extortion. Because of this evil repute they were commonly drawn from the
unscrupulous among the people, so that the frequent coupling of publicans
and sinners in the gospels probably rested on fact as much as on
prejudice.

6. In Samaria and Judea soldiers were under the command of the procurator;
they took orders from the tetrarch, in Galilee and Perea. The garrison of
Jerusalem consisted of one Roman cohort--from five to six hundred
men--which was reinforced at the time of the principal feasts. These and
the other forces at the disposal of the procurator were probably recruited
from the country itself, largely from among the Samaritans. The centurion
of Capernaum (Matt. viii. 5; Luke vii. 2-5) was an officer in the army of
Antipas, who, however, doubtless organized his army on the Roman pattern,
with officers who had had their training with the imperial forces.

7. The administration of justice in Samaria and Judea was theoretically in
the hands of the procurator; practically, however, it was left with the
Jewish courts, either the local councils or the great sanhedrin at
Jerusalem. This last body consisted of seventy-one "elders." Its president
was the high-priest, and its members were drawn in large degree from the
most prominent representatives of the priestly aristocracy. The scribes,
however, had a controlling influence because of the reverence in which the
multitude held them. The sanhedrin of Jerusalem had jurisdiction only
within the province of Judea, where it tried all kinds of offences; its
judgment was final, except in capital cases, when it had to yield to the
procurator, who alone could sentence to death. It had great influence also
in Galilee, and among Jews everywhere, but this was due to the regard all
Jews had for the holy city. It was, in fact, a sort of Jewish senate,
which took cognizance of everything that seemed to affect the Jewish
interests. In Galilee and Perea, Antipas held in his hands the judicial as