identical with the Supreme Council appointed by Moses, this
passage is of no more use than the former one. Now, respecting
the three first points, nothing whatever is said, either in the
Law or the Prophets. And respecting the fourth; even if we
grant the three first, we can shew that these seventy elders did
not constitute the Supreme Council of the nation. We have
proved in our last paper, that the supreme power was vested in
an exclusive council composed of the priests, together with the
judge (
Hebrew characters), but the seventy elders, here spoken of, were to
be chosen promiscuously from the tribes of Israel, and therefore
cannot be identical with that exclusive assembly; and therefore
did not compose the Supreme Council; and therefore had
nothing of the nature of the Sanhedrin, which pretended to be
supreme over all. Thus it appears on examination, that there
is not one text in the whole law of Moses, which authorizes
the establishment of such a council as the Sanhedrin; but that
on the contrary, it stands in direct opposition to that order of
things prescribed by Moses.
We can, however, go farther, and show that all the particulars which the rabbies detail concerning it are manifest falsehoods; and that, if the Jews choose to believe what the oral law says concerning the Sanhedrin they most not only give up Moses, but renounce all the other inspired writers of the Old Testament. The particular and exclusive duties of the Sanhedrin are thus detailed:—
(Hebrew characters)
"A king is not to be appointed except by the decision of the Great Council of Seventy-one. The minor councils through the tribes and towns are not to be established except by the Council of Seventy-one. Judgment is not to be passed on a tribe that has been entirely seduced, nor upon a false prophet, nor upon a high priest in capital cases, except by the Great Council, (In mere money matters the tribunal of three is competent.) In like manner an elder is not declared rebellious, nor a city dealt with as seduced,[1] nor the bitter waters admi-*
- ↑ Compare Deut. xiii. 13, and Hilchoth Accum, c. iv.
