Below is just a brief abridged outline of the key distinctions among the four early Jewish groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and the Essenes.

• The Pharisees are the most often mentioned group in the NT. 100 BC to AD. The name means to separate (from the Hasmoneans? From ritually unclean?). They were very emphatic about the need to be clean (i.e. not touching a dead body). They were strict on tithe laws, the Sabbath, and divorce laws. It was voluntary participation to become a Pharisee. They were all over Israel. They wore distinct clothing and were as many as 6,000. They were Am-Haaretz (people of the land). Some were scribes and some were not. They were mentioned 100 times in the NT and were heavily criticized by the NT, rabbis after AD 70 and Qumran.
  • Pharisees were strict legalists. They were less into politics and more into religion. They focused on externals and not the heart.
  • Pharisaic doctrine
    • Immortality of the soul
    • Judgment based on works
    • Hell
    • Resurrection
    • Strong Messianic hope

• The Sadducees were religious and political—the family of priests. Their name means “righteous ones”? When the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 the Sadducees lost their function and ceased to exist.
  • Sadducee doctrine
    • Emphasis on the Pentateuch
    • Denied the resurrection of the dead
    • Denied an afterlife?
    • Weak Messianic hope
    • Not well liked
    • Denied oral law
    • More politically minded
    • Worked with Rome
    • Aristocrats/privileged class
  • Differences
    • Not so much that Sadducees were priests and Pharisees were laymen
    • Some Sadducees not priests and some Pharisees were
    • The Sadducees derived their power from their class, while the Pharisees derived theirs from learning
    • Keep status quo
    • Popular movements were threatening
• Scribes could read and write. They were a class of professionals—special scholars and teachers of the Torah and became scholars during exile. The Scribes were the successors of the prophets. They did not learn their living by teaching the Torah and had a practical vocation. Every party in Judaism had Torah scholars. Some Scribes were priests, some Sadducees and most were Pharisees.
• The Essenes overtly opposed the Hasmonean dynasty and withdrew from Jewish society. They had a system of purity, ethics, initiation, and their own calendar.  One group went to Qumran and wrote the DSS.
  • Essene Doctrine
    • Awaited the Apocalyptic war
    • They were sons of light
    • They were to defeat the sons of darkness (composed of Gentiles and opposing Jews)
    • Their goal was to take control of the Jerusalem Temple and fix it

Posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2012 at 21:45 in Bible, Biblical Studies   |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback URL