1“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
2“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice. 3You shall not favor a poor man in his cause.
4“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. 5If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.
6“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
7“Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.
8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
9“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
10“For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase, 11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
12“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the alien may be refreshed.
13“Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth.
14“You shall observe a feast to me three times a year. 15You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty. 16And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field. 17Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.
18“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning.
19You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God.
“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him. 22But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries. 23For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off. 24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars. 25You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. 27I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you. 29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you. 30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land. 31I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Much debate has taken place over whether all these rules, or at least many, were in place in AD 33, since the Mishnah was not written and codified until about AD 200. However, oral tradition had passed down these laws for several centuries. A second objection focuses on the fact that these were primarily Pharisaical laws, and thus not written until after the destruction of the Second Temple. However, the absence of any mention of the Pharisees after Jesus’ arrest may indicate that the proceedings of the Sanhedrin were totally dominated by the Sadducees who cared little about the laws promoted by the Pharisees.
Rule 1: There was to be no arrest by religious authorities that was effected by a bribe.
Based on Exodus 23:8.
Rule 2: No steps of criminal proceedings were to occur after sunset.
This was to avoid the possibility of conspiracy, especially one that would be carried out using the cover of night. Once the sun had officially set, the authorities were not to proceed with any form of criminal proceedings. By Jewish reckoning, the sun officially sets once three stars are visible.
Rule 3: Judges or members of the Sanhedrin were not allowed to participate in an arrest.
The purpose was to ensure their neutrality. If they participated in the arrest, it meant they had already taken sides.
Rule 4: There were to be no trials before the morning sacrifice.
All of the daily morning rituals in the Temple had to be completed before any trial could be conducted.
Rule 5: There were to be no secret trials, only public.
In keeping with the second rule, secret trials were forbidden in order to avoid the possibility of conspiracy.
Rule 6: Sanhedrin trials could only be conducted in the Hall of Judgment of the Temple compound.
Since all trials had to be public, the people would have to know where to go to observe a trial. Sanhedrin trials, therefore, had to be held only in this one room, the Hall of Judgment in the Temple compound. This hall was known as the Lishkat ha- Gazit, the Chamber of Hewn Stones.
Rule 7: During the trial, the defense had the first word before the prosecutors could present the accusations.
This is the reverse of the western system. The defense provided all reasons why the accused could not be guilty of anything and presented character witnesses. Then the two or three witnesses for the prosecution officially presented the accusation.
Rule 8: All could argue in favor of acquittal, but all could not argue in favor of conviction.
Under Jewish criminal law, it was permissible to “stack the deck” in favor of the accused, but not against him. It was permissible for everyone to argue only for acquittal, but it was not permissible for everyone to argue only for conviction. The accused had to have at least one defender.
Rule 9: There were to be two or three witnesses, and their testimonies had to agree in every detail.
Based on Deuteronomy 19:15-19.
Rule 10: There was to be no allowance for the accused to testify against himself.
This was to avoid two possible situations. First, a man might be suicidal and so confess to a crime he did not commit. Second, he might be trying to protect someone else who was guilty and so confess to a crime he did not commit.
Therefore, the individual himself could not be counted among the two witnesses that were minimally required for a court case to be heard.
Rule 11: The high priest was forbidden to rend his garments. This rule was based on Leviticus 21:10. In a Jewish context, the tearing of garments was a sign of the emotions.
For example, if a family member died, the relatives would tear their clothing. This also happened if a family member married a Gentile or became a believer in Yeshua. Because the trial had to be decided based on the facts presented by two or three witnesses, and not on the basis of emotions, the high priest could not tear his clothing during the trial.
Rule 12: Judges could not initiate the charges; they could only investigate charges brought to them.
Like the third rule, this law was supposed to keep judges neutral. If they originated the charge, it would mean that they had already taken sides.
Rule 13: The accusation of blasphemy was only valid if the name of God itself was pronounced.
In Hebrew, the name of God is comprised of four letters that correspond to the Latin letters YHWH or YHVH. Unless a person pronounced this four-letter name of God, they could not technically be accused of blasphemy.
Rule 14: A person could not be condemned solely on the basis of his own words.
This rule emphasized the necessity of having two outside witnesses.
Rule 15: The verdict could not be announced at night.
This rule was to avoid a rush to judgment. It might have been a very long day with many witnesses being questioned, arguments back and forth, and people getting tired and edgy. To avoid a rush to judgment, once the night had come (meaning once three stars were visible), the judges had to wait until the next day to announce the verdict, even if they knew what it would be.
Rule 16: In the case of capital punishment, the trial and guilty verdict could not occur at the same time, but had to be separated by at least 24 hours.
The purpose of this law was to permit more time for information to become available which might favor the accused.
Rule 17: Voting for the death penalty had to be done by individual count, beginning with the youngest, so the young would not be influenced by the elders.
Rule 18: A unanimous decision for guilt showed innocence, since it is impossible for 23 to 71 men to agree without plotting.
The number “71” is the full membership of the Sanhedrin. Not all the members needed to be present, but there had to be a minimum of 23. However, even with the minimum, it was inconceivable in a Jewish context that all 23 men could agree on one issue, unless there was a plot involved. This came from the observation that Jews enjoy arguing among themselves, as noted earlier in the discussion on the school of the Sopherim.
Rule 19: The sentence could only be pronounced three days after the guilty verdict.
The trial and the verdict had to be separated by 24 hours, but three more days had to pass before pronouncing the sentence, for the same reason: to allow more time for information to come forth that would favor the accused.
Rule 20: Judges were to be humane and kind.
Rule 21: A person condemned to death was not to be scourged or beaten before his execution.
Rule 22: No trials were allowed on the eve of the Sabbath or on a feast day.
The preceding is taken from Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Yeshua, The Life of Messiah From a Jewish Perspective, Vol 4, (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2017), pp. 4–8, and slightly revised by Robert L. Dean, Jr. (Dean Bible Ministries, www.deanbibleministries.org). I, in turn, have slightly edited the work. ↩︎