Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
every measure for the welfare of Jerusalem. The only other incident in his life is his alliance with
the high priest’s family by the marriage of his daughter with one of the grandsons of Eliashib; but
the expulsion from the priesthood of the guilty son of Joiada by Nehemiah promptly followed. Here
the scriptural narrative ends.
Sandal
was the article ordinarily used by the Hebrews for protecting the feet. It consisted simply of a
sole attached to the foot by thongs. We have express notice of the thong (Authorized Version “shoe
latchet”) in several passages, notably (Genesis 14:23; Isaiah 5:27; Mark 1:7) Sandals were worn
by all classes of society in Palestine, even by the very poor; and both the sandal and the thong or
shoe-latchet were so cheap and common that they passed into a proverb for the most insignificant
thing. (Genesis 14:23) Ecclus. 46;13, They were dispensed with in-doors, and were only put on by
persons about to undertake some business away from their homes. During mealtimes the feet were
uncovered. (Luke 7:38; John 13:5,6) It was a mark of reverence to cast off the shoes in approaching
a place or person of eminent sanctity. (Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15) It was also an indication of violent
emotion, or of mourning, if a person appeared barefoot in public. (2 Samuel 15:30) To carry or to
unloose a person’s sandal was a menial office, betokening great inferiority on the part of the person
performing it. (Matthew 3:11)
Sanhedrin
(from the Greek sunedrion, “a council-chamber” commonly but in correctly Sanhedrim), the
supreme council of the Jewish people in the time of Christ and earlier.
•The origin of this assembly is traced in the Mishna to the seventy elders whom Moses was directed,
(Numbers 11:16,17) to associate with him in the government of the Israelites; but this tribunal
was probably temporary, and did not continue to exist after the Israelites had entered Palestine.
In the lack of definite historical information as to the establishment of the Sanhedrin, it can only
be said in general that the Greek etymology of the name seems to point to a period subsequent to
the Macedonian supremacy in Palestine. From the few incidental notices in the New Testament,
we gather that it consisted of chief priests, or the heads of the twenty-four classes into which the
priests were divided, elders, men of age and experience, and scribes, lawyers, or those learned in
the Jewish law. (Matthew 26:57,59; Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66; Acts 5:21)
•The number of members is usually given as 71. The president of this body was styled nasi, and
was chosen in account of his eminence in worth and wisdom. Often, if not generally, this
pre-eminence was accorded to the high priest. The vice-president, called in the Talmud “father of
the house of judgment,” sat at the right hand of the president. Some writers speak of a second
vice-president, but this is not sufficiently confirmed. While in session the Sanhedrin sat in the
form of half-circle.
•The place in which the sessions of the Sanhedrin were ordinarily held was, according to the Talmad,
a hall called Gazzith, supposed by Lightfoot to have been situated in the southeast corner of one
of the courts near the temple building. In special exigencies, however, it seems to have met in the
residence of the high priest. (Matthew 26:3) Forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and
consequently while the Saviour was teaching in Palestine, the sessions of the Sanhedrin were
removed from the hall Gazzith to a somewhat greater distance from the temple building, although
still on Mount Moriah. After several other changes, its seat was finally established at tiberias,
where it became extinct A.D. 425. As a judicial body the Sanhedrin constituted a supreme court,
to which belonged in the first instance the trial of false prophets, of the high priest and other priests,
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William Smith