The Sects of Second Temple Judaism · Featured Study
Scribes and the Sanhedrin
One was a profession, the other a court, and the Gospels put both on the page together. The scribes sat “in Moses' seat” as the recognized teachers of the law; the Sanhedrin sat as the recognized court of the nation, under Rome's own limits. This page keeps the two plainly divided, then follows the Sanhedrin through the trials of Jesus, Peter and John, Stephen, and Paul, told from the text itself.
Summary
The scribes were the recognized legal experts of Jesus' day, a profession tracing to Ezra; the Sanhedrin was the nation's court, drawn from chief priests, elders and scribes together. Both appear across the Gospels and Acts, from the seat of Moses to the trials of Jesus, Peter and John, Stephen, and Paul, and this page follows each from the text.
- The scribal office traces to Ezra, 'a scribe of the law of the God of heaven,' who made copying and teaching the Torah a settled profession.
- Jesus tells the crowds to obey the scribes' teaching from Moses' seat while rejecting their example, then names their failures one by one.
- The Sanhedrin was drawn from chief priests, elders and scribes, practically led by the priestly Sadducean leadership, with Pharisees present too.
- John 18:31 has the Jewish leaders tell Pilate they may not put a man to death, consistent with Rome's own reservation of capital sentence.
- Named members are not uniformly hostile to Jesus: Nicodemus questions the council's own procedure, Joseph of Arimathea had not consented to its verdict, and Gamaliel counsels patience toward the apostles.
The Scribes
Ezra's line, and what the profession actually did
The scribal office traces back to Ezra, called “a scribe of the law of the God of heaven” in Ezra 7:12, sent from Babylon to teach Israel's returned exiles the Torah. Over the centuries that followed, copying, preserving and teaching the Scriptures became a settled profession. A scribe's daily work was not primarily what modern readers picture when they hear the word: he was less a secretary than a trained legal and textual expert, qualified to copy Scripture accurately, to interpret the law's application to new questions, and to teach it in the synagogue.
By Jesus' day scribes were often, but not always, aligned with the Pharisees in outlook; the word names a job, a trained legal profession, not a party. Scribes appear throughout the Gospels teaching in synagogues, sitting in judgment alongside priests and elders, and debating Jesus directly over the law's meaning.
- Ezra 7:12the office's own starting point
- H5608sofer, scribe: to count, to write
- G1122grammateus, the Gospels' own Greek word
- 23:2Matthew: the scribes sit in Moses' seat
The Seat of Moses
Matthew 23:2-7, 13, 23: what to obey, and what not to imitate
Matthew 23:2-4
“saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat: all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not. Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.” Matthew 23:2-4
Obey their teaching; do not follow their example. They preach and do not practice.
Matthew 23:5-7
“But all their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called of men, Rabbi.” Matthew 23:5-7
Broad phylacteries, long tassels, the chief seats, the title Rabbi: done to be seen.
By the seat of Moses, we are to understand authority to teach the law. Moses was the great teacher of the Jewish people; and the scribes, etc., are here represented as his successors.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Matthew 23:2
But all their works they do for to be seen of men--Whatever good they do, or zeal they show, has but one motive--human applause. they make broad their phylacteries--strips of parchment with Scripture-texts on them, worn on the forehead, arm, and side, in time of prayer. and enlarge the borders of their garments--fringes of their upper garments (Nu 15:37-40).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Matthew 23:5
Matthew 23:13
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.” Matthew 23:13
Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: neither entering, nor letting others in.
Matthew 23:23
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.” Matthew 23:23
Mint and anise tithed to the letter; judgment, mercy and faith left undone.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men--Here they are charged with shutting heaven against men: in Lu 11:52 they are charged with what was worse, taking away the key--"the key of knowledge"--which means, not the key to open knowledge, but knowledge as the only key to open heaven.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Matthew 23:13
Ye pay tithe - A tenth part. The law required the Jews to devote a tenth part of all their property to the support of the Levites, Num 18:20-24.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Evangelical
Matthew 23:23
Jesus' charge holds two things together. The office itself carries real teaching authority, worth obeying: “whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do.” The men who held that office, in his charge, tithed the smallest garden herbs to the letter while leaving “the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith” undone. The office is not condemned. The failure of the men in it is.
The Sanhedrin's Composition
the sources' own picture, and the Mishnah's later memory
Acts 4:5-6
“And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest.” Acts 4:5-6
Rulers, elders, scribes, and the high priest's own kindred, named by name.
Acts 5:21
“And when they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison-house to have them brought.” Acts 5:21
The council called together, and all the senate of Israel with it.
Called the council together - The Sanhedrin, or the Great Council of the nation. This was clearly for the purpose of "trying" the apostles for disregarding their commandments.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Evangelical
Acts 5:21
The Gospels and Acts consistently describe a council under the high priest, drawn from chief priests, elders and scribes, its leadership dominated by the priestly, largely Sadducean establishment. Pharisees sat in the same body: Acts 23:6-9 shows both parties present and divided against each other in open debate.
The Mishnah's memory of seventy-oneMishnah, Sanhedrin 1:6, compiled c. AD 200
The Mishnah, the first written code of Jewish oral law, compiled roughly a century and a half after the Temple's destruction, remembers a Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one members under a president, seated in a semicircle. Most historians read this as later rabbinic memory idealizing the court's size and procedure, shaped by generations of legal reflection after the fact, rather than a precise description of the body Rome actually dealt with in the first century. This is reception history, the rabbinic tradition's own memory of the institution, presented here as such and not as MannaFest's own historical claim.
Capital Jurisdiction Under Rome
John 18:31: what the Jewish leaders could not do on their own
John 18:31
“Pilate therefore said unto them, Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law. The Jews said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:” John 18:31
It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: the reason Jesus is taken to Pilate at all.
The verse states plainly why Jesus stands before a Roman governor rather than facing a Jewish court's own sentence. Rome reserved capital sentencing to its own provincial governors in territories under direct rule, and John 18:31 puts that limit in the Jewish leaders' own mouths. Stephen's stoning in Acts 7 is the one clear exception in the New Testament record, read either as mob action moving faster than any legal process or as a rare case where Rome did not step in to stop what had already happened.
The Named Members
Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and Gamaliel
Nicodemus
John 3:1-2
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came unto him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him.” John 3:1-2
A ruler of the Jews comes to Jesus by night, calling him a teacher come from God.
John 7:50-52
“Nicodemus saith unto them (he that came to him before, being one of them), Doth our law judge a man, except it first hear from himself and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.” John 7:50-52
Nicodemus questions his own council's procedure: does our law judge a man unheard?
Nicodemus returns a third time, after the crucifixion, bringing a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to bury Jesus alongside Joseph of Arimathea.
John 19:38-39
“And after these things Joseph of Arimathæa, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took away his body. And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.” John 19:38-39
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea together take Jesus' body down and bury it.
Joseph of Arimathea
Luke 23:50-51
“And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a councillor, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their counsel and deed), a man of Arimathæa, a city of the Jews, who was looking for the kingdom of God:” Luke 23:50-51
A councillor, good and righteous, who had not consented to the council's own deed.
Gamaliel
Acts 5:34-35
“But there stood up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in honor of all the people, and commanded to put the men forth a little while. And he said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves as touching these men, what ye are about to do.” Acts 5:34-35
A Pharisee, a doctor of the law, in honor of all the people, stands up in the council.
Acts 22:3
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as ye all are this day:” Acts 22:3
Paul himself names Gamaliel as his own teacher in the law.
But a certain Pharisee - And as such believing the resurrection of the dead; a doctor, or teacher of the law - That is, a scribe, and indeed one of the highest rank; had in honour by all the people - Except the Sadducees; rising up in the council - So God can raise defenders of his servants, whensoever and wheresoever he pleases.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Wesleyan
Acts 5:34
The Trials
Jesus, Peter and John, Stephen, and Paul before the council
Jesus
Mark 14:53
“And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and there come together with him all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes.” Mark 14:53
Chief priests, elders and scribes gather with the high priest against him.
Mark 14:64
“Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death.” Mark 14:64
All condemn him worthy of death, on a charge the court frames as blasphemy.
Peter and John
Acts 5:40-41
“And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles unto them, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.” Acts 5:40-41
Beaten and charged to silence, they leave rejoicing to suffer for the Name.
Stephen
Acts 6:12
“And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and seized him, and brought him into the council,” Acts 6:12
The people, elders and scribes stir up the crowd and seize him before the council.
Acts 7:54-60
“Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:54-60
The one trial before this court that ends in death by stoning, without Roman sentence.
Paul
Acts 23:1
“And Paul, looking stedfastly on the council, said, Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.” Acts 23:1
Paul opens by declaring a clean conscience before God to this day.
Acts 23:6-9
“But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees; and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both. And there arose a great clamor: and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ part stood up, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: and what if a spirit hath spoken to him, or an angel?” Acts 23:6-9
Paul names himself a Pharisee, and the court splits Pharisee against Sadducee on the spot.
The same court appears at four turning points in the New Testament's own story, and its own internal division, Pharisee against Sadducee, shows plainly in Paul's own trial: a single body, not a single mind. A dedicated page on Jesus' own trial, its charges and its stages, is planned and is not built out here.
The Words Underneath
the Hebrew and Greek behind both institutions
The words underneath
saphar: to recount
Hebrew · H5608Strong's entry: properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate; intensively, to recount, i.e. celebrate
sofer, "scribe," from a root meaning to count or to write. Used of Ezra himself (Ezra 7:6) and of the office generally (2 Samuel 8:17).
159 times in the Old Testament · saphar, in full →
grammateus: scribe
Greek · G1122Strong's entry: from . a writer, i.e. (professionally) scribe or secretary
grammateus, the Gospels' own Greek word for the office (Matthew 23:2), literally one who works with letters or writing.
62 times in the New Testament · grammateus, in full →
synedrion: council
Greek · G4892Strong's entry: a joint session, i.e. (specially), the Jewish Sanhedrin; by analogy, a subordinate tribunal
synedrion, "council," the Greek word behind "Sanhedrin," literally a sitting together (Matthew 26:59; Acts 5:21).
22 times in the New Testament · synedrion, in full →
The Voices
with the work named
Commentary on the Bible (1832) · public domain
Reads the seat of Moses as teaching authority, and the scribes as Moses' own successors in that office.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) · public domain
Draws the line between shutting the kingdom against men and taking away the key of knowledge in Luke's parallel account.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical (1832-1869) · public domain
Distinguishes the Sanhedrin proper from the wider senate of elders called together in Acts 5:21.
Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755) · public domain
Names Gamaliel's standing among the people, and reads his rising up in the council as God raising a defender for his own.
Marcus Brown's own commentary leads above all; within a tier, all voices are equal. The Mishnah is cited as reception history, the rabbinic tradition's own later memory of the court, not as MannaFest's historical claim about the first-century Sanhedrin.
Where to Go Next
The other schools and courts
- The Sects of Second Temple Judaism the survey this page belongs to.
- The Pharisees many scribes belonged to this party.
- The Sadducees the priestly party that led the court.
The trials, read in full
- Mark 14:53 where Jesus' own trial before the council begins.
- Read Acts 7 Stephen's own trial and death, in full.
Where it leads
Featured studies7
- The Sects of Second Temple Judaism: the survey this page belongs to
- The Pharisees: many scribes belonged to this party
- The Sadducees: the priestly party that led the court
- The Essenes: the third school, outside this court entirely
- The Samaritans, MannaFest
- The Jewish Writings, MannaFest
- The Trial of Jesus, MannaFest
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