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Bible Dictionaries
Judges
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or The judges which governed in Israel were, from the death of Joshua until the Israelites demanded a king over them, and Saul was appointed, a period of about three hundred and thirty-nine years. They were called in Hebrew ShophaTim The Book of Judges is supposed to have been written by Samuel. Some have thought that the Sanhedrim, which was a council consisting of seventy elders, always presided beside those judges, and regularly continued from the time of the Lord's appointment (see Numbers 11:16-17) until the days of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there doth not seem to be sufficient foundation for this belief. During the Babylonish captivity such a thing was hardly possible; neither during the reign of the kings before the captivity, do we meet with any account of the Sanhedrim. That such a court subsisted in the time of our Lord is certain, and continued until the destruction of the temple.
We have but little account in Scripture concerning this Sanhedrim. That this court, composed of seventy persons, possessed great power, even in the days when the Jews were under tribute to the Romans, is certain But thought they contended with Pilate, in their wishes for the death of Christ, that they had a law, yet we do not find, excepting upon this occasion, any mention made of its exercise. It seemed to have been but the mere shadow of authority; for the whole substance was taken into possession by the Roman Governor.
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Judges'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/j/judges.html. London. 1828.
