Editing Sanhedrin (section)

=== After Bar Kokhba Revolt ===
[[File:Ancient Galilee.jpg|thumb|[[Galilee]] in [[Late Antiquity|late antiquity]].]]
Rabbinic texts indicate that following the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]], southern [[Galilee]] became the seat of rabbinic learning in the [[Land of Israel]]. This region was the location of the court of the Patriarch which was situated first at [[Usha (city)|Usha]], then at [[Bet Shearim]], later at [[Sepphoris]] and finally at [[Tiberias]].<ref name="LightstoneReligion2002">{{cite book|author1=Jack N. Lightstone|author2=Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion|title=Mishnah and the social formation of the early Rabbinic Guild: a socio-rhetorical approach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s42kv4NGBU4C&pg=PA192|access-date=18 July 2011|date= 2002|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=978-0-88920-375-4|page=192}}</ref>

The Great Sanhedrin moved in 140 to [[Shefa-'Amr|Shefaram]] under the presidency of [[Shimon ben Gamliel II]], and subsequently to [[Beit She'arim (Roman-era Jewish village)|Beit She'arim]] and later to [[Sepphoris]], under the presidency of [[Judah ha-Nasi]] (165–220). Finally, it moved to [[Tiberias]] in 220, under the presidency of [[Gamaliel III]] (220–230), a son of Judah ha-Nasi, where it became more of a consistory, but still retained, under the presidency of [[Judah II]] (230–270), the power of excommunication.

During the presidency of [[Gamaliel IV]] (270–290), due to Roman persecution, it dropped the name Sanhedrin; and its authoritative decisions were subsequently issued under the name of ''[[Yeshiva|Beth HaMidrash]]''.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

In the year 363, the emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]] (r. 355–363 CE), an apostate from Christianity, ordered the Temple rebuilt.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Res Gestae'', 23.1.2–3.</ref> The project's failure has been ascribed to the [[Galilee earthquake of 363]], and to the [[Jew]]s' ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental fire. Divine intervention was the common view among Christian historians of the time.<ref name="Solomon">See [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/julian-jews.html "Julian and the Jews 361–363 CE"] and [http://www.gibsoncondo.com/~david/convert/history.html "Julian the Apostate and the Holy Temple"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051020130904/http://www.gibsoncondo.com/~david/convert/history.html|date=2005-10-20}}.</ref> As a reaction against Julian's pro-Jewish stance, the later emperor [[Theodosius I]] (r. 379–395 CE) forbade the Sanhedrin to assemble and declared [[Semicha|ordination]] illegal. Capital punishment was prescribed for any Rabbi who received ordination, as well as complete destruction of the town where the ordination occurred.<ref name="A History">{{cite book|title=A History of the Jewish People|author=Hayim Ben-Sasson|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1985|isbn=978-0-674-39731-6}}</ref>

However, since the [[Hebrew calendar]] was based on witnesses' testimony, which had become far too dangerous to collect, rabbi [[Hillel II]] recommended change to a mathematically based calendar that was adopted at a clandestine, and maybe final, meeting in 358 CE. This marked the last universal decision made by the Great Sanhedrin.

[[Gamaliel VI]] (400–425) was the Sanhedrin's last president. With his death in 425, [[Theodosius II]] outlawed the title of [[Nasi (Hebrew title)|Nasi]], the last remains of the ancient Sanhedrin. An imperial decree of 426 diverted the patriarchs' tax ({{lang|la|post excessum patriarchorum}}) into the imperial treasury.<ref name="A History" /> The exact reason for the abrogation of the patriarchate is not clear,<ref name="LangeGerber1997">{{cite book|author1=Nicholas Robert Michael De Lange|author2=Jane S. Gerber|title=The illustrated history of the Jewish people|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedhisto00dela|url-access=registration|access-date=18 July 2011|date=1997|publisher=Harcourt Brace|isbn=978-0-15-100302-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedhisto00dela/page/79 79]}}</ref> though Gamaliel VI, the last holder of the office who had been for a time elevated by the emperor to the rank of [[prefect]],<ref name="Chisholm1911attribution">{{EB1911|wstitle=Jews| volume= 15 |last= Abrahams |first= Israel |author-link= Israel Abrahams | pages= 487–410; see page 403 |quote= III. – From the Dispersion to Modern Times}}</ref> may have fallen out with the imperial authorities.<ref name="LangeGerber1997" /> Thereafter, Jews were gradually excluded from holding public office.<ref name="Edersheim1856">{{cite book|author=Alfred Edersheim|title=History of the Jewish nation after the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXQpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA551|access-date=18 July 2011|year=1856|publisher=T. Constable and Co.|page=551}}</ref> A law dated to 429, however, refers to the existence of a Sanhedrin in each of the Eastern Roman provinces of [[Diocese of the East|Palestine]].<ref name ="Levine2018">{{cite contribution|author=Lee I. Levine|contribution=The Jewish patriarchate|contribution-url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8133|access-date=2 May 2024|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|title=Oxford Classical Dictionary|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8133 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 |editor=Tim Whitmarsh|place=Oxford}}</ref>