So. The Church Manual
is our November book.
I am going to cheat a little. A couple of years ago our membership agreed
to the starting of a study of the Manual as part of our preparation for
business meetings.
I was clerk of the church at the time and perhaps the
arrangement was of my personal choosing and in fact I think I may have been the
only one who contributed. I have notes from that study and will include them
here.
I find every page of a book interesting and sometimes even
inspiring, even the ones without printed numbers. Take, for instance, Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures (S&H) by Mary Baker Eddy page iii: Who would want to miss
out on –
Ye
shall know the truth,
and
the truth shall make you free.
-
John viii.32
There
is nothing either good or bad,
but
thinking makes it so.
-
Shakespeare
Oh!
Thou hast heard my prayer;
And
I am blest!
This is Thy high behest:-
Thou
here, and everywhere.
- Mary Baker Eddy
However, the
first page that caught my attention at that time of study was page 3 (also
unnumbered). This quotes an EXTRACT FROM
A LETTER IN “MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS”, also by Eddy, which speaks to us of her
own evaluation of her Manual.
The extract uses
a fascinating word – Sanhedrim. I looked it up on the Internet and here is
what I found. Alas, our editor may tear
her hair at the fact that I cannot now find the exact site I copied it from. Here
it is anyway –
As high
priest, Caiaphas (depicted in red) was the official leader of the Sanhedrin at the time
of Jesus' arrest and trial, and the person chiefly responsible for
orchestrating Christ's death. Photo: Getty Images
Definition #1: The Sanhedrin was the supreme council, or court, in ancient Israel. The
Sanhedrin was comprised of 70 men, plus the high priest, who served as its
president. The members came from the chief priests, scribes and elders, but
there is no record on how they were chosen.
During the time of the Roman
governors, such as Pontius Pilate, the Sanhedrin had jurisdiction only over the province of Judea. The
Sanhedrin had its own police force which could arrest people, as they did Jesus Christ. While the Sanhedrin heard both civil and criminal cases and could
impose the death penalty, in New Testament times it did not have the authority
to execute convicted criminals. That power was reserved to the Romans, which
explains why Jesus was crucified—a Roman punishment—rather than stoned, according to Mosaic law. The
Sanhedrin was abolished with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the
Temple in 70 A.D.
Pronunciation: SAN hee
drin
Example: The
Sanhedrin accused Jesus of blasphemy.
Definition
#2: Sanhedrin - The highest judicial and ecclesiastical council of the
ancient Jewish nation, composed of from 70 to 72 members.
"Jewish council that operated in Roman Palestine from the time of the
Maccabees (c. 165 BC) to the end of the patriarchate (AD 425). While the term
refers to the supreme Jewish court, the Sanhedrin's exact composition and
powers - religious, judicial, and legislative - are reported variously in
different sources. It is mentioned in various books of the Bible (Mark, Luke,
Acts) as having taken part in or adjudicated the trials of Jesus, St. Peter the
Apostle, and St. John the Baptist. According to Talmudic sources, the Great
Sanhedrin was a court of 71 sages that met on fixed occasions in the Temple of
Jerusalem, acting as a religious legislative body, trial court, and
administrator of rituals. Answers.com
Definition #3: The Sanhedrin was located in Jerusalem. Its members
included: the High Priest and former High Priests; members of the priestly
line; community elders and heads of tribes and families, all being
knowledgeable and experienced in the Jewish Law.
The Bible makes reference to the Sanhedrin e.g. Mark
14:55. At one trial of the Apostles it was noted that the members were made up
of Pharisees and the Sadducees - Acts 5:21; 23:36.
Local synagogues were also known sometimes as 'local
sanhedrins' in that they had legal powers to carry out scourgings and to
declare excommunications, e.g. Matthew 10:17; Acts chapter 7 – Stephen’s speech
to the Sanhedrin. And his stoning; Acts
4 – Peter and John before the Sanhedrin.
Definition #4: Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Sorry! The word sanhedrin doesn't occur in the KJV. Sanhedrim - more
correctly Sanhedrin (Gr. synedrion), meaning "a sitting together," or
a "council." This word (rendered "council," A.V.) is
frequently used in the New Testament (Matt. 5:22; 26:59; Mark 15:1, etc.) to
denote the supreme judicial and administrative council
of the Jews, which, it is said, was first instituted by Moses, and was composed of seventy men (Num. 11:16, 17). But
that seems to have been only a temporary arrangement which Moses made. This
council is with greater probability supposed to have originated among the Jews
when they were under the domination of the Syrian kings in the time of the
Maccabees. The name is first employed by the Jewish historian Josephus. This
"council" is referred to simply as the "chief priests and elders
of the people" (Matt. 26:3, 47, 57, 59; 27:1, 3, 12, 20, etc.), before
whom Christ was tried on the charge of claiming to be the Messiah. Peter and
John were also brought before it for promulgating heresy (Acts. 4:1-23;
5:17-41); as was also Stephen on a charge of blasphemy (6:12-15), and Paul for
violating a temple by-law (22:30; 23:1-10).
The Sanhedrin is said to have consisted of seventy-one members, the high priest
being president. They were of three classes (1) the chief priests, or heads of
the twenty-four priestly courses (1 Chr. 24), (2) the scribes, and (3) the
elders. As the highest court of judicature, "in all causes and over all
persons, ecclesiastical and civil, supreme," its decrees were binding, not
only on the Jews in Palestine, but on all Jews wherever scattered abroad. Its
jurisdiction was greatly curtailed by Herod, and afterwards by the Romans. Its
usual place of meeting was within the precincts of the temple, in the hall
"Gazith," but it sometimes met also in the house of the high priest
(Matt. 26:3), who was assisted by two vice-presidents.
End quotes
Thought:
The Sanhedrin with its 70 men + a High Priest who acted as president, was a
body representing many minds which met and tried to make laws, or interpret
Jewish law, whereas the Manual of The Mother Church was the work of the one
Mind presenting its ideas to an attentive and listening Mary Baker Eddy. Here is a recipe for parliaments and for church business
meetings. “In Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as numbers are
controlled and proved by His laws” S&H 318:28 (In) - 29.
MBE didn’t expect Christian Scientists to need rules
to govern their actions. She was aware of all the ways in which her students
disobeyed Principle in living their human lives and gave us direction on human
behavior in the correcting by-laws of the Manual. It seems it almost broke her
heart that these laws were necessary for students of the exact Science she had
sacrificed and toiled to give them in its pure form. Read Mental Digestion
from Miscellany (Eddy) p. 229.
The miracle is that she was able to present this
Science in a form that can be taught and demonstrated, when for her to
demonstrate it was as natural as breathing.
She
was doing it “for the race,” not exclusively for the Christian Scientists. Aha!
It was first for the Christian Scientists and they were to live it and
demonstrate it – “for the race.”
Joyce Voysey
