Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yonah Mishael" <yonahmishael AT gmail.com>]

Harold,

The Torah itself says "seventy" and Moses. Thus, it establishes the
number to be in the ruling court. The Talmud is asking WHY it was 71
instead of any other number, and why a small court had to consist of
23 rather than another number. The entire Sanhedrin did not have to
meet for every question, you know? It is not re-interpreting the
verses so much as giving reasons through examples that we find in
Scripture for why things were functioning the way they were -- why God
chose 71 for the Sanhedrin and why they chose 23 for a small court.

Shalom,
Yonah

On 9/3/06, Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote:
> HH: This is one of the reasons I don't automatically trust the Talmud.
> Numbers 35:24-25 is not talking about two different judicial bodies. The
> rabbis often use Scripture to support their own ideas. This looks like
> an after-the-fact attempt to give a rationale for the composition of
> Sanhedrin that existed at a much later time, perhaps the first or second
> century of the common era.

--
Yonah Mishael ben Avraham
Joplin, MO
yonahmishael AT gmail.com