Luke 22:66

66-71. The third Jewish Trial.

66. as soon as it was day The Oral Law decided that the Sanhedrin could only meet by daylight.

elders of the people Literally, "the presbyteryof the people," as in Acts 22:5.

elders...chief priests...scribes See Mark 15:1. The three constituent parts of the Sanhedrin, 1Ma 14:28. The Sanhedrin was the successor of the Great Synagogue, which ended with Simon the Just. Wherethey met is uncertain. It was either in the Paved Hall, or -Hall of Squares" (Lisehath haggazzith); or in the Beth Midrash(Temple Synagogue), a chamber which abutted on the "middle wall of partition" (Chet),or in the Chanujoth-shops" or -booths" founded by the house of Hanan to sell doves, &c. for the temple.

their council Synedrion, from which the word Sanhedrin (mistakenly spelt Sanhedrim)is derived. The word is first found on the occasion when they summoned before them Hyrcanus II., son of Alexander Jannaeus. It gloried in being a mild tribunal, but was now an extremely degenerate body, and unworthy of its earlier traditions (Jos. Antt.xiii. 10, § 6; B. J.ii. 8, § 14). The Jewish authorities had lost the power of inflicting death; they could only pass sentence of excommunication, and hand over to the secular arm.