iv. 15), as if deputed thereto ; and elders of Israel,' or of the people,' as if representing them and nominated by them (Deut. i. i3). (2) The heads,' 0'VN1, i. e., ' The princes of the tribes' (Num. i. 4, 16) ; and the chiefs of the Mishpa thoth, or 'families' (xxvi., passim). (3) The judges ;' not of course the extraordinary rulers beginning with Othniel, but the referred to in Deut. xvi. 18, stationed in every great city, and summoned probably as ex oficio members to the congregation. (4) The officers' (ant:cr, ypautearels, magistri ; whom Jahn calls genealo gists, and Gesenius magistrates), whether central, as in Num. xi. 16, or provincial, as in Deut. xvi.
18. These four classes of men, in addition to official duties, seem to have had attached to their offices the prerogative of representing their coun trymen at the national convention or 'Edah. We have not classed among these delegates either the jethronian prefects' (Exod. xviii. 15 ; Deut. i. 13-15) or the seventy elders (Num. xi. 16), for they were undoubtedly included already in one or other of the normal classes (comp. Num. xi. 16 and Deut. i. 15). The members of the Congregation were convened by the ruler, or judge, or king, for the time being ; e.g., by Moses, passim ; by Joshua (xxiii. 1, 2) ; probably by the high-priest (Judges xx. 27, 28) ; frequently by the kings—by David (I Chron. xiii. 2) • by Solomon (1 Kings viii. 5, etc.) ; by Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 4, 5) j by Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxx. 2) ; probably by the Tirshathas afterwards (see Ezra x. 8, 9, 12) ; and by Judas Maccabus (1 Maccab. iii. 42-46). The place of meeting was at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation [supra] ; sometimes, however, some other place of celebrity was selected—as Shechem by Joshua (xxiv. 1) ; 117izpeh (Judg. xx. 1) ; Each by Saul ; and Gilgal by Samuel (i Sam. xi. 8, 15). As long as the Israelites were en camped in the wilderness, the 'Edaits were con vened by the sound of silver trumpets. From Num. x. 2-4, it appears that the blowing of one trumpet only was the signal for a more select con vention, composed only of the heads of the Mish pachoth and the princes of the tribes ; whereas when both trumpets sounded the larger congrega tions met. But after the occupation of Canaan when this mode of summons would be clearly inef fectual, the Congregations seem to have been con vened by messengers (Judg. xx. 1, 12 ; I Sam. xi. 7, 8). As to the powers and authority of the Con gregation—it was not a legislative body : Juris illius Majestatis quod in ferendis legibus est posi tuna nihil quicquam penes ilium (cretum) ;' Conrin gius, De Rep. Nebr., sec. to, p. 246. The divine law of Moses had already foreclosed all Legisla tion, properly so-called ; there was only room for bye-laws (Sherlock, Dissert. iii. 317). Nor was
the taxing power within the competency of the Israelite 'Edah : national revenues of the state were so settled in the tithes and other offerings, and there being no soldiery in pay, all holding their estates by military service, there was no room for new or occasional taxes ; so that the Hebrew par liament could have no business either to make new laws, or to raise money' (Lowman, Dissert. p. 135). But there was, for all that, a large residue of authority, which sufficiently guaranteed the national autonomy. (I) The Divine Law itself was deliberately submitted to the `Edah for acceptance or rejection (Exod. xix. 3-9, and xxiv. 3). (2) Their chiefs were submitted to this body on ap pointment for its approval ; e.g., Joshua (Num. xxvii. 19) • Saul (1 Sam. x. 24) ; Saul again, on the renewal of the kingdom (i Sam. xi. 15) ; David (2 Sam. v. 1-3) ; Solomon (1 Chron. xxix. 22) ; so the later kings—we take as an instance Joash (2 Chron. xxiii. 3). (3) The 'Edah seems to have had the power of staying the execution of a king's sentence (as in Jonathan's case, where the rescue' was not by force or violence, but by constitutional power carries with it the idea of authority] : • (i Sam. xiv. 44, 45). (4) As in our Parliament, if it had not actually the prerogative of making peace and war, it possessed the power of checking, by disapprobation, the executive authority (See Joshua ix. 15 ; comp. with verse 18). In later times, indeed, the prince seems to have laid questions of foreign alliance, etc., before the Congregation, either for deliberation or approbation, or both (See the case of Simon Maccabmus in i Maccab. xiv. 18-2S). (5) But in the absence of a ruler, the 'Edah apparently decided itself on war or peace (Judg. xx. I, 11-14 ; also xxi. 13-20). (6) The Congregation was a high court of appeal in cases of life and death (Num. xxxv. 12, 24, (7) Capital punishment was not inflicted without the cognisance of the 'Ea'ah, and the execution of the sentence was one of its functions (Lev. xxiv. 10 14 ; Num. xv. 32-36). Lastly, the Congregation was consulted by Hezekiah and Josiah in their pious endeavours to restore religion (2 Chron. xxx. 2-4 ; xxxiv. 29). When David mentions his praises in the great congregation' (Z1 7 17, Ps. xxii. 26, et alibi), it is probably in reference to his ' composition of Psalms for the use of the Israelit ish church, and the establishment in its full splen dou• of the choral Levitical service' (Thrupp, Ps. I. 141), in all which he would require and obtain the co-operation and sanction of the *Edah. After the rejection of the Theocratic constitution by Jero boam, the Congregation sometimes receives a more limited designation, e.g., 6vroz All the C. of Yerusalent' (2 Chron. xxx. 2), and All the C. of yita'ah,' mice i liockricria IotH (ver. 25). The phrase C. of Israel' is used indeed twice in this later period (see 2 Chron. xxiv. 6, and xxx. 25) ; but in the former passage the expression directly refers to the original insti tution of Moses, and in the latter to the company whom Hezekiah invited out of the neighbouring kingdom to attend his passover, which the LXX. well indicates by a unique translation, 01 eivaerres 4 'IapaliN.
In the time of our Lord the supreme assembly of the Jewish nation had dwindled into the compara tively modern institution of the Sanhedrim (N. T., owl6picut for o-uva-yory?), is used in N.T . in a new and different sense. See SYNAGOGUE.) Few questions have been more contested in Hebrew archsnology than that, which asserts the identity of the ancient 'Edah or Congregation with it. Rabbinical authori ties contend for the identity—' Per Congregationem Israelis significatur Synhedrium,' says R. Solomon (on Lev. iv.) But the authority of the Talmudists in such cases is very low with the learned.—Low man, Dissert. p. 15i ; Patrick on Exod. xviii. 25 ; Cal.met, Dissert. sur la Police des Hebreux (prefixed to his Comment. on Numbers) ; Bertram, de Rep. Hebr., by L' Empereur ; and Lightfoot, lifinisterium Templi (which two works are in Ugolini Thesaur, voll. iv. ix., and with the treatises of Cunxus and Sigonius contain much, but desultory, information on the subject of this art.) See also COUNCIL; SANHEDRIM.—P. H.