sanhedrin, any of several official Jewish councils in Palestine under Roman rule, to which various political, religious, and judicial functions have been attributed. Taken from the Greek word for council (synedrion), the term was apparently applied to various bodies but became especially the designation for the supreme Jewish legislative and judicial court—the Great Sanhedrin, or simply the Sanhedrin, in Jerusalem. There were also local or provincial sanhedrins of lesser jurisdiction and authority. A council of elders, or senate, called the gerousia, which existed under Persian and Syrian rule (333–165 bc), is considered by some scholars the forerunner of the Great Sanhedrin.
Although eminent sources—the Hellenistic-Jewish historian Josephus, the New Testament, and the Talmud—have mentioned the Sanhedrin, their accounts are fragmentary, apparently contradictory, and often obscure. Hence, its exact nature, composition, and function remain a subject of scholarly investigation and controversy. In the writings of Josephus and the Gospels, for example, the Sanhedrin is presented as a political and judicial council headed by the high priest (in his role as civil ruler); in the Talmud it is described as primarily a religious legislative body headed by sages, though with certain political and judicial functions. Some scholars have accepted the first view as authentic, others the second, while a third school holds that there were two Sanhedrins, one a purely political council, the other a religious court and legislature. Moreover, some scholars attest that the Sanhedrin was a single body, combining political, religious, and judicial functions in a community where these aspects were inseparable.
According to the Talmudic sources, including the tractate Sanhedrin, the Great Sanhedrin was a court of 71 sages that met on fixed occasions in the Lishkat La-Gazit (“Chamber of the Hewn Stones”) in the Jerusalem Temple and that was presided over by two officials (zugot, or “pair”), the nasi and the av bet din. It was a religious legislative body “whence the law [Halakha] goes out to all Israel.” Politically, it could appoint the king and the high priest, declare war, and expand the territory of Jerusalem and the Temple. Judicially, it could try a high priest, a false prophet, a rebellious elder, or an errant tribe. Religiously, it supervised certain rituals, including the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) liturgy. The Great Sanhedrin also supervised the smaller, local sanhedrins and was the court of last resort. Again, however, there is a scholarly dispute as to whether the aforementioned specifications are merely an ideal or an actual description. Also, according to one interpretation, the Talmudic sources seem to ascribe to the past a state of affairs that existed only after the fall of the Temple (ad 70).
The composition of the Sanhedrin is also in much dispute, the controversy involving the participation of the two major parties of the day, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Some say the Sanhedrin was made up of Sadducees; some, of Pharisees; others, of an alternation or mixture of the two groups. In the trials of Jesus, the Gospels of Mark and Luke speak of the assembly of the chief priests, elders, and scribes under the high priest, referring to “the whole council [synedrion]” or “their council,” and the Gospel According to John speaks of the chief priests and Pharisees convening the council. The Gospel accounts have been subjected to critical scrutiny and questioning because of the extreme theological and historical significance of the issue, but none of the theories evolved has won scholarly consensus. It is still uncertain, for example, whether the Sanhedrin had the power to hand down a death sentence in a case such as that of Jesus. The Book of Acts gives an account of the trials of Peter and John before “the council and all the senate” (apparently one and the same), pointing to a split between the Pharisaic and Sadducean members of the Sanhedrin.
The Great Sanhedrin ceased to exist at Jerusalem after the disastrous rebellion against Rome in ad 66–70. However, a sanhedrin was assembled at Jabneh, and later in other localities in Palestine, that is considered by some scholars to be the continuation of the Jerusalem council-court (see yeshiva). Composed of leading scholars, it functioned as the supreme religious, legislative, and educational body of Palestinian Jews; it also had a political aspect, since its head, the nasi, was recognized by the Romans as the political leader of the Jews (patriarch, or ethnarch). This sanhedrin ceased with the end of the patriarchate in ad 425, although there have been abortive or short-lived attempts to reinstitute the sanhedrin in modern times.