The rulers, elders, and teachers of the law (scribes) met together in a council known as the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the highest assembly in Jerusalem, the supreme legislative, judicial, and executive body.1 It consisted of leading and influential citizens from the city. Elders would be senior officials, men who were part of the Jewish elite, most probably laymen and priests as well as rich landowners. Joseph of Arimathea (see Mark 15:43) could have been part of this group.2 Teachers of the law (scribes) were men who studied and taught the Torah. Generally they would associate with either the Sadducees or the Pharisees.
5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,