2. Cases" affecting life and death came, according to the Mishna {tSnnhed. i. 4), before the little Sanhedrin (of 23 members). As a matter of fact, in important instances the Great Sanhedrin was called together to pronounce judgment. Accord- ing to a Tannaite tradition (Jerus. Saiihed. 18«, 24/)), the right of judging in matters of life and ileath was t.aken from Israel (i.e. from the Jewish courts) forty years before the destruction of the Temple. ' Forty ' here is a round number and un- hi.storical, but the circumstance related by this tradition and confirmed by the Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus is historical, and is connected with the restrictions impo.sed on the competence of the Jewish courts, and of the Great Sanhedrin in particular, in the time of the Roman procurators.
402
SANHEDRIX
SAPHUTHI
:'.. The decisions of tlie Great Sanbeilrin 'from which wt'iit forth direction for all Israel,' were of inviolable force, and binilinj; uijou all teachers of the Law and all judges. Any one of these who gave a judgment in opposition to its decrees was called a 'rebellious elder' (rn^n jpi), and was con- dennied by the tireat Sanhedrin (Sanhed. xi. 2—4). The rules for dealing with occa.sional errors of the Sanhedrin in giving decisions or in interiireting the Law are casuistically exhibited in the first chapter of the Mishiiic tract llnniyoth.
4. The Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem sat in the Hall of Hewn Stone (see above, iii.). Accord- ing to the report of Jose b. Chalaftha, it held its sittings from the time of the offering of the daily morning sacrifice till that of the evening sacrifice (Tos. Sanhcd. vii. 1, and parall.). On the Sabbath and on feast days no sittings were held, but the members of the Sanhedrin assembled in the school situated on the temple mount (('i.; in Bab. Snnlicd. 88/>, instead of the ■ schocil ' [p'2 inj::' c'-nsn p>3] it is the place called Che.l, where at other times [see above, iii.] one of the two lesser synedria held its sittings). The members of the Sanhedrin sat in a semicircle, that tliey might see one another while deliberating (Mishna, Sanhcd. iv. 2 ; Tos. Sfiiihed. viii. 1). ' Two clerks of court (fJ""'^ ■■idid) stood before them, the one to the right and the other to the left, and took down the wi^rds of those who gave their voice for acquittal and of those who were for condemnation ' (Mishna, Saithed. iv. 2). According to Jehudah b. Ilai (H/.) there were three clerks : one took down the votes for ac(|uittal, one those for condenniation, while the third took down botli (in order to check the lists of the other two). In the report of Jose b. Chalaftha it is said that, when a question came before the Great Sanhedrin, and the reply could not be given on the ground of a tradition, it was tlecided by the votes of the majority. As to the mode of deliberating and voting and the distinc- tions which were oKserved according to the nature of the subject under consideration, tradition con- tains a multitude of rules which, it may safely be inferred, are based upon the actual praxis of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. Some of these rules may be cited : — In questions of civil riglit and in those affecting the Ceremonial Law, the taking of the vote began with the principal mem- ber of the Sanhedrin ; in judgments affecting life and death it began 'at the side.' i.e. with the younger members, in order that their vote might not be influenced b}' that of the leaders (Mishna, Sanhad. iv. 2 ; 'l"os. Sanhrd. vii. 2). For a judg- ment affecting life and death an attendance of at leiust 23 members w;is reiiuired. If the result of the vote showed a majority of only one for 'guilty,' the court had to be increased by two successively till the number of 71 was reached. Only when the full number was present, was a majority of one (.'!(! votes against ;!5) .suflicient to procure a con- demnation (Mishna, Saithed. iv. 0).
vii. L,\Ti;sT IIISTOUY OF THE SANIIKDr.IN. — The Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, as we have already said, revived, after the fall of Jerusalem, in the schools of Palestine. The activity of the college of scribes, in which the tradition of the I'harisaic schools was perpetuated and underwent vigorous development, attached itself to the work of the defunct supreme court of Jerusalem, and it strengthened its authority by adopting the name and the constitution of the Great Sanhedrin. Down to the 5th cent., i.e. down to the cessation of the office of patriarch or Nasi, which was heredi- tary in the house of Hillel, tliere existed in the Holy Land an institution which could be regarded as a continuation of the Great Sanhedrin. After Babylon became the one centre of Jewish learning
in the time of the Gaons, the name ' Sanhedrin' was given to the most eminent members of the so- calle<l Kalla iussemblies, the 70 scholars who sat in the first seven rows and who at all events were chosen upon a fixed principle.
Even recent times have witnessed a revival of the name of the ancient Sanhedrin. In the year 1807, at the summons of Xapoleon I. there met in I'aris an as.sembly of representatives of Judaism, which at the invitation of the Emperor himself took the name 'Sanhedrin," and constituted itself upon the traditional model of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. Apart from a few declarations as to the relation of the Jewish religion to State law and of Jews to non-Jews, this assembly has left no permanent traces.