The Pharisees, Sadducees, et. al.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the two main groups of Jewish leaders that interacted with Jesus in the Gospel stories. Sometimes, especially in John's gospel, the phrase "the Jews" is used as a catch-all for the various groups of Jewish leaders such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and Teachers of the Law. Other political parties who were also present among the Jews of Jesus day were the Herodians and the Zealots additionally, although the Bible does not mention them, the Essenes, who were really off on their own. The goal here is to compare these groups for a bit of background as the Jews were really not unified. As they say today: "where there are two Jews there are three opinions" and that has been true for a long time.

In an interview about the founding of America I saw once, Dennis Prager said something like: "The Jews focused on obeying the law in the minutest detail. The Christians built a society based on the values of the law." This statement from a practicing Jew encapsulates the difference between the Christian and Jewish attitudes to the law. The notion is central to understanding the nature of Jesus' ministry especially as it relates to the Jewish leaders of his day. Dennis and most of the rest of modern Jewry are generally considered spiritual descendants of the Pharisees. The Pharisees and Sadducees are first mentioned in history by Josephus during the Hasmonean period. The Pharisees are credited by most as the authors of the Mishna and the Talmud. The beginning production of those were during the exile. These provide the basis for halakha, Jewish legal observance. 

Pharisees and Sadducees

This table is a summary of the beliefs of these two groups. Jesus tells these folks that they have got it wrong in various ways. Both groups were focusing on external righteousness whether it was the strict observance of the law, temple ritual or bringing the proper sacrifice. Many, perhaps most, in both groups were missing God in their zeal to be outwardly pure and correct. That is why Jesus called them hypocrites. In our day we find that things have not really changed as we can find ourselves in legalism or sacerdotalism, the belief that the powers of priests and ritual are the essential mediators between God and humankind, and miss God in the process. With us as with them somewhere is the middle is where we will meet God. Activities, observances and the like can lead us to God but they can also become a substitute. So we do need to "...'Be on [our] guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees' (Matthew 16.6)." We also need to recall that they "...sit in Moses' seat (Matthew 23.2) so they do have things to teach us, but they are not God.

This table contrasts the Pharisees and the Sadducees in belief and perhaps practice. 

Pharisees	Sadducees
The name Pharisee derives from the Hebrew root p-r-sh ("to separate"), possibly because Pharisees were distinguished from other Jews by their legal scrupulousness. It is not clear, though, whether they first called themselves "separatists" or whether that name was foisted on them by others.	The name "Sadducees" is related to the Hebrew verbal form sadaq (tsahdak), "to be righteous." But exactly how it is related is unclear. One notion is that it is from Zadok (sometimes spelled Sadok) who was a patrilineal descendant of Eleazar the son of Aaron the high priest. Zadok means "Righteous, Justified." The Sadducees were the hereditary priests.
Established as a group during the Hasmonean dynasty.	Established as a group during the Hasmonean dynasty.
Laymen; could become rabbis and scribes.	Hereditary Priests and aristocrats. Many say that the Hasmoneans were Sadducees, they were certainly priestly and aristocratic. Maintaining the hereditary priesthood and temple ceremonies were of primary  importance to the Sadducees.
Popular with the average person.	Favored by the elite, and possibly the Herodians. Herod the Great married Mariamme I, the last Hasmonean princess which gave him something of a royal claim. (see Herodian Dynasty.)
Centered in the synagogues. Synagogues were spread throughout the country as compared with the central temple in Jerusalem.	Centered in the temple and the Sanhedrin.
Main Goal: To obey the Torah and the "traditions of the fathers."	Main Goal: To keep Judaism centered on the sacrificial system at the temple.
Accepted all the Hebrew Scriptures including the Torah, Psalms and later writers (TaNaKh). Additionally the Oral Law or the tradition of the fathers".	Accepted only the Torah; the books of Moses.
Believed in resurrection, angels and demons. Resurrection for the Pharisees was part of the eschatological times.	Did not believe in resurrection, angels and demons. Sheol is mentioned in the Books of Moses and is the domain of departed souls.
Believed in a Messianic hope
Survived after the destruction of the temple in AD 70. The Pharisees were responsible for the compilation of the Mishnah, an important document that underlies much of what is Judaism today. That is why many say the Pharisees laid the groundwork for modern-day Rabbinic Judaism.	Disappeared from history after the destruction of the Temple. Most of what is known about them comes from the writings of others.
Based in large part on Rose Guide to the Gospels: Rose Publishing 2019  https://static.hendricksonrose.com/echarts/Rose_Bible_eCharts_RGTG_Pharisee_Sadducee.pdf 8/5/19

 

Scribes and Teachers of the Law are also are mentioned in the gospels but opinion varies as to whether they were groups on their own or part of another. In the table they are generally lumped in with the Pharisees. (Lumping of things often happens in tables of this sort.) The scribes were, of course, those who copied the sacred writings. These were the days before printing and the making of scrolls was an important and precise business. Even today the Jews use Torah scrolls that are hand copied by a sofer or scribe who is a professional in that space. Those engaged in this work then as today are meticulous in their work and in addition to becoming proficient in their craft, become quite familiar with the material that they are copying.

We see the beginnings of the notion of Teachers of the Law in the story of the return from exile contained in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. At that point the people were generally in need of instruction in the law after years of captivity where they were living among the nations and not under the law. We note that even in captivity many had not dissolved into the pagan society, they had some idea of their Jewish identity but little familiarity with the details of the Law. Not all of the Jews returned from the exile and many continued to live among the nations. In New Testament times we find Jews from around the Roman world coming to the pilgrimage feasts. Many say that these Teachers of the Law, of Ezra's day, were the beginning of what became the Pharisees and progressed into what became the Rabbinical Judaism of our day. Some say that we do not find an observant Jew in the Bible. The Talmud, which is the Oral Torah was written down, is from circa 200 - 400 well after the destruction of the temple in 70 and the resulting diaspora. 

The Rabbis teach that there were both spiritual and political reasons for the exile. For many, the measure of the spiritual has to do with the observance of the law and indeed a major theme of Deuteronomy is that obedience to the law will ensure that the nation can "live long in the land." For example:

²¹ That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

²² For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;

 (Deuteronomy 11.21-22 KJV)

Political entrapment is considered the other reason for the captivity. Some of the later kings of Judah relied on foreign alliances for security rather than relying on the Lord. On the surface this would seem political, but reliance on the Lord against impossible odds is another theme of the Old Testament. The political, then, can be related back to the spiritual. It is clear that there is more to this obedience than observance of the letter of the law, there is the command "to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him (Deuteronomy 11.22b)." While the loving and cleaving part my be about motivation to obey; that motivation stands in stark contrast to obeying out of fear as is implied in many pagan systems. Forgetting God and "...going after other gods [their] fathers did not know (Deuteronomy 32.17b NEB)" did lead to a lack of obedience to the Law. In Jewish tradition the first commandment in the ten commandments is: "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Exodus 20.2)" There is a sense in which the Law is about remembering God. The cycle of feasts "keeps the devoted person's sins ever before his face." There is reward in obedience, but that reward is fellowship with God whether it is in the promised land or in exile. That is how you "...can ...sing the songs of the Lord; while in a foreign land (Psalm 137.4)."

Another group mentioned in the Gospels were the Zealots, they were actually more a political movement than a theological one. The Zealots were looking to overthrow Roman rule. Simon, the disciple is called Simon the Zealot in Luke 6.15. Barabbas, of the crucifixion story, was likely a zealot as well. Some of the Zealots were revolutionaries, they wanted to rely on military might to reestablish autonomy for Israel as Judah Maccabeus and the Hasmoneans had done. After the Gospel period there were as a series of Jewish-Roman wars that came out of this thinking but produced disastrous results. Indeed these wars put an end to political Israel for a time.

At the other end of the political spectrum from the Zealots were the Herodians. They were likely a party of influential Jewish supporters of the Herodian dynasty. The Herods were appointed by the Romans, they were rulers of Israel during the time of Jesus. The Herodians probably favored the policies of Herod Antipas, who was tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea (4 BC–AD 39) and a strong promoter of Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) culture in what would eventually be called Palestine. It seems likely that they rejected the messianic hopes of the people yet we see them unite with the Pharisees in attempts to entrap Jesus into making anti-Roman statements.

The Essenes were another faction that emerged from the Hasmonean period but they are not mentioned in the Gospels. The Essenes were the bunch who left us the Dead Sea Scrolls. Little is actually known about them as Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and Pliny the Elder give differing details, but the Essenes seem to have tried to live Jewish lives by separating themselves from the rest of society; Roman and Jewish. Their own writing, which are still being uncovered, point to a people studying the prophets and the later writers and focusing on the coming Messiah. Some think that John the Baptist may have been an Essene.

The Bible story traces the history of the nation of Israel as it goes through times of faithfulness and unfaithfulness. Sometimes this is described as a problem with the general populous and sometimes in terms of the king. Prophets were sent to Israel with messages from God but the messages were generally not heeded. So when Jesus arrives it should not be a surprise to find that he is not well received by many of the religious people and leaders of the day. After all:

Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy. (II Chronicles 36.15-16)

In the gospels Jesus is at first confusing to the religious elite who later thought of him as an enemy. Given the history above It should be no surprise that Jesus was rejected by the Jewish leaders of his day. Although it is important to note that this rejection was not universal. As always there is a group who understand and are faithful. There was a long history of that sort of thing. Mankind declared is independence from God in the Garden of Eden but there were always a few that remembered God.

More detailed examination of the interaction between the Jewish leadership and what we could call the beginning of the church can be found by following the links in the box. 

Interactions John the Baptist Jesus Apostles

 

 

 

 https://static.hendricksonrose.com/echarts/Rose_Bible_eCharts_RGTG_Pharisee_Sadducee.pdf 8/5/19

https://www.gotquestions.org/Sadducees-Pharisees.html 8/5/19

 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pharisees-sadducees-and-essenes 8/5/19

 https://crossref-it.info/articles/618/rabbi-pharisee-teacher-of-the-law 8/5/19

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