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Sadducees

Who were the Sadducees?

May 10, 2022 by Krisan Marotta

The ancient historian Flavius Josephus identifies four rival religious philosophies among the Jews at the time of Jesus: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots.


Sadducees

  • The Sadducees were linked with the high priesthood and power. The party grew out of the aristocratic Sanhedrin.
  • The Sadducees formed an alliance with the Hasmoneans.
  • The Sadducees rejected the oral law developed by the Pharisees and relied upon the written law alone.
  • Sadducees insisted on human freedom of choice to determine the course of affairs, in contrast to the Pharisees. They did not believe in any kind of predestination.
  • Sadducees denied the idea of an immortal soul, the resurrection, rewards and punishments in an after-life, angels and demons. They viewed these ideas as later corruptions of the Scriptures.
  • They had no Messianic expectation
  • They saw themselves as upholding the law of Moses as properly understood while the Pharisees were innovators.
  • Sadducees were politically powerful and wealthy, usually descendants of land-owners.
  • The Sadducees wanted to get along with Rome in order to keep their grip on power.
  • The people saw the priesthood and the Sadducees as corrupt.
  • The group dies out after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
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Reference

Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary: Sadducees

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary: Sadducees

Easton’s Bible Dictionary: Sadducees

Fausset Bible Dictionary: Sadducees

Holman Bible Dictionary: Jewish Parties in the New Testament

Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible: Sadducees

Kitto’s Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature: Sadducees

Morrish Bible Dictionary: Sadducees

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Sadducees

McClintock and Strong: Sadducee

The Nuttall Encyclopedia: Sadducees

The Jewish Encyclopedia: Sadducees

Alfred Edersheim: Chapter 15 Relation of the Pharisees to the Sadducees and Essenes, and to the Gospel of Christ

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Related:

Who were the Pharisees?

Who were the Zealots?

Who were the Essenes?

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Photo by Rolf Schmidbauer on Unsplash

Filed Under: Who is Tagged With: Sadducees

Who were the Pharisees?

October 20, 2020 by Krisan Marotta

Who are the Pharisees? - Bible Study | WednesdayintheWord.com

The ancient historian Flavius Josephus identifies four rival religious philosophies among the Jews at the time of Jesus: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots.


Pharisees

  • Their name is often thought to derive from “separatist.”
  • The Pharisees sprang from the Hasidim, the pious group who joined the Maccabean revolt looking for religious freedom.
  • They were the intellectual elite, not the aristocratic wealthy elite.
  • Chief feature: The Pharisees had the reputation of excelling in their observance of religion and as exact keepers of the law. They were religiously progressive, constantly refining the oral law, which they thought was as binding as the written law.
  • They were a small but influential party (approximately 6000 during Herod’s time according to Josephus).
  • They emphasized God’s sovereign government of the universe and overruling of human disobedience so that divine will triumphs.
  • They insisted on individual as well as communal adherence to the strict standards of the Mosaic law in every detail.
  • They built an “oral law” — an interpretation of the written law that implies acceptance of the “tradition of the elders” as authoritative for religious life along with the Scriptures.
  • They practiced great care in matters of ritual purity, food laws, sabbath laws and tithing.
  • Pharisees were the forefathers of the rabbinic movement.
  • They were popular with the people and thus a political force to be reckoned with.
  • They looked for a Messiah who would reinstate a righteous kingdom under God.

The Jewish Talmud (Sota 22b) acknowledges the existence of 7 kinds of Pharisees*:

  1. The “wait-a little” Pharisee always has an excuse for putting off a good deed.
  2. The “bruise” or “bleeding” Pharisee, in order to avoid looking at a women, shuts his eyes and stumbles against the wall so as to bruise himself and bleed.
  3. The “shoulder Pharisee wears, as it were, his good deeds ostentatiously upon his shoulders, where all can see them.
  4. The “hump backed” Pharisee walks about stooped over in mock humility.
  5. The “ever-reckoning” Pharisee is continually counting up his good deeds to balance them against his bad deeds.
  6. The “God-fearing” Pharisee stands in awe and dread of God.
  7. The “God-loving” Pharisee is a true son of Abraham and a genuine Pharisee.

*adapted from Jewish New Testament Commentary by David H. Stern 1992 p. 69-70.

Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary: Pharisees

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary: Pharisees

Easton’s Bible Dictionary: Pharisees

Fausset Bible Dictionary: Pharisees

Holman Bible Dictionary: Jewish Parties in the New Testament

Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible: Pharisees

Kitto’s Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature: Pharisees

Morrish Bible Dictionary: Pharisees

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Pharisees

McClintock and Strong: Pharisee

The Nuttall Encyclopedia: Pharisees

The Jewish Encyclopedia: Pharisees

Alfred Edersheim: Chapter 15 Relation of the Pharisees to the Sadducees and Essenes, and to the Gospel of Christ

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Who were the Sadducees?

Who were the Zealots?

Who were the Essenes?

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Where to next?

Resource Library

What is…?

Who is…?

Introduction to…

Background & History


Photo by Rolf Schmidbauer on Unsplash

Filed Under: Who is Tagged With: Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots

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