Dr. Helen Bond

I think nowadays people would say there might have been Sanhedrins, you know, councils summoned now and then when it was necessary or useful.

But the idea that there was a fixed body of people and that you were a Sanhedrin member and that you had oversight over Jerusalem seems...

not really to be backed up, certainly not by Josephus and not by most of the evidence.

Probably not.

I mean, there might be some aristocratic Pharisees who are amongst the elite of Jerusalem.

But I think if anybody, if any of these sects is going to have any kind of sway with the Romans, it's the Sadducees, the temple aristocratic priesthood.

Because it's really, I mean, the Romans are out in Caesarea on the seaside.

They're just leaving the high priest really to get on with it.

And the people he's going to rely on are fellow Sadducees.

So they're the ones who are going to have influence at all with the Romans.

But I think probably for that very reason, the people who are going to have influence with the people, the ordinary people, are the Pharisees, because they're not tainted by collaboration, association with the Romans.

We don't know for sure, but the chances are very high.

I mean, we don't know that all high priests were Sadducees, but I think it's very likely that they were.

Certainly this is the group that they're most likely to have had links with.

We certainly don't hear of any Pharisaic high priests.

Yeah, I think they would have done at some point.

And he's actually not that far from some big cities.

You know, the city of Sepphoris is only four or five miles away from Nazareth.

There's Tiberias on the Lake of Galilee.

Jesus doesn't go to these big cities, but if the gospels are right and that large crowds are coming out to him...