SANHEDRIN, or SANHEDRIN (1•171;');), the groat council of the Jews, which consisted of seventy-one or seventy-two members, and decided the most Important causes, both ecclesiastical and civil. The name is a corruption by the Talmudiete of the Greek avviEptom (a etwaril). The rabbi, attempt to find the origin of the Sanhedrin) in the seventy elders who were appointed by Noses to assist him in his judicial duties (Numb. xi. 16); but this council was evidently tempo rary, and we hear nothing of it in the subsequent history of the Jews. (Moses, in lime. Div.; Michaelia ' On the Laws of Noses,' art. 50.) The exact time of the institution of the Sanhedrin is unknown ; but there is no reason to suppose that it was earlier than the time of the 3leccabees. There can however be little doubt that the Sanhedrin) was an imitation of the seventy elders of Moses. The first mention of the Sanhedrin) is in the time of Hyrcanus IL, when 11 crud was tried before it. (Joseph., ' Antiq.; xiv. 9, s. 3, 4.) The Sanhedrim bad a president or eri.7;), who was generally the high-priest, a vice-president ()'VZ 1) who sat on the right of the president, and, to some, a second vice-president who rat on his left. The other members were :-1, Chief Priests, who are often mentioned in the New Testament and in and who were partly ex-high-priests and partly the heads of the twenty-four classes of priests. 2. Elders ; that is, the princes of tribes and heads of families. 3. Scribes, or men of learning. All chief priests were members of the Sanhedrin), bnt of elders and scribes only so many were admitted into it as were required to fill up vacancies. (Matt. xxvi. 57, 59i xxvii. 3, 12, 20, 41 ; Mark viii. 31 ; xi. 27; xiv. 43, 53; xv. 1; Acts iv. 5 ; v. 21, 27.) The Talumdists say that the tribunal had its secretaries and apparitors. Both Pharisees and Sadducees were found in it.. (Acts v. 17, 21, 34 ; xxiii. 6.)
The Sanhedrin met at Jerusalem, and, according to the Talmuclists, in a chamber within the precincts of the Temple, called Gazith, in which also their archives were kept ; but, according to Josephus (' Bell. Jud.; v. 4, 2 ; vi. 6, 3), in a room on the east side of Mount Zion, not far from the Temple. In cases of emergency, as in the trial of Christ, they met in the high-priest's house.
The causes brought before this tribunal were either appeals from the inferior courts, or matters which were thought of sufficient import ance to come before them in the first instance : for example, the question whether a person was a false prophet (Luke xiii. 33), and matters which effected the whole state, a whole tribe, or the high priest. The accused was brought before the tribunal, and witnesses were required to appear to support the charge. Either capital or minor punishments might be inflicted by the Sanhedrim ; but under the Roman government its power was so far restricted that a capital sentence required the confirmation of the Roman governor, who was also charged with its execution. The stoning of Stephen was not done in accordance with the sentence of the Sanhedrin), but in a riot ; and the execution of James and others by the high-priest Ananias (A.D. 64) took place in the absence of the Roman procurator, and is admitted by the Jews themselves to have been an illegal act.
Besides the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, there were inferior courts in each town of Judaea, consisting of twenty-three members, to which the same name is sometimes applied. From these courts an appeal could be made to the Sanhedrin).
(Jahn, Archtid. 11ibl., th. ii., b. ii., § 186 ; Calmet's Dictionary ; Lightfoot'. Werke; Winer 's Bib,. Reabr6rterbuch, Synedrium.')