Author Links Acts 1:15's 120 to Church's Legal Formation

1 articles · Updated · Catholic World Report · May 24

Acts 1:15's “about 120” is presented as a deliberate clue that the believers in the Upper Room had reached the threshold for forming a legally constituted community, not just a prayer group.
Luke’s wording drives that reading: the Greek literally refers to a “crowd of names,” which the author ties to census language in Numbers and to a registered body with recognized membership.
The number 120 is then linked to Jewish legal tradition, where the Mishnah says a town needed 120 residents to qualify for its own sanhedrin or civic-religious court.
That framework, the author argues, casts Pentecost as more than the Church’s spiritual “birthday” and as the moment a new institution with authority, hierarchy and law came into visible form.

Was the Church's birth a spiritual outpouring, or the calculated legal founding of a new institution based on Jewish law?

If 120 people formed a new Sanhedrin, what authority did women like Mary hold within this founding body of the Church?