1) any assembly (esp. of magistrates, judges, ambassadors),
    whether convened to deliberate or pass judgment
 2) any session or assembly or people deliberating or adjudicating
    2a) the Sanhedrin, the great council at Jerusalem, consisting of
        the seventy one members, viz. scribes, elders, prominent
        members of the high priestly families and the high priest, the
        president of the assembly. The most important causes were
        brought before this tribunal, inasmuch as the Roman rulers of
        Judaea had left to it the power of trying such cases, and also
        of pronouncing sentence of death, with the limitation that a
        capital sentence pronounced by the Sanhedrin was not valid
        unless it was confirmed by the Roman procurator.
    2b) a smaller tribunal or council which every Jewish town had
        for the decision of less important cases.