SANHEDRIN (Συνέδριον « Assembly »). - A body of counselors which, together with the high priest, exercised broad religious and civil powers, especially toward the end of the Jewish State, in Jerusalem. The New Testament, Flavius Josephus and ancient rabbinic writings speak of it. For the preceding period, sure traces of it are found only in the books of Maccabees (I Mach. 11:23; 12:6; 14:28; II Mach. 1:10; 4:44; 11:27). This allows the conclusion that the s. was constituted in the time of the Seleucids (v.) or shortly before. At the beginning an indeterminate terminology was used, with a preference for the word γερωνία ("senate"); later literature made the word s. common, while in rabbinic texts either the transcription of the Greek term (sanhedhrin) is used or the term, of somewhat different meaning, běth din ("house of judgment" or "court").
From the New Testament and from Flavius Josephus it emerges that the members of the s. were grouped in three classes: high priests, scribes and elders (Mt. 27:41; Mk. 11:27; 14:43, 33; 15:1; Lk. 20:1; etc.), even if at times for brevity or for particular reasons two of them are named, or only one. Generically such persons were called "senators" (βουλευταί) or "chiefs" (ἀρχοντες). Although the most ancient texts are not in agreement, it is held that the members totaled 71, perhaps with reference to Ex. 24:1, 9; Num. 11:16. By the term "high priests" (οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς) were understood the high priest in office, those already possibly deposed and, in all likelihood, also the members of the families from which the highest religious office was customarily chosen (cf. Jn. 18:19; Acts 4:6; 19:14). The "elders" (οἱ πρεσβύτεροι) represented the lay aristocracy; they were the "most distinguished personages" (Flavius Josephus, Vita, 9). The "scribes" (οἱ γραμματεῖς) brought to the assembly the voice of the science of law; they came from the laity and from any social class; their authority had a continuous growth, until after 70, with the other two classes eliminated, they remained the absolute masters in the spiritual field. But by then the s. had lost its primitive characteristics, having been reduced to a circle of learned men.
The authority of the s. underwent alternations; it was much greater during foreign occupations than in periods of autonomy or of local dynasties, as in the time of the Hasmoneans and of the family of Herod. The s. administered justice, but without the power to inflict the death penalty; its field was eminently religious; but the s. also exercised great influence in other sectors. Since in the diaspora there were local s., its jurisdiction was practically limited to Judea or, at most, to Palestine. Nevertheless the ties that bound it to the various communities appear very intimate, and these recognized in it a moral supremacy (cf. Acts 9:2).
The seat of the assemblies was, in all likelihood, in the south-west corner of the inner court of the Temple, where the famous "chamber of hewn stones" (Heb. liikath hag-gāxith) must have been located. In the Talmudic treatise Sanhedhrin meticulous norms are given concerning the assemblies; but it must not be forgotten that it was written when the true s. with judicial authority no longer existed.
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Angelo Penna