Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed– Chapter 10 – The Class of Apparitions
Sanhedrin
[Bible references: Matthew 26:59; John 11:46-57; 18:28-40]
The Sanhedrin served as a religious court for the Jewish nation. The beginnings can be traced to the seventy leaders that Moses selected to help him lead the Israelites. This council eventually developed into Great Sanhedrin who ruled over all the Jews with the Lesser Sanhedrin, councils of twenty-three judges, who ruled over the individual towns. The last Sanhedrin met in AD 358 when it was dissolved by the Byzantine emperor. There have been various attempts to restart it since the 1530’s but they have not been successful.
In Jesus’ time, the Sanhedrin served as a religious court while the Romans established civil laws. When Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, the Sanhedrin met to determine what to do with Jesus and made plans to arrest Jesus. It was also the Sanhedrin guards who initially arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and brought him before the Sanhedrin for what turned out to be a mock trial. The Sanhedrin wished to put Jesus to death, but they had no authority to do that, so they sent Jesus to Pilate, the governor installed by the Romans, who was the one who ultimately authorized Jesus’ crucifixion.
Observe
Read John 18:28-40. Jesus constantly taught that his kingdom was not of this world, but he was seen as a threat by secular and religious authorities: first by King Herod and then by the Sanhedrin. Why do you think that is?
Dancing In The Kingdom 