Sanhedrin

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The Sanhedrin ( סנהדרין) or High Council was for a long time the highest Jewish religious and political authority and at the same time the highest court. The word Sanhedrin is a Hebrewization of the Greek συνέδριον Synhedrion (assembly, council). Sanhedrin also refers to the Mishnah treatise of the same name .

The Sanhedrin at the time of the Jerusalem Temple

The first historical mention of the Sanhedrin can be found in Flavius ​​Josephus . He reports how in 57 BC Chr. Aulus Gabinius the country into five synedria or synodoi one hurried. The tract on Sanhedrin in the Talmud speaks of a large Sanhedrin with 71 members and a smaller one with 23 members. According to tradition, they were convened by Moses and a continuation of the Great Assembly ( Knesset Gedola ), which took place in 200 BC. Is mentioned. The 71 members of the high council were priests, Jewish "elders" and scribes . Apart from a few Pharisaic scribes, the members were probably mainly Sadducees , who mostly belonged to the aristocratic ethnic groups. The high priest had the presidency , after 191 BC. The nasi .

The Sanhedrin initially had its seat in Jerusalem . At the beginning of the Roman rule over Judea , the assembly still had considerable influence and a certain autonomy, but probably no longer had the right to decide on life and death. King Herod , who was a thorn in the side of a competing center of power, had almost all the members of the Sanhedrin executed. He installed a new, docile Sanhedrin.

In the New Testament , the term synhedrion occurs 22 times in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles . According to New Testament tradition, the high council had an important part in the death of Jesus . Although he was not able to carry out the death sentence himself, he had handed over Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate with the charge of a Messiah claim .

The Sanhedrin in Jawne after the temple was destroyed

When the Jerusalem temple and Jerusalem were destroyed by the Romans after a Jewish uprising in 70 , the Jewish authorities, including the Sanhedrin, perished.

Rabbi Jochanan ben Sakkai received permission from the Romans to move the seat of the high council to Jawne ; at the same time a Jewish school was built there. Since the temple was destroyed, the Sanhedrin was no longer directed by the high priest but by a patriarch ; at the same time the former opposition, the Pharisee group , took over the leadership of the congregation.

The rebuilding of the Sanhedrin

The prevailing opinion in Judaism is that a new Sanhedrin will not be formed until the Third Temple is built. However, in the work of some of the greatest halachic authorities there were at least considerations as to the requirements that would have to be given for a re-establishment. Maimonides in particular discusses this question in his magnum opus on Halacha, the Mishneh Torah , and takes the position that a new Sanhedrin can come about through the consensus of the “wise men of Israel”.

"It seems to me that if all the wise men of the Land of Israel ( Eretz Israel ) agree to appoint judges ( dayanim ) and give them smicha , those judges with smicha ( musmachim ) will pass judgments in criminal matters and can give smichot themselves."

- Rambam , Mishne Torah, Hilchot Sanhedrin 4:11

Likewise, the author of the Halachakompendium Schulchan Aruch , Rabbi Joseph Karo , which is still generally binding today , assumes that a consensus of all halachic authorities would in principle enable the re-establishment of the Sanhedrin. With reference to the work of these two scholars, a group of rabbis began preparing for the restoration of the Sanhedrin in Israel since 2003. This very controversial approach received more attention when the respected scholar and rabbi Adin Steinsaltz took over the chairmanship after a first nasi kept secret in June 2005 . In June 2008, however, he announced his exit from the Sanhedrin, citing concerns about the development of the council and his concern about the possible violation of the halacha .

The Sanhedrin in Napoleonic France

On August 23, 1806, under Napoleon Bonaparte, an assembly called "Great Sanhedrin" of 71 Jewish notables , including rabbis under the chairmanship of David Sinzheim and lay people under the spokesman Abraham Furtado , convened. They should find answers to questions about the relationship between Jewish and state law on the basis of Halacha and Tanakh . Today's Consistoire central israélite emerged from it.

literature

in order of appearance

  • Shelomoh Yosef Zevin: Encyclopedia Talmudica , Volume IV, Yad Harav Herzog Press, 1992, ISBN 0-87306-714-2 , page 22 ff.
  • Karlheinz Müller : Sanhedrin, Synhedrium . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE), Vol. 30: Samuel - Seele . De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, pp. 32-42.
  • Heinrich W. Guggenheimer: The Jerusalem Talmud - Tractates Sanhedrin, Makkot, and Horaiot. Walter de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-021961-6 .
  • Pierre Birnbaum: Sanhédrin. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 5: Pr-Sy. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02505-0 , pp. 319–323.

On the Napoleonic Sanhedrin:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karlheinz Müller: Sanhedrin, Synhedrium . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30: Samuel - Seele , pp. 32–42, here p. 32.
  2. ^ Heinrich W. Guggenheimer: The Jerusalem Talmud - Fourth Order: Neziqin - Tractates Sanhedrin, Makkot, and Horaiot , Walter de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-021960-9 , pp. 1 ff.
  3. ^ Meir Holder: History of the Jewish People - From Yavneh to Pumbedisa. Mesorah Publications, 1986, ISBN 0-89906-499-X , p. 19.
  4. ↑ Jens Schröter: Jesus of Nazareth . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-374-02409-2 , p. 113.
  5. ↑ In detail: Karlheinz Müller: Sanhedrin, Synhedrium . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30: Samuel - Seele , pp. 32–42, here pp. 35–38.
  6. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities , 14th book, chap. IX, 4.
  7. ^ Karlheinz Müller: Sanhedrin, Synhedrium . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30: Samuel - Seele , pp. 32–42, here p. 34.
  8. ↑ The Trial of Jesus - The Historical Circumstances. (PDF) In: ruhr-uni-bochum.de. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .
  9. ^ Emil Schürer : History of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ , Vol. 2. Leipzig, 2nd edition 1907, revised English translation by Géza Vermes and Pamela Vermès, under the title The history of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ . A new English version , Vol. 2. Clark, Edinburgh 1979, ISBN 0-567-0-2243-9 , p. 209.
  10. ↑ Shmuel Safrai: The Age of the Mishnah and the Talmud (70–640) . In: Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people. From the beginning to the present . CH Beck, Munich 2nd ed. 1981, ISBN 978-3-406-55918-1 , pp. 375-470, here pp. 392-393.
  11. ^ Karlheinz Müller: Sanhedrin, Synhedrium . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30: Samuel - Seele , pp. 32–42, here p. 40.
  12. ↑ Rambam / Maimonides, Mishne Torah, Hilchot Sanhedrin 4:11
  13. ↑ Rabbi Joseph Karo, Ma'aseh Beit Din / similar also in Beit Josef, Choschen Mischpat 295
  14. ^ The Sanhedrin Initiative - The Sanhedrin English. In: thesanhedrin.org. Retrieved April 9, 2012 .
  15. ↑ a b Steinsaltz completes Talmud translation with Global Day of Jewish Learning | Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved June 15, 2018 (American English).
  16. ↑ John F. Oppenheimer (Red.) And a .: Lexicon of Judaism . 2nd Edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh u. a. 1971, ISBN 3-570-05964-2 , col. 694.