Communal Organization and Leadership: The Sanhedrin
The term Sanhedrin derives from the Greek syn-hedrion, meaning “seat with” in council. The ancient sources use this term to refer to a number of different kinds of councils of varying sizes. Cities above a certain population could have a “small Sanhedrin” of twenty-three, but the Sanhedrin, at least in later rabbinic texts, often refers to a court of seventy-one members, the highest and most powerful judicial body in Roman Judaea and later Palestine until the abolition of the patriarchate, circa 425 CE. Hellenistic sources, Josephus, and texts from the New Testament present the Sanhedrin as a political and judicial council headed by the high priest or king. Tannaitic texts present the Sanhedrin as mainly a legislative body that dealt primarily with religious matters and functioned (rarely) as a court, always composed of and headed by a Pharisaic scholar. The disagreement among the sources has resulted in further disagreements among historians as to the body’s nature and primary functions.
Among the earliest mentions of the larger council is that of Josephus in Jewish Antiquities 14, wherein he describes the ethnarch and high priest Hyrcanus trying Herod for political murder. Josephus recounts that later, after Herod became king, he took revenge by having the Sanhedrin condemn Hyrcanus. (See “Conflicts between the Young Herod and Hyrcanus.”)
The council before which Jesus was tried as recounted in the Gospel of Mark seems to have been the Sanhedrin, though it is not identified as such in the text. This council was headed by the high priest and included all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. Acts 4 recounts the arrests of Peter and John and their trial before a similarly composed group.
The Mishnah records how rabbis of the generations after the destruction of the Second Temple “remembered” or imagined the role of the Sanhedrin. Tractate Sanhedrin includes a list of instances in which the ruling of a lower court was inadequate and for which a ruling from the Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one scholars was required. In a later chapter, m. Sanhedrin explains the procedure and required punishment for the “rebellious elder,” one who offers and maintains a practical legal ruling contrary to the ruling of the highest court. Tractate Makkot explains that one who flees after his conviction is still liable for his penalty wherever he may be found if witnesses are able to testify that he was found guilty elsewhere and name the witnesses whose testimony convicted him. It also states that the structure of the Sanhedrin of twenty-three was operative both within and outside the land of Israel. Finally, the Mishnah discusses how often a court would have to execute people for capital crimes for the court to be characterized as “murderous.”