Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin (from Greek synedrion, "sitting together" or "council") was the supreme judicial, legislative, and religious council of the Jewish people during the Second Temple period. In its classic form it consisted of seventy-one members — a presiding officer (nasi) plus seventy elders — tracing its symbolic ancestry to the seventy elders Moses appointed to assist in governing Israel (Numbers 11:16–17). Its membership included chief priests, elders of prominent families, and Pharisaic scribes, with the high priest generally presiding. Meeting in Jerusalem, the body exercised authority over religious law, communal governance, and (under Roman oversight) capital cases.

The Sanhedrin plays a central role in the New Testament. Jesus was examined by the council after his arrest (Matthew 26:59; Mark 14:55; Luke 22:66), and the same body condemned Stephen (Acts 6:12) and repeatedly interrogated Peter, John, and Paul (Acts 4:5; 5:27; 22:30). Paul's strategic use of the Pharisee-Sadducee division over resurrection — "Brothers, I am a Pharisee" — split the council against itself and required Roman soldiers to rescue him (Acts 23:6–10). After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Sanhedrin reconstituted itself at Yavneh and later Tiberias as a purely religious body, eventually dissolving in late antiquity.