The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: סַנְהֶדְרִין; Greek: Συνέδριον, synedrion, "sitting together," hence "assembly" or "council") were assemblies of either twenty-three or seventy-one elders (known as "rabbis" after the destruction of the Second Temple), who were appointed to sit as a tribunal in every city in the ancient Land of Israel.
There were two classes of Jewish courts which were called Sanhedrin, the Great Sanhedrin and the Lesser Sanhedrin. A lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges was appointed to sit as a tribunal in each city, but there was only supposed to be one Great Sanhedrin...