Communal Organization and Leadership: The Gerousia

The Greek term gerousia refers to a council of elders, perhaps best exemplified by the ancient Spartan Senate comprising two kings and twenty-eight elders, the establishment of which Plutarch recounted in his later Life of Lycurgus. The Spartan example is a Senate functioning largely as a legislative advisory body and not simply as a court. Each of the texts below reflects that the Gerousia of Jerusalem was a kind of elder council or Senate that acted as a representative body of the Jews of Jerusalem to other powers, whether in Syria or Rome. (On the Gerousia of the Jewish community in Alexandria, see Alexandria.)

In book 4 of Jewish Antiquities, Josephus presents Moses giving a speech regarding the form of government that God established for the Jews, and in the discussion of judges, the possibility emerges that they may not always be capable of rendering a just verdict, in which case the high priest, prophet, and Gerousia—reminiscent of the biblical ziknei ha-‘ir (elders of the city)—assume the higher judicial authority. In Jewish Antiquities 12, Josephus recounts a speech in which Antiochus III mentions the Gerousia as part of the Jewish community that welcomed the victorious Seleucid king. This is perhaps the earliest evidence for such a body functioning in Jerusalem. (See Under Ptolemaic and Seleucid Rule.)

The Hasmonean-period material from 1–2 Maccabees also indicates that, alongside the high priest, some form of Jewish Senate assisted in governing the Jewish people. In these cases, the Senate is represented in various diplomatic correspondences between the Jews and foreign peoples. Such letters are captured in more detail by Josephus’ representation of Jonathan the high priest’s letter to the Spartans, wherein the high priest, Senate, and Jewish people constitute the political body of the Jewish state.