By Victor M Fontane
Pharisees
The Pharisees were a Jewish sect that emerged c. 150 BCE and promoted the idea of priestly purity for all Jews, belief in providence or fate, and the concept of the resurrection of the dead, and taught that besides the commandments, Oral Law was also passed down by Moses. Early Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE claimed spiritual descent from the Pharisees.
Origins
After the conquests of Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE) in 330 BCE, Greek government, language, philosophy, religion, and education, were adopted by the conquered people in the Mediterranean Basin. When Alexander died in 323 BCE, his empire was divided up among his generals during the Wars of the Diadochi. One of these generals, Seleucus I Nicator founded the Seleucid Empire in the region of Syria. In 167 BCE, the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175-164 BCE), outlawed all Jewish customs, which resulted in the Maccabean Revolt led by the Hasmonean family, where the Jews were successful in repelling the Greeks and establishing their own kingdom.
However, not everyone was happy with Hasmonean rule, which combined the office of the king with the high priest of the Temple in Jerusalem. Kingship in Israel was to be held by a descendant of King David's tribe, Judah. During this period, the high priest had to derive from the descendants of Zadok, the last high priest under the reign of Solomon. The Hasmoneans could claim neither line.
This is the period when we find evidence of what scholars term 'Jewish sectarianism.' Various groups of Jews formed sects within the religious body. All agreed on the basics under the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets. One of the dominating issues was how to live in this now cosmopolitan Greek culture and yet retain the unique identity markers and traditions of the Jews. Among these sects, we see the emergence of a group known as Pharisees. Their name remains problematic; it may either mean "to be separated" or "smoothers of rough things" in Hebrew.
Pharisee Concepts
The book of Leviticus outlined special purity rituals and criteria for the priests serving in the Temple. All ancient religions had ritual purity laws, and many of them utilized water rituals, but it was not necessarily related to hygiene. Ritual purity was a state of being. Pharisees promoted the idea that all Jews should adopt this priestly purity as well as Temple rituals in their everyday lives.
The Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Jerusalem, consisted of Sadducees, Pharisees, the high priest, other priests, and aristocratic leaders who had demonstrated the ability to act as sages. One of the more famous of these sages, Hillel (c. 110 BCE to 10 CE) became the source for later teachings that were organized in the first Rabbinical schools (see below). One of his more famous teachings was: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a). This was incorporated into the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, known as the 'Golden Rule.'
THE PHARISEES WERE ONE OF THE FIRST JEWISH SECTS TO PROMOTE THE CONCEPT OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
Sadducees
The Sadducees were part of the upper-class aristocrats and provided much of the priesthood, categorized through the lineage of priestly houses. They served on the Sanhedrin, the city council that organized law courts and regulations, which were established throughout Israel. The Sadducees were a distinct sect of Judaism from roughly 200-150 BCE to 70 CE, when the Temple complex in Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome.
The name Sadducee most likely derives from Zadok, the first high priest to serve in Solomon's Temple before its destruction by the Babylonians in 587/586 BCE. The root form means "to be right, just." When Cyrus II (r. c. 550-530 BCE), founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, conquered the Babylonians, he permitted the captive Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple (539 BCE). Cyrus the Great ruled over hundreds of native cults and permitted them to practice their ancestral traditions. However, his rule was done through local Persian governors, the satraps; there was no longer a king in Israel. In the absence of a king, this period saw the dominance of the high priest and the Temple priests taking charge of the civic organization of towns and cities. This theocracy became the center of religious as well as political leadership.
The Responsibilities of the Sadducees
The Sadducees were responsible for the maintenance of the Temple cultus, or all the elements of Temple worship. Their main function was to preside over the sacrifices, which were conducted at the large altar inside the Temple complex. There were living quarters for priests in the complex as well. They organized the three major Jewish religious pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot (Weeks), and Sukkot (Tabernacles). Priests rotated in serving in the Temple.
Theology of the Sadducees
The sources for the Sadducees are some references in the Dead Sea Scrolls (the Essenes), the writings of the 1st-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (36-100 CE), the New Testament, and the writings of 2nd-century CE rabbis. All of these sources are historically problematic because no literature from the Sadducees survived the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome. It is difficult to obtain a clear picture because all of these sources were written by opponents who were critical of the Sadducees and the way in which they were operating the Temple.
Sadducees held to a more traditional anthropomorphic concept of God, rejecting the Hellenistic influence of an abstract, pure essence. They opposed the Pharisees' claim of an oral law that had been also passed down by Moses. For the Sadducees, what is contained solely in the written Law of Moses was viable. Humans were created with free will to choose good or evil. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the Sadducees denied the existence or influence of angels. In relation to salvation, only the Temple rituals were of benefit. They denied the resurrection of the dead. They did not believe in the immortality of the soul; there was no afterlife. Instead of rewards and punishments after death, all the dead reside in Sheol, the Jewish place of the dead.
Essenes
The Essenes were a Jewish sect that emerged in the 2nd century BCE and established the community at Qumran. They emphasized ritual purity, copied books of the Jewish Scriptures, and wrote commentaries on the Books of the Prophets. They believed that history was predestined, and their apocalyptic theology resulted in a worldview polarized between good and evil.
Origins
The Maccabean Revolt by the Jews of 167 BCE, drove out the Greek occupiers and established an independent kingdom of Israel. The Hasmonean family (who led the revolt) combined the office of the king with that of the high priest at the Temple in Jerusalem. Not everyone was happy with Hasmonean rule. Kings in Israel were to be from David's tribe, Judah, and the high priest had to descend from Zadok, the first high priest under Solomon; the Hasmoneans could claim neither line.
This is the period when we find evidence of what scholars term Jewish sectarianism. Various groups of Jews formed sects within the religious body. All agreed on the basics of the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets. The dominating difference was the ability to live in this now cosmopolitan Greek culture, and yet retain the unique identity-markers and traditions of the Jews. The group known as the Essenes were among the more oppositional to the current Hasmonean rule as well as the current operation of the Temple.
The name 'Essene' remains a problematic debate among scholars; the word itself does not appear in Essene manuscripts but only in the writings of outsiders. Here we find "essaios," without explanation, but it may indicate "holiness," or "doers of Torah."
The major sources for the study of the Essenes are Josephus' The Jewish War (75 CE) and The Antiquities of the Jews (94 CE). In these works, Josephus described the various Jewish sects as "philosophies of the Jews." From the details of Josephus, we can summarize the following regarding the Essenes:
Around 150 BCE, an unnamed "righteous teacher," in opposition to the Hasmoneans, took his followers to the desert and established a community at Qumran. In their documents, the righteous teacher and his followers were persecuted by those in Jerusalem.
The Essenes also lived in towns and cities, where members married. There was a community in Jerusalem; one of the gates into the city was known as the Essene Gate in the 1st century.
Members had a three-year initiation period (later adopted by Christians) and emphasized the water rituals of baptism and the restoration of purity. At Qumran, they were able to install a phenomenal number of water cisterns and channels in the bedrock for these rituals.
The Apocalyptic Worldview of the Essenes
The theology of the Essenes is described as apocalyptic, from the Greek apokalypsis, a "revelation of hidden or secret knowledge." Reflecting on the national disasters – foreign invasions – of the nation of Israel, the Prophets of Israel had predicted that God would intervene in human history one more time, in the final days. At that time, God would establish his kingdom on earth. With the continuing disasters of first the Greek occupation and then Rome, many Jews called upon God to deliver his promises now.
THE ESSENES UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING WITHIN THE POLARITY OF GOOD OR EVIL.
The literature of this period included seers who had out-of-body experiences of being taken on tours of Heaven and where they were shown the secrets of the final days usually by angels. As part of the Essene theology and practice, they separated themselves from the majority of Jews, to await God's final intervention. While replicating many of the teachings of the Prophets, the views of the Essenes were more radical in that everything was understood within the polarity of good or evil, which is evident in the following aspects of Essene thought:
Chronological dualism and ethical dualism
A conviction that history is predestined
The demonization of others
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