Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His Disciples for Greatness, and What He Wants to Do with You

by John F. MacArthur Jr.

The word has an exact parallel in Aramaic—shaliah. (Remember that the common language in Israel in Jesus' time—the language Jesus Himself spoke—was not Hebrew, but Aramaic.) In that first-century Jewish culture, the shaliah was an official representative of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Israel. A shaliah exercised the full rights of the Sanhedrin. He spoke for them, and when he spoke, he spoke with their authority. He was owed the same respect and deference as the council itself. But he never delivered his own message; his task was to deliver the message of the group whom he represented. The office of a shaliah was well known. Shaliah were sent out to settle legal or religious disputes, and they acted with the full authority of the whole council. Some prominent rabbis also had their shaliah, "sent ones" who taught their message and represented them with their full authority. Even the Jewish Mishnah (a collection of oral traditions originally conceived as a commentary on the Law) recognized the role of the shaliah. It says, "The one sent by the man is as the man himself." So the nature of the office was well known to the Jewish people.