Council

Council in the New Testament primarily refers to the Sanhedrin — the supreme Jewish council of seventy-one members that served as the highest religious and judicial authority in Jerusalem. Jesus warned his disciples that they would be delivered to councils (Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9), and the Sanhedrin is the body before which Jesus was tried (Matthew 26:59), Stephen was condemned (Acts 6:12), Peter and John were examined (Acts 4:5–15), and Paul gave his defense (Acts 22:30–23:10). The term also appears for lesser local councils that could administer discipline within the Jewish community.

In the Roman administrative context, Acts 25:12 refers to the governor's council of advisers with whom Festus consulted about Paul's case. The New Testament's repeated references to councils in the context of persecution reflect the actual mechanisms by which the early church was pressured — through the established institutions of both Jewish religious governance and Roman provincial administration. The Sanhedrin's authority was limited by Roman oversight, which is why condemnation there required confirmation from Pilate to carry out a death sentence.