The Universal House of Justice was elected for the first time in 1963 and is elected every five years by the members of all National Spiritual Assemblies, who serve as delegates. It has nine members and sits in Haifa. Its authority is distinctive: Bahá'u'lláh conferred on it the power to legislate on all matters not expressly revealed in scripture, and — unusually for a body in a revealed religion — the power to repeal and change its own legislation as conditions alter, on the reasoning that circumstances change and revealed law does not. It does not interpret scripture, that function having ended with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, and Bahá'ís distinguish carefully between elucidation, which the House does, and interpretation, which it does not. Its membership is restricted to men. 'Abdu'l-Bahá stated this and gave no reason other than that the wisdom of it would in time become manifest; the House has stated that the restriction is not within its power to change. It is the point on which sympathetic outsiders most often press, and the community generally does not pretend the answer is satisfying.