THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2281, 26 May 1921, Page 4

THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM

REVIVAL AFTER 1,500 YEARS

The Jewish jsanliedrim is to be revived, under British protection, after being abolished for 1,500 years.

This famous body, which consisted of 71 members, wa' the supreme council of the Jewish nation in and before the time of Jesus, and is constantly referred to in Ihe New Testament. Both Jesus and Paul were brought before it, and so powerful was the body that even Herod had to appear in its presence to answer for his conduct. The Sanhedrim not only tried important prisoners, but it decided whether a war with any nation, as contemplated by the king, should be waged, and also determined whether the boundaries of the city and the precincts of the temple should be enlarged. In fact, it largely fulfilled the functions of the British Parliament, the London County Council, and the Houses of Convocation.

In many ways it was a humane institution. It laid down the splendid principles that no one could be tried in his absence, and that till he was proved guilty he was innocent Of course, it sometimes sadiv departed from tliis high ideal, but the principles were very enlightened. According to Jewish tradition the Sanhedrim was founded by Moses when he appointed 70 elders to assist him in the governing of the people, as described in the Bible in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Numbers. The historical books of the Bible and the prophets are silent about it, and possibly it was in abeyance for a long time, but we find the Sanhedrim in existence in Alexander the Great’s time, and though it was dissolved later, it was revived and had great power in the time of Jesus, ,'is we know from the story of the Gospels.

After the destruction of -Jerusalem by the Romans, its seat was moved from place to place, and it finally settled at Tiberias, but after its last president. Gamaliel the Sixth, was executed in 425 for building new synagogues contrary to the Imperial decree, the council became extinct.

Now, under the beneficienL rule of Britain, the famous Sanhedrim is to be revived in Jerusalem. A great congress of rabbis has been meeting there to set up the council, and the speech of Sir Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner, at the opening, lias been likened to (lie great appeal of Nehemiah when the •Jews returned from Babylon and started a Sanhedrim.

Napoleon made an attempt to set up a Sanhedrim in ISO 7, when he summoned 54 rabbis and 27 laymen to meet at Paris, but this did not last very long, and the conqueror's plan was a failure.