Rav was a descendant of a distinguished Babylonian family which claimed to trace its origin to Shimei, brother of King David ( Sanhedrin 5a ; Ketubot 62b ).

While Judah I was still living, Rav, having been duly ordained as teacher — though not without certain restrictions ( Sanhedrin 5a )— returned to Babylonia, where he at once began a career that was destined to mark an epoch in the development of Babylonian Judaism.

" Fire is the true element of purification, according to Numbers xxi. 23 ," was his answer ( Sanhedrin 39a ).

Some scholars have speculated that he may have been a widower since he was a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, positions in which the social norm of the day required the men to be married.

Furthermore, according to David's apologists, the death of Uriah was not to be considered murder, on the basis that Uriah had committed a capital offence by refusing to obey a direct command from the King. However, in tractate Sanhedrin, David's broken heart pleads and numerous actions for forgiveness are discussed, God ultimately forgives but would not remove his sins from Scripture.

Major-General Thomas Harrison, who had commanded the troop which aided Oliver Cromwell in dissolving the Rump, suggested that there be a ruling body based upon the Old Testament Sanhedrin of 70 selected " Saints ", which was based on his beliefs, as a Fifth Monarchist, that the rule of the Saints would usher in the reign of Christ on Earth.

In the Talmud ( Tractate Sanhedrin 38b ), Adam was initially created as a golem ( גולם ) when his dust was " kneaded into a shapeless husk.

Justice was administered by the Sanhedrin, whose leader was known as the Nasi.

The title nasi was also used for presidents of the Sanhedrin.

( The current total is 63, but Makkot was originally part of Sanhedrin, and Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia and Bava Batra may be regarded as subdivisions of a single tractate Nezikin.

The Talmud records a tradition that unattributed statements of the law represent the views of Rabbi Meir ( Sanhedrin 86a ), which supports the theory ( recorded by Rav Sherira Gaon in his famous Iggeret ) that he was the author of an earlier collection.

It states in tractate Sanhedrin " The Jews are destined to eat fill in the days of the Messiah ", " The world was created only ... for the sake of the Messiah.

It was perceived that Jesus was declaring he was the King of Israel to the anger of the Sanhedrin.

In Matthew, Joseph was identified as " also a disciple of Jesus ;" in Mark he was identified as " a respected member of the council ( Sanhedrin ) who was also himself looking for the Kingdom of God ;" in Luke he was identified as " a member of the council, good and righteous, who did not consent to their purpose or deed, and who was looking for the Kingdom of God '" and in John he was identified as " a disciple of Jesus.

According to the New Testament, Jesus ' crucifixion was authorized by Roman authorities at the insistence of leading Jews ( Judeans ) from the Sanhedrin.

:* The Sanhedrin is relocated to Yavne.

The Jerusalem Sanhedrin relocated to Jamnia sometime c. 70.

According to the Talmud the Sanhedrin relocated to the temple shops, hanuyot, at some point before the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

With the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Second Temple Judaism was in disarray, but Jewish traditions were preserved especially thanks to the shrewd maneuvers of Yochanan Ben Zakkai, who saved the Sanhedrin and moved it to Yavne.

After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai moved the Sanhedrin to Yavne.

The Sanhedrin left Yavne for Usha in 80 CE and returned in 116 CE.

Meanwhile, the Councils of Bishops in the Roman Empire following Constantine followed the Old Testament canon that had been established by the Sanhedrin at Yavne in c. 80, paring the total down to only 66 books.

A capital case could not be tried by a normal Beit Din of three judges, it can only be adjudicated by a Sanhedrin of a minimum of 23 judges.

He is tried by the Jewish leaders ( the Sanhedrin ) and before Pontius Pilate, and Pilate washes his hands of his blood.

According to the Mishnah and Tosefta, in the Maccabean, Herodian, and Mishnaic periods, new months were determined by the sighting of a new crescent, with two eye witnesses required to testify to the Sanhedrin to having seen the new lunar crescent at sunset.

In earlier days, when Jews had a functioning court system ( the beth din and the Sanhedrin high court ), courts were empowered to administer physical punishments for various violations, upon conviction by far stricter standards of evidence than are acceptable in courts in modern democracies: execution, corporal punishment, incarceration, excommunication.

Bauckham states that the method of killing James by stoning, and the description provided by Josephus via the assembly of the Sanhedrin of judges are consistent with the policies of the Temple authorities towards the early Christian Church at the time.

Orthodox Judaism is the approach to religious Judaism which adheres to the interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin (" Oral Torah ") and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim.

When the king sat, surrounded by the Sanhedrin, to judge the people, the wheels began to turn, and the beasts and fowls began to utter their respective cries, which frightened those who had intended to bear false testimony.

Jesus was arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin.

* 30 April-After being condemned to death by the Jewish court known as the Sanhedrin Jesus of Nazareth is crucified at Golgotha

* The Sanhedrin is disbanded by the Roman Empire.

Balaam is pictured as blind of one eye and lame in one foot ( Talmud Sanhedrin 105a ); and his disciples ( followers ) are distinguished by three morally corrupt qualities, supposedly the very opposite of those characterizing the disciples of Abraham ( Ab.

When the Emperor Hadrian threatened to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city dedicated to Jupiter, in 132, Aelia Capitolina, some of the leading sages of the Sanhedrin supported a rebellion led by Simon Bar Kosiba ( later known as Bar Kokhba ), who established a short-lived independent state that was conquered by the Romans in 135.

According to the New Testament, Jesus was brought to Pilate by the Sanhedrin, who had arrested Jesus and questioned him themselves.

The Sanhedrin had, according to the Gospels, only been given answers by Jesus that they considered blasphemous pursuant to Mosaic law, which was unlikely to be deemed a capital offense by Pilate interpreting Roman law.

The Gospel of Luke records that members of the Sanhedrin then took Jesus before Pilate where they accused him of sedition against Rome by opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar and calling himself a king.

In the song " Pilate and Christ ", an arrogant and mocking Pilate perhaps realizing manipulation by the Sanhedrin, tries to prevent Jesus ' death by sending Jesus to Herod.

The Medieval rabbinic figure Maimonides ( Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon ), also known as the Rambam, wrote a commentary to tractate Sanhedrin stressing a relatively naturalistic interpretation of the Messiah and de-emphasizing miraculous elements.

Yohanan ben Zakkai, a leading Pharisee, was appointed the first Patriarch ( the Hebrew word, Nasi, also means prince, or president ), and he reestablished the Sanhedrin at Yavneh ( see the related Council of Jamnia ) under Pharisee control.

* Shimon ben Gamliel, Nasi of the Sanhedrin in 50 AD

* Shimon ben Gamliel II, Nasi of the Sanhedrin in c. 118 AD

There are frequent references to questions, partly halakic and exegetical in nature, which the exilarch laid before his scholars ( to Huna, Gittin 7a ; Yebamoth 61a ; Sanhedrin 44a ; to Rabba ben Huna, Shabbat 115b ; to Hamnuna, Shabbat 119a ).

In Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a a Yeshu is mentioned as a student of Joshua ben Perachiah who was sent away for misinterpreting a word that in context should have been understood as referring to the Inn, he instead understood it to mean the inkeeper's wife.

However in Shabbat 104b and Sanhedrin 67a in the Babylonian Talmud, a passage is found that some have interpreted as equating ben Pandera with ben Stada.

* Jose ben Jochanan, Nasi ( president ) of the Sanhedrin in the 2nd century BCE

* Mattai of Arbela, av beit din of the Sanhedrin under the nasi Joshua ben Perachyah at the time of John Hyrcanus

Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah says that this extends to a Sanhedrin that puts a man to death even once in seventy years.

The High Priest Ananus ben Ananus took advantage of this lack of imperial oversight to assemble a Sanhedrin ( although the correct translation of the Greek ' synhedion kriton ' is ' a council of judges ', see Synedrion for the Greek use of the word ) who condemned James " on the charge of breaking the law ," then had him executed by stoning.

A former leading Pharisee, Yohanan ben Zakkai, was appointed the first Patriarch ( the Hebrew word, Nasi, also means prince, or president ), and he reestablished the Sanhedrin at Javneh under Pharisee control.

" Hakham " as an official title is found as early as the first Sanhedrin, after the reconstruction of that body, when the Hadrianic religious persecutions had ceased ; in addition to the nasi Simon ben Gamaliel, two other scholars stood at the head of the Sanhedrin, namely, R. Nathan as Ab Bet Din, and Meïr as hakham.

Simeon ben Shetach, first name also Shimon and last name also ben Shatach, ( c. 120-40 BCE ) was a Pharisee scholar and Nasi of the Sanhedrin during the reigns of Alexander Jannæus ( c. 103-76 BCE ) and his successor, Queen Alexandra Salome ( c. 76-67 BCE ), who was Simeon's sister.