γερουσία, γερουσίας, ἡ (adjective γερούσιος, belonging to old men, γέρων), a senate, council of elders; used in secular authors of the chief council of nations and cities (ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι αἱ γερουσιαι, Xenophon, mem. 4, 4, 16; in the O. T. of the chief council not only of the whole people of Israel, Exo_3:16, etc.; 1Ma_12:6, etc.; but also of cities, Deu_19:12, etc.); of the Great Council, the Sanhedrin of the Jews: Act_5:21, where to τό συνέδριον is added καί πᾶσαν τήν γερουσίαν τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ and indeed (καί explicative) all the senate, to signify the full Sanhedrin. Cf. Schürer, Die Gemeindeverfassung d. Juden in Rom in d. Kaiserzeit nach d. Inschriften dargestellt. Leips. 1879, p. 18f; Hatch, Bamp. Lects. for 1880, p. 64f.)

γερουσία gerousia 1x a senate, assembly of elders; the elders of Israel collectively, Act_5:21

γερουσία , -ας , ἡ ( < γέρων ), [in LXX (Hex. only in OT) for H2205 ;] a council of elders, senate; in NT, of the Sanhedrin (Cl. Rev. i, 43 f .; DB , ext., 99): Act_5:21 .†

γερουσία [page 124] Bishop Hicks has shown ( CR i. p. 43 f.) the important place occupied by the γερουσία in Ephesus and other Greek cities in Roman imperial times, and consequently how the term, and not βουλή , came to be applied to the Sanhedrin in Act_5:21 . In Syll 740 .2 (A.D. 212) ἔ ]δοξεν τῇ ἱερᾷ γερουσίᾳ τοῦ Σωτῆρος [Ἀ ]σκληπιοῦ κτλ , the editor remarks on the singular use of the word for a private sacred college : on ib. 882 (Cos imperial time) τοῦ μνημείου τούτου ἡ γερουσία κήδεται , he suggests the same connotation, and on ib. 737 .132 (ii/A.D.) he argues an application to the ἱερὰ γερουσία of Eleusis (see his reff.). These will suffice to show that a γερουσία concerned, like the Sanhedrin, with res sacrae was nothing unusual. The use of the word for lay senates of various kinds is of course abundant, and does not concern us : see inter alia Ramsay C. and B. ii. p. 438 ff., and Ferguson Legal Terms common to the Macedonian Inscrr. and the NT (Chicago, 1913), p. 30 ff. The two terms of Act_5:21 appear together in Cagnat IV. 836 .7 (Hierapolis,? ii/A.D. or after) ἀποδώσει τῷ [σ ]εμνοτάτῳ συνεδρίωι γερουσίας δηνάρια χείλια (for violating a tomb).

γερουσία [Etym: γέρων] "a Council of Elders, Senate", Eur. = πρεσβεία, id=Eur.

γερουσία, -ας, ἡ (γέρων), [in LXX (Hex. only in OT) for זָקֵן ;] a council of elders, senate; in NT, of the Sanhedrin (Cl. Rev., i, 43f.; DB, ext., 99): Act.5:21.† (AS)