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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Court, Judicial
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Among the Jews, besides the Sanhedrim (q.v.) or great “council” (q.v.), there were lesser courts ( óõíÝäñéá , Mat_10:17; Mar_13:9), of which there were two at Jerusalem, and one in each town of Palestine. The constitution of these courts is a doubtful point. According to Talmudical writers, the number of judges was twenty-three in places where there was a population of 120, and three where the population fell below that number (Mishna, Sanhedr. 1:6). Josephus, however, gives a different account; he states (Ant. 4:8, 14) that the court, as constituted by Moses (Deu_16:18), consisted of seven judges, each of whom had two Levites as assessors; accordingly, in the reform which he carried out in Galilee, he appointed seven judges for the trial of minor offenses (War, 2:20, 5). The statement of Josephus is generally accepted as correct; but it should be noticed that these courts were not always in existence. They may have been instituted by himself on what he conceived to be the true Mosaic model; a supposition which is rendered probable by his farther institution of a council of Seventy, which served as a court for capital offenses, altogether independent of the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem (Life, 14; War, 2:20, 5). The existence of local courts, however constituted, is clearly implied in the passages quoted from the N.T.; and perhaps the judgment (Mat_5:21) applies to them. SEE MARKET. Under the Roman government there was a provincial court ( óõìâïýëéïí , Act_25:12), a kind of jury or privy council, consisting of a certain number of assessors (consiliarii, Sueton. Tib. 33, 55), who assisted the procurators in the administration of justice and other public matters. SEE JUDGE.