Sanhedrin

Biblical Text

The Korean New Revised Version calls this body "the council" (gonghoe). Other translations use terms such as "assembly" or "supreme council." The Sanhedrin appears chiefly in the following scenes.

• The trial of Jesus: The chief priests and the whole council seek false witness against Jesus in order to put him to death (Matthew 26:59; Mark 14:55). At daybreak the council meets again and hands Jesus over to Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66). These proceedings are treated in detail in the article Trial of Jesus.
• Dissenting voices within the council: Nicodemus argues that Jesus should be heard before he is judged (John 7:50–51). Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the council but had not consented to its decision (Luke 23:50–51).
• The interrogation of the apostles: Peter and John stand before the council (Acts 4). When the apostles are arrested again, the Pharisee Gamaliel advises the council to leave them alone (Acts 5:34–39).
• Stephen and Paul: Stephen preaches before the council and is then stoned to death (Acts 6:12–7:60). When Paul speaks before the council of the hope of the resurrection, a dispute breaks out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Acts 23:6–10).

Background

The word "Sanhedrin" is a Hebrew transliteration of the Greek synedrion ("a sitting together," that is, a council). Scripture identifies its members as the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. The high priest appears to have presided; at the time of Jesus' trial the high priest was Caiaphas.

The Mishnah, a later body of Jewish literature, gives the membership of the Great Sanhedrin as seventy-one and traces the institution's origin to the seventy elders appointed under Moses (Numbers 11:16). Scholars regard the actual date of its origin as uncertain. It is generally understood to have developed from a council of elders in the Hellenistic period, and the Jerusalem body is believed to have ceased to exist after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70. Many interpreters take "the council" in Matthew 5:22 to refer to the smaller courts found in local communities.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

In the Gospels and Acts, the council represents the official leadership of Israel. Its rejection of Jesus and its persecution of the apostles are closely tied to the narrative of Acts, in which the gospel spreads from Jerusalem to the Gentiles. Before the council the apostles answer, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). These words portray a church that continues its witness even in the midst of persecution.

Interpretation and Debate

• Authority to impose the death penalty: In John 18:31 the Jews say, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." Scholars differ on whether the council had the authority to carry out capital punishment under Roman rule. They are likewise divided on whether Stephen's death should be regarded as the result of a formal sentence or as an act of mob violence.
• The legality of the trial: The Mishnah contains procedural rules, such as a prohibition on conducting trials at night. On this basis some interpreters regard the trial of Jesus as illegal. Others object that because the Mishnah was compiled around the end of the second century, it cannot readily be taken as evidence of actual first-century practice.
• The nature of the institution: Opinions are also divided over whether the Sanhedrin was a single, permanent body or a council convened as occasion required.
• The question of responsibility: Many church traditions caution against extending the council's decision into a guilt borne by the Jewish people as a whole, because such interpretations have been used historically in the service of antisemitism.

In the Korean Church

In Korean preaching, the apostles' testimony before the council (Acts 4:19–20; 5:29) is frequently cited. These passages are also invoked in discussions of church and politics that address the relationship between faith and power. Gamaliel's counsel (Acts 5:38–39) and the examples of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who sided with Jesus although they were members of the council, are likewise common subjects of sermons.