Torah and New Testament Foundations-The Sanhedrin, Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai-Part 7

The period of the Zugot (“pairs”) began with Simon the Just in Avot 1.2. Simon was the Nasi, Antigonus of Socho was the Av Beit Din. Avot 2.12 gives us a list of the Zugot. Hillel and Shammai were the last of the Zugot. However, Shammai will dominate Hillel, even though Hillel was Nasi. So, it is not surprising that when Menachem left, Beit Hillel went with him. Hillel and Menachem were in agreement on things, but Hillel and Shammai were not.

Hillel is left alone and felt obligated to remain, but Shammai now has dominance, especially with Beit Hillel off with Menachem. Shammai not only has his talmidim, called Beit Shammai, but he has Zealots and anyone with anti-Roman feelings siding with him.

This meeting at the “upper chamber” of Hananiah Ben Hezekiah Ben Gurion was meant to bring peace between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. As we have discussed earlier, Hananiah is part of the family that started the Zealot movement, but he was a scholar and a sage who worked on a commentary of Ezekiel, and he was not interested in politics. His father, Hezekiah Ben Gurion, was the actual founder of the Zealot Party, and Hananiah’s brother was Judas the Galilean, who formally started the Zealot Party in 6 A.D. and is mentioned in Acts 5.37. Hezekiah was called a “chief bandit” by Josephus and he was executed by Herod, after a battle at the Arbel in Galilee.

The word “Lishkat” (“chamber”) is used to describe where this meeting between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai took place. In the Mishnah, Shabbat 1.4, it says, “These are among the rulings which the Sages enjoined while in the upper room of Hananiah Ben Hezekiah Ben Gurion. When they went up to visit him they voted, and they of the School of Shammai outnumbered them of the School of Hillel; and eighteen things they did decree on that day.” In the Mishnah or Talmud, the term “upper room” is used in reference to the building of the Sanhedrin in the Temple.

In Rosh Ha Shannah 2.8 it says, “Rabban Gamaliel (Paul’s teacher) had pictures of the shapes of the moon on a tablet and on the wall of his upper chamber (of the Sanhedrin Court building). These he used to show to the unskilled and say, ‘Did you see it on this wise or on that?'” Yoma 1.1 says, “Seven days before the Day of Atonement the High Priest was taken from his own house unto the Palhedrin Chamber (an upper room in Beit Avtinas) and another priest was made ready in his stead lest aught should befall him to render him ineligible.” Yoma 1.5 says, “The elders of the Court (Sanhedrin) delivered him to the elders of the priesthood (The Beit Av of the 24 courses) and they brought him up to the upper chamber of the House of Avtinas.” Middot 5.4 says, “Those to the south were the Wood Chamber (Lishkat ha Etz-Yoma 1.1), the Golah Chamber (Lishkat ha Golah-water for the Temple), and the Chamber of Hewn Stone (Lishkat ha Gazit).” All three of these chambers were in Beit Avtinas and described as “to the south” meaning to the south of the Azarah.

The Lishkat Ha Gazit, or Chamber of Hewn Stone, was the chamber of the Sanhedrin in Beit Avtinas, as we have seen in Yoma 1.5. Now, the Sanhedrin Gedolah was comprised of 71 members, divided into three chambers. You had the Chamber of the Kohanim, with 23 members. Then you had the Chamber of the Scribes, with 23 members, including Levites and scholars. Lastly, you had the Chamber of the Elders with 23 members, comprised of scholars and men from the nation. With the Nasi and the Av Beit Din, you had 71 members (book “Behold the Man: A Review of the Trials and Crucifixion of Jesus” by Taylor Bunch).

Now, remember, the Lishkat Ha Gazit is only one chamber inside this huge building of three stories, called Beit Avtinas. The Talmud, Yoma 25a says this chamber was built in the style of a large basilica. It was like a courthouse, with judges chambers, offices for clerks, officers of the court and where records could be kept. This was the Supreme Court of Israel. When it talks about an upper chamber in the Talmud or Mishnah it is in reference to the building where the Sanhedrin met in the Temple. So, when it says they met in the “upper chamber” of Hananiah Ben Hezekiah Ben Gurion, it is understood to be an upper room of the Sanhedrin, in Beit Avtinas.

The Kior (laver) was “between the Porch and the Altar to the south” (of the Azarah) as we have mentioned earlier (Middot 3.6). This was not the 22 cubit (42.24 feet) area from the west side of the Altar to the east wall of the Porch (Ulam). The priests could not enter that area without washing their hands and their feet. The phrase “between the Porch and the Altar” is referring to the area between the western wall of the Ulam and the eastern wall of the Altar, which is 77 cubits, or 147.84 feet. A building that opened up to the Azarah had the kedusha of the Azarah. There was a building adjoining the Azarah called Beit Kior (House of the Laver) between the Porch and the Altar, to the south (Mishnah, Kelim 1.9). We know that it was prohibited to enter the area between the Porch and the Altar (the 147.84 feet wide area) with unwashed hands and feet. You can have no food in the Azarah or fire. They had a fire in Beit Moked in the unsanctified half of the building, and there was also a fire in the Beit Ha Nitzotz in case the fire on the Altar went out.

The priests are required to eat the most holy offerings (Kodshai Kodeshim) and they cannot leave the Azarah. So, how can they cook this meat? Ezekiel tells us there were buildings on the corners and they opened up to the Azarah, giving them the kedusha of the Azarah. There were cooking facilities in these buildings. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is what is called the Temple Scroll. It said that there was a building called Beit Kior. This building was between the Porch and the Altar (the 147.84 feet wide area), but it was not part of the “Azarah proper.” If you divide Beit Avtinas into four sections, the Kior was in the northwest corner of Beit Avtinas, between the Porch and the Altar. In other words, take that 147.84 foot wide area and extend it south and north, and everything in between was “between the Porch and the Altar.” That is what “between the Porch and the Altar” means when Yeshua said it, and that is how it relates to Matt 23.

The whole chapter is about the Pharisees from Beit Shammai, those in power at the time. Some consider Matt 23 as the most anti-Semitic chapter in the Gospels and Epistles, but we don’t believe it is anti-Semitic at all. People have applied the references here to all Jews, but that is because they do not have a proper of understanding of these verses. Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 1.1, says the same things Yeshua does in this chapter about Beit Shammai. Was Josephus anti-Semitic? Was he anti-Rabbinical? Was he anti-Pharisee? Some say he was a Pharisee from Beit Hillel. No, he wasn’t being anti-Semitic, anti-Rabbinical or anti-Pharisee, but he was critical of some of the Pharisees from Beit Shammai.

In the conclusion, we are going to pick up again in Matt 23.16 and finish the rest of the chapter.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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