The first positive record of the Sanhedrin, under the name of Gerousia, appears in the decree of Antioehus the Great about 200 (Jos. Ant. xil. iii. 33). This was an aristocratic body of elders of the nation with the high priest at its head, which had charge of the government of the Jewish people under I'ersian and then under Ptolemaic and Seleucidieau rule ; nor was it different under Roman rule {ib. IV. viii. 17, XI. iv. 8, XX. x. ; 1 Mac 12" \Z^ 14™, 2 Mac l'» 4" 11"). The nanre Synhedrion (Aramaized Sanliedrin), which denotes chiefly a court of justice, came into popular use under Ptolemaic rule ; and, as its Hebrew equivalent, the name Heber hd-Yehudim appears on Hasmoniean coins, which read: 'Johanan the high priest, the head, and the Council (representative) of the Jews ' (Madden, op. cit., p. 58 ; Wellhausen, Phar. und Sadd., pp. 29, 34, Israelii, und jiid. Gcschichte', p. 281). A Sanhedrin of the Hasmonaeans is
SANIIKDRIN
SANHEDRIN
455
lueiitioiied in Sank. S'2a, Abdda Zdrfi, 3()*, wliicli is probably identical witli the Pluuisaic Saiilioilrin (cbW^A kcnlshtd, ' asscuibly,' .'/(Y/. Tn'ilnith, x.), ■whose triumph over tlie SmUliuean Sanhedrin in the reijrn of <iuoeii Alexandra Salome and under the lea<lershii) of Simon b. Shetah was celebrated as a festival. The Sanhedrin seems to have played a political role in the (juarrel between Alexandra's two sons, when (iabiiiius, the Roman governor of S3'ria in 57 B.C., diminished its power by dividing the country into live districts and placing a Sanlie- drin in Sepphoris and .lericho alongside of that at Jerusalem (Jos. Ant. XIV. v. 4). Soon afterwards; however, the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem was in full power again when .sitting in judgment upon young Herod (ib. XIV. ix. 4), but forty-live of its members fell victims to the terrible revenge of the tyrant. 'I'lius he rose to power, and a new Sanhedrin was chosen by him of servile men who passed sentences of death at his command (ib. XV. i. "2, vi. 2).
Under the Roman procurators when Judaea was shorn of all her sovereignty and indejiendence, the Sanhedrin still continued to represent the supreme power and authority of the Jewish people (Mt 2t)"' and Ac 4'= 5=' G'= 22^" 23" 24-»). In the war against Rome it directed and organized the struggle, and when towards the last the Zealots took bold of the city of Jerusalem, they appointed their own Sanhe- drin in place of the old to have a semblance of authority for their atrocious acts (Jos. BJll. xv. 6, xvi. 1 It'., IV. V. 4). It must be noticed, however, that .Josephus uses the term /JouX?) in liJ and koiv6v in Vita, 12, 13, 38, etc., instead of Sanhedrin, prob- ably because tlie latter bad become more what he calls (Ke'to, 12) ' the Sanhedrin of the Jerusalemites,' i.e. a city Senate. With the downfall of the State, the Sanhedrin as a national or jiolitieal institution ceased to exist (Sola, ix. 11 ; Ekah R. v. 16), but under the leadershiii of Johanan 1). Zakkai, Hillel's gi'eat disciple, the new Sanhedrin was soon after- wards organized at Jabneh (Jamnia), of an entirely scholastic character, consisting only of teachers of the Law ; and the form the new Sanhedrin assumed under his successor Gamaliel II., who took the title of Nasi as the lineal descendant of Hillel, ottered to the Talmudic tradition many of the features ascribed to the ancient Sanhedrin.
3. The presidency of the Sanhedrin. — The chief difficulty for the historian lies in the irreconcilable conflict "between the Talmudic traditicms and the above quoted historical records in Josephus and the NT concerning the presidency of the Sanhedrin. According to the latter, the authenticity of which cannot be questioned, the high priest, as the political head of the nation, was the president. The former assign to the high priest no place in tlie Sanhedrin (Sank. ii. 1, 'The high priest can neither bring a case before the Sanhedrin nor lie judged by them ' ; cf . Yuma, 1', according to which he receives his mandates from the Sanhedrin), and instead have masters of the Pliarisean schools placed regularly at its head. Two such m.-isters known under the name of zugfiuth (^duumviri), one with the title of Nasi (prince), the other with that of Ab Beth Din (' father of the court of justice '). are recorded to have presided over the Sanhedrin from about the middle of the 2nd to the middle of the 1st cent. B.C. (Har/. ii. 2;cf.A bath, i. 4-12 ; Feah, ii. 6 ; Fof/, ii. 16; Jcr. S6(n, ix. 24c<) : Jose b. Joezerof Zereda (a relative of Alkimos the high priest) (Ber. E. 65, 18), and most probably identical witli the Hasida?an leader Kazis (?) (2 Mac 14" 'an elder and father of the Jews ') and Jose b. Johanan — the first duumvirate ; Joshua b. I'erahya and Nittai of Arliela — the second ; Simon b. Slietah (contempo- rary of Alexander Janna>us and relative of queen Alexandra) (H. Graetz, Ge.irhic/ite der Jicden, in.* [1888] 137 ; E. Scliurer, 6VFii.M21), and Judah b.
Tabbai— the third; Sheniaiali ( = Saniea8, Jos. Aiit. XIV. ix. 4) and Abtalioii ( = rtolion, ib. XV. i. 1)— the lifth. According to S/nb. \i>'i, HillelV successor us Nasi was his son Simon, and he was followed by his son (jamaliel I., and he again by his own son Simon, the last jiresident of the Sanhe- drin before the destruction of the Temple. The uii- trustworthiness of these tra<litions, however, is shown lirst of all by the confusion in the sources, .some of which place Judah b. Tabbai above Simon b. Shetah, and Shammai above Hillel (ling. ii. 2, 166; cf. Sheb. 17«), and then by the signiliiaiit fact that nowhere else are these men spoken of as Na.sl, Hillel being simply called 'the elder' = senator (Suk. 53™ and elsewdiere), but above all by the direct mention of Sanicas and Htolion (Jos. Ant. XIV. ix. 4, XV. i. 1), of Gam.-ilicl I. (.-Xc 5") and Simon b. Gamaliel (Jos. Vita, 38), as ' certain members of the Sanhedrin belonging to the Pliari- sean party,' while in each case the high priest appears as chief of the Sanhedrin. It is, therefore, impossible to escape the conclusion that the condi- tions existing under Gamaliel II. at the close of the 1st cent, were transferred to former times, and so the title of Nasi (ethnarch) held by the Hillelites down to the 4th cent. (Orig. Epp. ad Africanum, quoted in Schiirer, OJV ii.'' 248, n. 28) was claimed for Hillel, the ancestor believed to be of Davidic descent (Jos. Vita, 38 ; Ber. Ii. xlix. 10; Sanh. 5a); and, finally, the whole system of the duumvirate was carried back to the begin- ning of Pharisaism.