III. ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND EXTINCTION OF THE SANHEDRIM.
According to the most ancient Jewish tradition, the Sanhedrim was instituted by Moses, when he appointed, according to the command of God, seventy elders, who, together with him as their president, were to act as magistrates and judges (Num. xi. 16-24), thus constituting the first San hedrim with its seventy-one members (Alishna Sanhedrim, i. 6 ; Gemara, ibid. 2). Hence the so-called Jerusalem Targum paraphrases Exod.
xv. 27, And they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of water, answering to the twelve tribes of Israel, and seventy palm-trees, answering to the seventy elders of the Sanhedrim of Israel,' whilst the other Chaldee versions express the judicial courts and colleges of the remotest antiquity by the name Sanhedrim (comp. Targum, Is. xxviii. 6 ; Ruth iii. ; iv. r ; Ps. cxl. ro ; Eccles. xii. 12). Hence, too, the offices of president and vice-president are traced to Moses (Yernsalem Sota, ix. 10); in the time of the kings, we are assured, Saul was president of the Sanhedrim in his reig,n, and his son Jonathan was vice-president (.111-oed Katon, 26 a); and these two functions con tinued during the time of the later prophets (Pea, 2 b; Wasir, 56 b; Tosephta Yadajim, The Chaldee paraphrase on the Song of Songs tells us that the Sanhedrim existed even in the Babylonish captivity, and that it was reorganised by Ezra immediately after the return from the exile (comp. Song of Songs vi. Bnt though this view has also been entertained by some of the most learned Christian scholars (ex. gr. Selden, Leusden, Grotius, Reland), and though allusion is made in Jeremiah (xxvi. 8, 16) to the several distinct classes Nvhich we afterwards find constitut ing the Sanhedrim, whilst Ezekiel (viii. 1, etc.) actually mentions the existence of seventy elders in his time ; yet there seems to be little doubt that this supreme court as it existed during the second temple developed itself in the Greek rule over Palestine. This is corroborated by the following reasons :—/. The historical books of the Bible are perfectly silent about the existence of such a tri bunal. a The prophets, who again and again manifest such zeal for justice and righteous judg ment, never mention this court of justice, but always refer the administration of the law to the ruling monarch and the magmates of the land, thus show ing that this central administration belongs to the period of the second temple. iii. The name (mpg Spwv, ownSpetiew, by which it has come down to us, points to the fact that this synod originated during the Macedonian supremacy in Palestine. It is trne that Josephus does not mention the Sanhedrim before the conquest of Juda by Pom peius (Tic. 63) ; but the very fact that it had such power in the time of Hyrcanus II. as to summon Herod to answer for his unjust conduct (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 9. 4), shows that it must then have been a very old institution to have acquired such development and authority. Hence Frankel rightly remarks : Upon more minute examination, we find that the chronicler gives a pretty plain sketch of the Great Sanhedrim, as he mentions the existence in Jerusalem of a supreme court consisting of priests, Levites, and heads of families, with the high-priest as president (2 Chron. xix. 8, ri). . . . Now the chronicler, as Zunz has shown (Gottes dienstlichen Vortnige, p. 32), lived about the be ginning of the 2c1 century of the Seleucidean era, so that at that time the Sanhedrim did all eady exist, and its beginning is to be placed at the period in which Asia was convulsed by Alexander and his successors of the Ptolemean and Seleu cidean dynasties. Palestine, too, felt deeply the consequences of these recent convulsions, and to preserve its internal religious independence it re quired a thoroughly organised body to watch over both its doctrines and rights. This body manifested itself in the Sanhedrim. at the head of which was the high-priest, as is seen from Ecclesiasticus iv. 4, 5, and 2 Chronicles xix. 8, Ir. The Sanhednm seems to have been dissolved in the time of the MaccabLan revolt in consequence of the unworthy high-priests (comp. 2 Maccab.) ; but it was reconstructed after the overthrow of the Syrian yoke. As the people, however, were unwilling to leave the whole power in the hands of the Maccabees, who were already princes and high-priests, they henceforth placed at the head of the Sanhedrim a president (WV]) and a vice-president' (141 ron 2N, Der gerichtliche Beweis, p. 68, note). This is moreover corrobo rated by the traditional chain of presidents and vice-presidents, which are uninterruptedly traced from Jose b. Joeser (n.c. 170), as well as by the
statement that with Simon the Just terminated the Great Synagogue (Aboth,i. 2), from which the San hedrim developed itself. The transition from the Great Synagogue to the Great Sanhedrim is perfectly natural. The Macedonian conqueror,' as Frankel justly states (Programm, p. 6, 1834), with all his clemency towards Palestine, which resisted him so long and so obstinately, effected changes in the internal government of the people, and dissolved the Great Synagogue, which to a certain extent con ferred independence and a republican constitution upon the land. The people, however, valued highly their old institutions, and would not relin. quish them. Hence most probably in the con fusions which broke out after Alexander's death, when the attention of the fighting chiefs could not be directed towards Palestine, the Supreme Court w-as formed anew, assuming the name Synhedrion, which was a common appellation among the Greeks for a senate.' It was this development of the Great Sanhedrim from the Great Synagogue which ac counts for the similarity of the two names (r11;1)0 non, After the destruction of Jerusalem, when the holy city was no longer adapted to be the centre of religious administration, R. Jochanan b. Zakkai transferred the seat of the Sanhedrim to Jabne or Jamina (A.D. 68-80) ; it was thence transferred to Usha (Kethuboth, 49 ; Sabbath, 15; Rosh Ha-Shana, 15 b), under the presidency of Gamaliel II. b. Simon II. (A.D. 80 '16), conveyed back to Jabne and again to Usha ; to Shafran under the presidency of Simon III. b. Gamaliel II. (A.D. 140-163), to Beth-Shearim and Sapphoris under the presidency of Jehudah I. the Holy, b. Simon III. (A.D. 163-193, cornp. Ke thuboth, 103 b ; /Vida, 27 a), and finally to Tiberias under the presidency of Gamaliel III. b. Jehudah I. (A.D. 193-220), where it became more of a consistory, but still retaining under the presidency of Jehudah II. b. Simon III. (A.D. 220-270) the power of excommunication in case any Israelite refused to abide by its decisions ; whilst under the presidency of Gamaliel IV. b. Jehudah II. (A.D. 270-300), it dropped the ap. pellation Sanhedrim, and the authoritative decisions were issued under the name V-11V1 TOZ. Gam. aliel VI. (A.D. 400-425) was the last president. With the death of this patriarch, who was executed by Theodosius II. for erecting new synagogues contrary to the imperial inhibition, the title of Masi (K,n), the Iasi remains of the ancient San hecirim, became wholly extinct in the year 425 [EDucAn0:4]. It was with reference to this Su. preme Court that Christ chose seventy disciples (Luke x. 1), answering to the seventy senators composing the Sanhedrim, just as he chose twelve apostles with reference to the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. xix. 28 ; Luke XXii. 30), to indi cate thereby to the Jews that the authority of their supreme religious court was now taken away and was vested in the seventy of his own choice, and over which he himself was the president and su preme Lord.
Literature.—ilfisksza Sanhedrin and the Gemara on this Tractate ; excerpts of the Gemara Trac tate Sanhedrin have been translated into Latin with elaborate notes by John Coch, Amsterdam 1629 ; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka, Hilchoth Sanhedrin ; Selden, De Synedriis et Frafecturis Yziridicis veterson Ebroorunz, London 165o ; Zunz, Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortrdge der Yuclen p. 37, ff., Berlin 1[832 ; Israelitische Annalesz, i. pp. 1°8, 13r, ff., Frankfort-on-the-Maine 1839 ; Frankel, Der gerichtliche Bezveis nach mosaisch talmudisehem Rechte, p. 68, ff., Berlin 1846 ; Rapaport, Erech p. 2, Prague 1852 ; Frankel, Ilionalschrift fiir Geschichte send Wissen schaft des 7udenthums, vol. i. p. 344, ff. ; Levy in Frankel's Monatschrift, vol. iv. pp. 266 ff., 3o1 ff., Leipzig 1855 ; IIerzfeld, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. ii. p. 38o, ff., Nordhausen 1855 ; Krochmal in the Hebrew Essays and Reviews entitled He-Chaluz, vol. iii. p. 118 ff., Lemberg 1856 ; Jost, Geschichte des ,udenthzenzs und seiner Sates:, vol. i. pp. 123 ff., 270 ff., Leipzig 1857 ; Graetz, Geschichte der 3udetz, p. 88 ff., 2d ed., Leipzig 1863 ; comp. also this Cyclapadia, article EDUCATION, where all the presidents and vice presidents of the Sanhedrim are given in chronolo gical order ; and SYNAGOGUE, THE GREAT, where the development of the Sanhedrim from this insti tution is traced.—C. D. G.