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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Sanhedrin
  • Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:08:26 +0200

Dear Liz,

Shoshanna is confusing tradition with history, or, rather, she insists that tradition IS history. You should know better.

Basically, Jewish tradition holds that Moses, at the insistence of Jethro (Ex. 18:14 ff.), established a system of "appellate courts", at the apex of which was his council of seventy elders. This system continued to exist throughout ancient Jewish history, except during those periods in which persecution made it impossible. The name changed through time, from Great Assembly (Kenesset Gedolah) to Gerusia (the Greek equivilant of "Senate") to Sanhedrin, but the content was the same. And so Boaz, Samuel, Mordechai, Ezra, Simon the Just, Matthias, Judah the Macabbee, Hillel, Gamaliel, Simon ben Gamaliel, Yohanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiba were all "Heads (Nasi) of the Sanhedrin". After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Sanhedrin "wandered" to Yavne, Usha, Sepphoris and finally to Tiberias, where it remained until it was abolished be the evil Romans.

Historically speaking, we know very little of the existence of such a body before the second century CE. The theory that Liz quoted bellow is just one of several. The NT makes the Sanhedrin look like a kangaroo court, but that's its agenda. Rabbinic sources assume the existence of a high Jewish court in Jerusalem, which (in good times) exercised authority over the Temple and its Priests. Very likely, this is a retrospection by the later rabbis. However it would seem that in the aftermath of the Bar-Kokhba revolt, the Roman authorities did recognize a sanhedrin, or assembly of rabbis, as a representative body of the Jews who were left in the Land of Israel. This is basically the body that produced the Mishnah and the Jerusalem (or "Palestinian") Talmud, and its rabbis imagined their authority stretching all the way back to Moses.

Yigal


----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 5:07 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] PS Re: oral Torah


Dear All,
We should not speak of The Sanhedrin, and especially not of The Great
Sanhedrin.
It is my understanding that there were only sanhedrins, ad hoc called by the
Roman governor to rubber stamp his opinions. What is the evidence of
sanhedrins before the Roman period? I heard a talk on this by Ed Sanders at
SBL one year. Based on his study of the Talmud, Josephus, and other second
temple texts, he reached the above conclusions.
Best,
Liz Fried






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