Harvard’s late renowned scholar Jacob Neusner wrote in Judaism When Christianity Began, p.5, 50, “Judaism divides into Judaisms….Judaisms that flourished in Second Temple times, before 70 CE, when the Temple was destroyed.” ‘Judaisms’ plural. There were several ‘Judaisms’ in the Holy Land.
This two-part topic identifies seven main Jewish religious sects or groups extant in the Land in the 1st century. The time when Jesus lived as a Jew and the temple still existed. Part 1 discusses the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees. Part 2 discusses the Heródians, Zealots, Éssenes, Nazarenes.
#1 SCRIBES: grammateús Strongs g1122, Greek noun. The term is seen in the Old Testament (OT) Greek Septúagint/LXX, and occurs 67 times in the Greek New Testament (NT). The OT Hebrew term is Sópherim Strongs h5608 (h5613 Aramaic).
Scribes or Sopherim were writers/recorders, learned in the scriptures. 2Sm.20:25 Shevá was scribe when Zadók was priest in the days of King David. 1Ki.4:3 Shishá’s sons were Solomon’s scribes. 2Ki.18:18 Shebná was scribe for King Hezekiáh of Judah. 2Ki.22:8-13 Shaphán was scribe to Josiáh.
Jewish Encyclopedia: Scribes “The royal officials who were occupied in recording in the archives the proceedings of each day were called scribes….the term ‘scribe’ became synonymous with ‘wise man.” Scribes were literate, unlike the general populace of Israel and Judah, and more knowledgeable.
The first order of Levitical scribes may have been set up by David, Solomon, or Hezekiah (cf. Pr.25:1). 2Ch.34:13 “Some of the Levites were scribes, officials, and guards.” Barnes Notes 2Ch.34:13 “A distinct division of the Levitical body has been instituted. The class itself probably originated in the reign of Hezekiah.” 100 years after Hezekiah, Barúch the son of Neriáh was the faithful scribe of Jeremiah the priest (Je.45:1), ca 600 BC. He’s the traditional author of the apocryphal Book of Baruch.
Previously Israel’s ten tribes disobeyed the Lord’s commandments and consequently were deported into captivity in 721 BC. Judah was taken captive in 597 BC. (Prophesied in De.28:15, 36.) After their Babylonian exile, King Cyrus of Persia allowed Jews to return to the Land with Zerubbabél, ca 538 BC. Ezra returned ca 457 BC as a royal commissioner from the Persian Empire. He was sent to investigate conditions in Judea, with authority to administer God’s Law/Toráh to Jewish returnees.
The role of scribes then changed somewhat from that of monarchial Israel & Judah prior to captivity. Jewish Encyclopedia op.cit. “In the time of Ezra, the designation [‘scribe’] was applied to the body of teachers who…interpreted the Law to the people.” Scribes/official secretaries became teachers.
Ezra (the name means ‘help’) was a priest and a scribe (Ezr.7:11). Ezr.7:6 “Ezra…was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses.” Ezra led reforms, and instructed the people (ref Ne.8:1-18).
Jews who’d returned to the Holy Land didn’t want to suffer another captivity due to ignorance of, or disobedience to, God’s laws. The synagogue system was set up to teach the (common) people.
Ezra is traditionally credited with establishing the ‘Men of the Great Assembly/Synagogue’. It consisted of scribes, sages and a few prophets (120 men?). This was a legislative body. They codified the Hebrew scripture canon (OT). The Great Assembly was succeeded by the judicial Great Sanhédrin (70 men), which arose during the Intertestamental Period and was the Jewish supreme court in the Land.
Scribes, though no longer royal officials, became leaders of society during the time of the Maccabees (post-167 BC). Scribes were an institution and governing religious class, serving on Sanhedrin courts. Scribes were ‘guardians of the Law’. Much of the society was illiterate; scribes were the authorities.
Smith’s Bible Dictionary “Scribes gave attention to study of the Torah, its interpretation, historical interpretation, doctrinal issues, and teaching.” They helped other Jews learn and obey God’s precepts.
Scribes established organized schools in towns, some adjacent to synagogues. School teachers were considered ‘Masters’ or ‘Rabbis’. The “Law and the Prophets”, and the Hagiógrapha/“Writings”, were taught in schools. (But the “Writings” usually weren’t read in synagogues.) Obtaining a doctor’s degree from schools resulted in a rabbinical ordination.
These schools still existed in Jesus/Yeshúa’s time. (also see the topic “Synagogue Influence on the Church”.)
Alfred Edersheim The Life And Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.67 “The Great Assembly had disappeared from the scene. The Sopherim [scribes] had ceased to be a party in power….[their] task was purely ecclesiastical, to preserve their religion.” Their religion initially was based on the Lord’s OT.
But the scribes overreached in their interpretations of scripture. They began to add man-made religious traditions & regulations to God’s written word. They valued their add-ons more than scripture! Jesus said of scribes and Pharisees in Mt.15:1-ff “You invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition”.
Scribes of Jesus’ day were egotistical elitists & bureaucrats (Bible.org: The Scribes)…and they opposed Jesus. He cautioned His disciples in Lk.20:46-47. “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings in the marketplace, and chief seats in the synagogues, and places of honor at banquets; who devour widow’s houses and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.” The role and attitude of scribes had changed over the centuries.
Yet 600 years earlier Jeremiah noted “the lying pens of the scribes” (Je.8:8). Some scribes as recorders & copyists were disregarding God’s written word to advance their agenda even back then.
{Sidelight: The 1st century scribes/Sopherim were later succeeded by the Masorétes, (rabbinic) scribal scholars. Masoretes preserved and copied the OT books from ca 550–1050 AD. This was done in Jerusalem, Babylon, Tiberius, and in the diáspora (dispersion). They began adding vowel points ca 800 AD, as no Hebrew alphabet letters served solely as vowels. Masoretes developed the “Masoretic Text” (from the Hebrew masoreth/masórah, meaning ‘tradition’). The oldest manuscripts date from the 800s AD. There were two rival versions of the Masoretic Text, the ben Asher and the ben Naphtali (both done at Tiberius on the W shore of the Sea of Galilee). Wikipedia: Masoretes “The halákhic authority Maimónides [Rámbam] endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar Saádya Gáon had preferred the ben Naphtali system.” There’s more than 850 differences between the two versions. Dr. Paul Wegner, Professor of Old Testament at Kings College in London, writes “Eventually the ben Asher tradition won out”. The Hebrew Bible Aléppo Codex (900s AD) and Leningrad Codex (1008 AD) both contain the ben Asher version of the Masoretic Text. (Note: Most OT verses quoted by the NT writers are from the BC old Greek OT, not the later Masoretic Text!)}
#2 PHARISEES: Pharisáios g5330 Greek noun; it occurs 100 times in the NT. Their opponents called them Perúshim/Pharisees, derived from an Aramaic term meaning ‘separated ones’. But they took to themselves the OT name Hasídim (h2623), ‘the pious’. In Psalms, the Hasidim are rendered the saints or godly ones, e.g. Ps.4:3, 31:23.
Pharisees were called ‘the separated’ because ca 145 BC they resisted the Hellenization (Greek cultural influence) of Antíochus Epíphanes from 165 BC. Alfred Edersheim op. cit., p.5 “Phárisaism…made no secret of its contempt for Hellenists, and openly declared the Grecian far inferior to the Babylonian ‘dispersion.” Conversely, the Sadducees accepted Hellenization. And while the Pharisees claimed to be ‘the pious’, the rival Sadducees claimed to be ‘the righteous’ (Edersheim, p.224).
While trying to protect God’s written law from Greek influence, the resisting Pharisees sought to ‘build a fence around the law’. The fence was a so-called ‘oral law’ which they (wrongly) supposed God had given to Moses, and was handed down. Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 13:10:6 “Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses; for that reason the Sadducees reject them.” Many traditional practices.
Paul exhorted Titus in Ti.1:14 to “not pay attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth”. Oral law is the commandments of men…not God. Jacob Neusner wrote of the “explicit myth of the dual torah, written and oral. A heretic is someone who rejects the duality”. The Talmudic Qiddushin 3:16, “A heretic is someone who rejects the duality of torah.” see the topic “Paul the Apostle (2)”, regarding oral torah. Pharisees made mandatory both the written and oral torah.
And Pharisees gave these unwritten rules or “traditions of the elders” (Mk.7:5) the priority, as even more binding than the Lord’s written Law! Mk.7:1-9 they substituted mans’ rules for God’s commands. Jesus said of them in Mt.23:23…their tithing of garden plants was right; but their forsaking (written) Torah for traditions was wrong. (However, their oral law instruction wasn’t mandatory for women.)
The oral Torah also tried to explain how-to-do written Torah. It added details so that sacrifices, rituals, etc., could be performed in an orderly manner. That part of oral law tradition seems reasonable.
Josephus Antiquities 17:2:4 says there were “above 6,000” strict Pharisees. (Probably the Pharisees outnumbered the Sadducees.) Pharisaism was the strictest Jewish sect, Ac.26:5. They kept aloof from others who weren’t as conscientious about cleanliness. The Pharisees were less political (compared to the Sadducees). Pharisees appealed to the masses, to most of the scribes, to the synagogues.
Ac.23:6-10 it’s Pharisees vs Sadducees in the Sanhedrin. Pharisees believed: the annual Péntecost was on Siván 6 of the Hebrew calendar (not always a Sunday), in resurrection, in the existence of angels with wings, and spirits. Pharisees had a broad angelólogy and demonology. (Supposedly they believed that demons at human fingertips liked water. cf. Lk.8:33 demonized swine ran headlong into the lake.)
Although the Pharisees had their differences with the Sadducees and the Herodians (see Part 2), they joined together against Jesus, who they all viewed as their common enemy.
Mt.23:1-3 Jesus said the scribes and Pharisees seated themselves in Moses’ seat (but Jesus exhorts that they fail to practice what they teach). Encyclopedia of the Bible: Seat of Moses “The name given to a special chair of honor in the synagogue where the authoritative teacher of the law sat.” (And conveyed administrative judgments.) Although most scribes favored the Pharisees, “scribes” and “Pharisees” weren’t synonymous. Edersheim p.65 “Although generally appearing in company with ‘the Pharisees’, he [Scribe] is not necessarily one of them; for they [Pharisees] represent a religious party, while he [Scribe] has a status and holds an office.” Scribes were Torah scholars & teachers, and copyists.
In Mt.23, Jesus went on to castigate the scribes and Pharisees with seven woes! v.4-8 they liked being called “Rabbi”, derived from “rabi” which meant ‘My Master’ (‘Great One’). It was a title of respect or accolade for Torah scholars. v.27-28 but Jesus said figuratively they were like whitewashed graves.
Pharisees wrongly claimed that Jesus violated the sabbath, Mt.12:1-13. Then v.14 “The Pharisees went out and counseled together how they might destroy Him.” Jesus was drawing people away from them.
Before Paul’s conversion, he’d been a Pharisee, Ac.26:3-5. Many NT readers today are perplexed when reading Paul’s epistles, in which a written law/oral law mix was sometimes meant. see “Paul the Apostle (2)”. The Jewish historian Josephus was a Pharisee. Jn.3:1 also Nicódemus. Ac.5:34-40 and Gamaliél.
After 70 AD, Pharisees gradually faded away. But their doctrine/dogma survives. Got Questions: “The Pharisees’ legacy lived on. In fact, the Pharisees were responsible for the compilation of the Míshnah, an important document with reference to the continuation of Judaism beyond the destruction of the temple.” They thought that past temple worship could be substituted by continued study in local Jewish synagogues. Jewish Virtual Library “They [Pharisees] are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism.”
#3 SADDUCEES: Saddoukáios g4523 Greek noun, meaning ‘the righteous’. It occurs 14 times in the NT. The Sadducees supposedly descended from Sadóc/Zadok (g4524 Greek, h6659 Hebrew). 1Ki.1:39 he was the priest who’d anointed Solomon as king, ca 1000 BC.
The Sadducáic sect arose during the 400-year Intertestamental Period, probably after 150 BC. They were a more Hellenistic group, having adopted the increasing Greek influence of the Grecian Empire.
No actual Sadducee documents survive. We learn of them from the writings of their opponents. And in the NT we see that they opposed Jesus and His disciples.
The Sadducees were political. They appealed to the: Sanhedrin court, wealthy upper class, priests and temple authority. Ac.4:1 “As they [Peter and John] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came upon them.” Sadducees put Jesus’ apostles in jail in Ac.5:17-18. “The high priest rose up along with all his associates from the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in public custody.”
The Sadducees looked only to the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) as their law source, although they accepted the entire OT. Sadducees claimed to adhere to the written Law of Moses, not to oral torah, so-called. But it seems their diligence was sorely lacking dedication.
The Sadducees bitterly opposed the Pharisee party. In 85 BC, six years of civil war ensued between the Pharisees and the Sadducéan Alexander Jánnaeus, King & High Priest of Jerusalem. 50,000 Judeans were killed before he succumbed. His widow Salóme turned affairs over to the Pharisees in 76 BC.
A civil war between Alexander’s two sons, Hýrcanus and Aristóbulus, resulted in them going to the Roman General Pompey in Syria in 63 BC. They wanted him to invade Palestine and slaughter their (Pharisee) opponents. Some think this is how Rome came into power there, and it remained in power during Jesus’ time. During His time, Sadducees and Pharisees were able to bearably coexist in the Land.
Sadducee and Pharisee beliefs differed in some respects. Sadducees observed the annual feast of Pentecost on a Sunday (Pharisees didn’t). Sadducees didn’t believe: in spirits, in angels as winged heavenly beings, in resurrection or the afterlife. Lk.20:27 “Sadducees deny there is any resurrection.”
According to Edersheim op. cit. p.220, a basic difference between the Sadducees and Pharisees was…Sadducees emphasized man’s free will, the Pharisees God’s predestination. Sadducees rejected fate.
Sadducees also objected to the Pharisees’ detailed concerns with ceremonial defilements and purity.
The Sadducees were conservative scriptural literalists; aristocrats (educated) friendly with Rome, and they controlled the temple. However, not all temple priests were Sadducees. The Pharisees interpreted more by tradition; they appealed to the common people & women, and controlled the synagogues.
Jesus and John the Baptizer took issue with both sects. Jesus said in Mt.16:11-12, “Beware of the leaven [teaching] of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. Mt.3:7 “When He [John the Baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he exclaimed to them, ‘You generation of vipers.”
The Pharisees and Sadducees tried to prove that Jesus was evil or make him appear so (cf. Mt.16:1-12).
Jesus disapproved of the example set by both the Pharisee and Sadducee sects. He had more run-ins with the Pharisees, perhaps because of their preference for the oral law above God’s written word.
Which party had the most control? Eerdmans Bible Dictionary “The views of the Pharisees prevailed among the common people…the Sadducean priests were compelled to operate according to the Pharisees’ views.” Another source said “Pharisaical Hillelítes were in control when Messiah walked the earth.” (Hillél 1 and Shammái founded the two main Pharisaical schools.) Also Edersheim wrote that Sadducees who held positions generally conformed to the practices of Pharisees. From his Sketches of Jewish Social Life, p.220, “The Sadducees had to…reckon Pentecost as did their opponents [Pharisees].”
Roman support ended during the Roman–Jewish War of 67–73 AD. With Rome’s 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem, the Sadducees conclusively lost any control. (Sadducees were Sad-you-see!) There was no longer a temple nor an official priesthood. And by 135 AD, Rome had destroyed much of the Jewish nation. The Jewish priesthood and upper class who’d favored the Sadducee party became non-existent.
Wikipedia: Sadducees “Their sect is believed to have become extinct some time after the destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 CE; but it has been speculated that the later Karaítes may have had some roots in, or connections with, Sadducaic views.”
Few followers of Sadducaic principles remained after Jerusalem & Judea fell. A remnant or offshoot of Sadducee beliefs may be the sect of Karaite Jews today. Karaites consider themselves as ‘Adherers to the Text’. Both Sadducees and Karaites reject the oral torah of (rabbinic) Judaism as binding.
This two-part topic about Jewish religious sects and groups is continued & concluded in “Jewish Sects of the 1st Century (2)”. In it are discussed the Herodians, Zealots, Essenes, Nazarenes.
Bible Topic Exposition 