Sanhedrin

Israel and what became known as Judea got farther from the precepts of God's kingdom. Because the voice of the people sought a ruler to take authority the prophecy of 1 Samuel 8 would eventually oppress them under tribute and tyranny.

The Hellenized John Hyrcanus in 113 BCE left the control of the kingdom to his wife and the high priesthood to his son Aristobulus. Aristobulus had his mother starved to death and threw three of his brothers in prison and another killed.

Aristobulus was the first Hasmonean to actually crown himself king and then in 103 B.C., died of illness whereupon his wife, Salome Alexandra, released his brothers from prison and married the eldest, Alexander Jannaeus, in accordance with the biblical levirate law (Yibum).

Alexander Jannaeus Hellenic ways were also despised by the people in one incident had over 6,000 men - according to Josephus - put to death. But that was nothing compared to the 50,000 Jews who were killed due to the Pharisees, a powerful school of rabbis, revolt.

Alexander Jannaeus died in 76 BCE, leaving his kingdom to his wife, Queen Salome Alexandra.

Queen Salome secured her power by siding with the Pharisees and establishing a rabbinical council with religious legislative powers and judicial authority which was called the Sanhedrin. This had nothing to do with what Moses had set up back in Numbers 11:16 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee."

The "elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people" are merely heads of families. They are also called by the people to serve as ministers of congregations of the people or even ministers of ministers of the people.

But the phrase "officers over them" does not include the words "over them" in the Hebrew text. They are officers but the question is over what and in what capacity?

The word "officer" VavShemTetReishYodVav וְשֹׁטְרָ֑יו is from which only appear in Exodus 5:10 and refers not to the taskmasters of Pharaoh who ruled over the people but the "officers" who controlled the flow of straw.

The words "that they may stand" is from the Hebrew word but appears as VavHeyTavYodTzadikBeitVav וְהִֽתְיַצְּב֥וּ and in Deuteronomy 31:14 and Jeremiah 46:4. It is also separated by a Vav at the beginning and end as we see with the word officer VavShemTetReishYodVav.

The Pharisees were patriots to the written Godly covenant or constitution of that nation. Their love of legalism brought about a Sanhedrin that made laws, binding the people to the traditions of that body politic, hypocritically stifling if not strangling the very liberty under God's kingdom which they professed.

They were “painfully punctilious about legal trifles and casuistries, while reckless of truth, righteousness, and the fear of God; cleansing the exterior man while full of iniquity within.”

The contrast of Paul's bondage under the Mishna or law of the Pharisee explains his uncompromising stand on Christian justification by faith only. It was that law that had governed every aspect of their life which was nailed to the cross.

When the Pharisees sat in the seat of the government their legalism imposed itself through statutes. But they knew that they could not subject the people without their consent.

• “A vow is a solemn promise made to God to perform or to abstain from performing a certain thing.”

With the aid of the kings they offered social schemes that spread over the Roman world. All that was required was the consent of the people through some system of application and registered membership under the guise of welfare and care. Soon their temple treasuries filled with the contributions of the people for the care of the widows and orphans, aged and infirm. Though this was a religion, it was not pure religion.

This Public Religion needed to be regulated by the Sanhedrin who function according to a spirit of force.

This is what was meant by:

• Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
• Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

The Pharisees still had some charity, many rituals and ceremonies, but free offerings were a token of the overall welfare of their society. Most of the benefits of their government were provided by funds collected through taxation. The once charitable offerings of the people had become an accounted and compelled contribution given to the temple. The amount was determined by the legislating powers of the Sanhedrin and the kings. That power to exercise authority over the people grew, as the people applied for the entitlements and benefits of the growing bureaucracy of the Pharisees. What should have been for their welfare had become a snare.

The Pharisees were popular because of their stoic modesty. On the outside they gave the appearance of service and sacrifice but the living quarters of the priests of the temple were more lavish than that of the kings. But it was the participation by the people in the political and religious schemes of the Pharisees that made them mutually implicit in that sin of statutory corban.

In Egypt the people could eat of the flesh pots of the Pharaoh. Since the Egyptians were vegetarians, this reference to flesh pots had nothing to do with their diet. This was a metaphor describing a social welfare system of pharaoh as a benefactor who could exercise authority and it included the governmental structure of corvée and corban which God opposed.

The sons of Jacob had become entangled in Egypt and God said to never return there again. Because they had chosen to throw their brother Joseph into a pit of slavery, they did not have their own provisions and rations when famine came. When hard times were upon them they gave up their God-given rights, and went into bondage, becoming entangled in the elements of the world, making covenants with men who called themselves benefactors, but exercised authority one over the other.

Exodus 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place [such] over them, [to be] rulers of thousands, [and] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: The word "ruler" is said to be from ShemReish but is actually written ShemReishYod. There is another word ShemReishReish which is the verb for "rule" as in rule over us.

The term "pentecontarch" in ancient History was a person in charge of a fifty-oared ship; the commander of a penteconter. The term is used in the Septuagint from πεντήκοντα fifty + -αρχος But again these men who led fifty were not rulers exercising authority one over the other.

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