At the time of Jesus there were mainly three religious groups, the Pharisees, the Essenes and the Sadducees, it is precisely the latter that we are going to study in this article, so join us in reading.
The differences between the three religious groups mentioned, is that they interpreted the law of God in a different way. The Pharisees, for example, were religious and highly ruled, while the Sadducees, for example, were mainly priests trying to incorporate Greek rules into Judaism.
The Sadducees were a religious and aristocratic party that arose in the period between the Old and New Testaments. The Sadducees were mainly families of priests. Therefore, normally the high priest belonged to this group.
Related: Who were the Pharisees in the Bible? Pharisaism
What was the origin of the Sadducees?
It is not possible to determine exactly how the Sadducee religious group originated. Therefore, the exact root and meaning of his name is also unknown. Many theories have been put forward to try to answer these questions.
The problem is that most of the records about who the Sadducees were do not give a detailed and unbiased description of them.
Flavio Josefo, for example, was one of those who wrote the most about the Sadducees in his works. But in a way he did it with a hostile tone, since he himself was a Pharisee, a party opposed to the Sadducees in many ways.
Among all the theories that speak of the origin of the Sadducees, the most accepted relates the name of this party to Zadok, the high priest.
Zadok shared the high priesthood with Abiathar while David was king of Israel (2 Samuel 8:17; 15:24; 1 Kings 1:35). Later, during the reign of king solomonZadok was chosen as the only high priest (1 Kings 2:35).
So Zadok’s descendants held the position of high priest for a long time. It is believed that in the interbiblical period, when the Sadducees arose, the high priesthood still belonged to the house of Zadok.
Always within this line of thought, there is much discussion about the original way in which the party of the Sadducees arose. Some believe that they originally arose as a political party. Others think that the Sadducee group was born with a particularly religious purpose. There are still those who maintain that originally the Sadducees were a purely aristocratic party.
Be that as it may, among the Sadducees in New Testament days were the priests and the elite of Jerusalem. This means that many of the wealthiest and most influential people in the religious-political axis of the Jews belonged to this group.
See also: What is legalism in the Bible?
What was the doctrine of the Sadducees?
In general, the Sadducees only recognized the Pentateuch as supremely authoritative Scripture. For them, the Law written by Moses was superior to the writings of the prophets and other works. Unlike the Pharisees, they flatly rejected oral traditions.
It can be said that the core of the Sadducee doctrine was marked by a humanistic emphasis. This obviously affected his view of God himself and his works.
They denied divine providence and rejected any teaching on God’s decrees. The Sadducees believed that God never interfered in history in a way that affected the lives of men.
So the Sadducees believed that man had complete free will, and that everything that happened, good or bad, was the result of man’s own course of action and self-determination.
Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul and therefore did not believe in the resurrection or the final judgment (Matthew 22:23-32). Furthermore, they did not accept the existence of angels and spirits (Acts 23:6-8).
Related: What are angels?
The Sadducees in the time of Jesus and the New Testament
Sadducees are mentioned several times in the New Testament, especially in opposition to Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:7; 16:1-12; 22:23-24; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 4 :1-2; 5:17; 23:6-8).
During Jesus’ ministry and later in the apostolic period, the Sadducees were closely associated with priesthood and Temple matters.
Politically, they supported the Roman state. They were not as large and popular a group as the Pharisees, but they had among their members and supporters the most powerful people.
Because of their materialistic emphasis and self-indulgence, for the Sadducees things had to stay as they were. They enjoyed prestige and influence, and they did not want any of this to change.
The Sadducees and the Pharisees allied against Jesus
Despite their doctrinal differences, on many occasions during Jesus’ ministry the Sadducees sided with the Pharisees to oppose Him.
However, the motivation for such opposition was essentially different between these two groups. The Pharisees basically saw in Jesus a threat to their hypocritical religiosity and their system of salvation by works. The Sadducees, for their part, saw in Jesus a threat to his position of influence and to his sources of profit and material possessions.
That is why, on certain occasions, Jesus condemned the teachings of both groups at the same time (Matthew 16:6-11).
The same did John the Baptist when he said to the Pharisees and Sadducees: “You brood of vipers, who told you that you will be able to escape the punishment that is coming?” (Matthew 3:7). In discussing with the Sadducees, Jesus used passages from the Pentateuch to point out the errors of that group’s doctrine (Mark 12:26-27; Luke 20:37; Exodus 3:6).
Finally, Sadducees and Pharisees cooperated with each other in the plan to kill the Lord Jesus (Matthew 16:1-11; 22:15-23; 26; 27:20). Later, Sadducees and Pharisees met again before Pontius Pilate to try to suppress any belief in the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 27:62-66).
In the first years of the early church, the apostle peter and the apostle john they were arrested by the Sadducees (Acts 4:1-2; 5:17-18). When the apostle paul appeared before the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees were present. On that occasion, the apostle emphasized the differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees, which caused a great discussion between both groups (Acts 23:6-10).
We recommend the following video to see a comparison between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.