The Sanhedrin – the Lamb – and the Temple

As we are getting closer to the passover I thought I would share with you something that I found recently concerning the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is a group of 71 orthodox men who revived the court a little more than two years ago. They were around in Christ’s day and were the ones who had to okay the paschal lamb for the passover every year.

‘Sanhedrin’ means ‘sitting together’ or ‘council’ and in the New Testament they were described as being the ‘chief priests and elders of the people’. Jesus, the Messiah, was brought to the chief priests/Sanhedrin who sought after a false witnesses against Jesus’ claims to be Messiah, according to Matthew 26:59 so that they could find Him guilty and could then put him to death. He was unjustly put to death according to their own law which states that there must be two or three true witnesses, there were no testimonies against Jesus but there were plenty of false witnesses that came forward, as it states in Matthew:

Mat 26:59 And the chief priests and the elders and the whole sanhedrin looked for false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death,
Mat 26:60 but did not find any, even though there were many false witnesses coming forward…

All the council sought false witness – What a prostitution of justice! – they first resolve to ruin him, and then seek the proper means of effecting it: they declare him criminal, and after that do all they can to fix some crime upon him, that they may appear to have some shadow of justice on their side when they put him to death. It seems to have been a common custom of this vile court to employ false witness, on any occasion, to answer their own ends. Clarke

Even though this Sanhedrin did not accept the Messianic title of Jesus/Yeshua, Christ warned that they will accept another in his name, and that being the anti-christ of the last days:

Joh 5:43 I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive that one

Interestingly, the Sanhedrin will evaluate the coming so called ‘messiah’ according to the law and they are now taking all the necessary steps toward building the opportunity for a King in our lifetime:

The Gospels say Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin so its members could assess his messianic claims. This current Sanhedrin also sees as one of its goals to evaluate any potential messianic contender. “There is no redemption without the Sanhedrin,” said Stein. “We are building the opportunity for a king (messiah).”

“We want all the world,” Stein said, “to walk with God.” (see below link)

Well, this same Sanhedrin wants to revive the passover lamb, to re-establish the paschal sacrifice.

As Easter eclipses the last days of Passover this year, Christians will focus again on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. The Sanhedrin, meanwhile, will literally attempt to resurrect the Passover sacrifice of old.

For these Jews, the sacrificial Passover offering is not their redemption per se, yet it is vital to the process.

The Passover sacrifice is the latest of more than 40 legal decisions issued by the modern Sanhedrin. Seventy-one Orthodox men revived the court more than two years ago in the city of Tiberius, the same geographical spot they believe marked the final days of the Sanhedrin a few hundred years after the time of Jesus.

In antiquity, the Sanhedrin determined Jewish practice. It now rules on political and religious issues and ultimately sees itself as an alternative to the secular Supreme Court of Israel. It hopes to impose Jewish law on the Jewish people and the seven “Noahide laws — prohibitions on theft, murder, blasphemy and others, based on Jewish teaching — on Gentile nations.

So the Sanhedrin wants to impose Jewish law, not only on the Jewish people, but also on the Gentile nations. Does anybody else see a red flag waving???

This is interesting because of what Daniel the prophet says about the coming changes of times and of laws:

Dan 7:25 And he shall speak words against the Most High, and he shall wear out the saints of the Most High. And he intends to change times and law. And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and one half time.

Now my brain is clicking over and over with this verse. I have always wondered what times and what laws are to be changed by the ruler of this worldly kingdom, that being the anti-christ, which Daniel is speaking about. Could it be that the Sanhedrin eventually will okay a Messiah for the Jews and Gentiles? Could it be that the Sanhedrin will also institute the times of the law outlined in the Torah?

They would need a temple built on the temple mount for these laws to be in their eyes truly effective, and we do know that there is the ‘Temple Mount Institute‘ that has all the temple vestments and vessels necessary to have a fully operational temple very soon. Some say that the temple could be built in as little as three months, while others say that the temple does not need to be where the Dome of the Rock is now situated. They say that it leaves the Dome of the Rock outside of the confines of the Holy Temple, but from what I can see in the above diagram, the Dome of the Rock overlays the court of the Gentiles (Patrich’s reconstruction of Temple in 1st century A.D. overlaid on modern Temple Mount. Octagonal feature is Dome of the Rock. Diagram is oriented east up. Courtesy Hebrew University. (Drawing by Leen Ritmeyer))

Daniel explains further concerning this time,he says that there will be a regular sacrifice, and that they will be stopped when the abomination that desolates the temple is set up (read Maccabees I and II for a shadow of things to come, very helpful and a fantastic historical type of anti-christ is documented in the Maccabean revolt before the time of Christ):

Dan 12:11 And from the time the regular sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that desolates set up, a thousand, two hundred and ninety days shall occur.

Notice that this 1290 days is explained more in this verse found in Revelation:

Rev 11:2 And cast aside the outside court of the temple, and do not measure it. For it was given to the nations (meaning Gentiles), and they will trample the holy city forty two months.

What I found after looking closely at this verse is that the outer court or the court of the Gentiles is to be cast aside, and is fact to be not to be measured at all. I have read many explanations concerning the un-measured outer court, but because the outer court of gentiles could well be including the Dome of the Rock then perhaps they are not allowed to measure because of the outrage by the Islamic community? Perhaps this anti-christ temple will be so inclusive that it will include the Dome of the Rock inside the gentile court. These are just questions that I have asking myself of late, and I know that they will be answered in time. Here is what one explanation concerning the above verse it speaks about the outer court/court of the Gentiles and gives further insight.

The court (tēn aulēn). The uncovered yard outside the house. There were usually two, one between the door and the street, the outer court, the other the inner court surrounded by the buildings (Mar_14:66). This is here the outer court, “which is without the temple” (tēn exōthen tou naou), outside of the sanctuary, but within the hieron where the Gentiles could go (carrying out the imagery of the Jerusalem temple).
Leave without (ekbale exōthen). Literally, “cast without” (second aorist active imperative of ekballō.
Do not measure it (mē autēn metrēsēis). Prohibition with mē and the first aorist active (ingressive) subjunctive of metreō. This outer court is left to its fate. In Herod’s temple the outer court was marked off from the inner by “the middle wall of partition” (to mesoitoichon tou phragmou, Eph_2:15), beyond which a Gentile could not go. In this outer court was a house of prayer for the Gentiles (Mar_11:17), but now John is to cast it out and leave to its fate (given to the Gentiles in another sense) to be profaned by them. Robertsons Word Pictures Commentary.

I find this to be very interesting indeed. It seems to me, that if this temple is built according to these maps, then the Dome of the Rock (which is inside the court of the Gentiles, correct me if I am wrong, but that is what it looks like to me and just as a side note I have emailed Prof. Joseph Patrich and am waiting on a reply) shall be left alone and will not to be measured as scripture indicates. This temple may satisfy the Sanhedrin (time will tell), and the gentile Muslims would still have their Dome. An all inclusive place of worship for Jews, Muslims and for those Kingdom Now Christians who don’t know any better, they will think that the kingdom has arrived with PEACE finally being ushered in between all three major religions. The social gospel will have prevailed after all!

Back to the paschal Lamb, I will heed to the words that came from John the Baptist in the spirit of Elijah and I will remember this Lamb especially in light of today’s conflicts and I will thank Him for His sacrifice:

Joh 1:29 On the morrow, John sees Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold! The Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world!