The term "zealot", in Hebrew means one who is zealous on behalf of God. Some of the more notorious were untrustworthy as they were known to take monetary bribes from the enemy to back off and at times do evil to their own people under deception in order to incite them to engage in action, riot or war whatever the prevailing situation might warrant. The second point to be made is that these three groups were similar in many ways. Sometimes they would also exercise higher functions we would associate with lawyers, government ministers, judges, or even bankers. Origins: The Essenes are not mentioned in New Testament or the Talmud, but Philo, and Pliny the Elder do mention them, and Josephus gives a detailed description of … These were religious Jews who, in contrast with the Sadducees, now rejected the Temple and the Priesthood believing these had been defiled by corruption and murder. 15; Luke ii. The term derives from Greek (zelotes), "emulator, fanatic, admirer or follower". Members of the Sadducees: According to Josephus, the Sadducees believed that: As you can see, the Sadducees’ beliefs were heretical according to the Torah. It’s clear to see why three of the five these groups held so much hatred and distain for our Lord and his disciples who were less educated lower working class commoners compared to the highly educated upper class Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes. They were strictly monotheistic, focused on their covenant relationship with God, and were adamant about properly following God’s law. Known as a “Sofer” they are among the few scribes that still perform their trade by hand on parchment. At the other extreme were the Essenes (es-een). After Solomon's building of The First Temple in Jerusalem, Zadok was the first High Priest to serve there. As such, they were the smallest among the sects. A branch of the Pharisees who conformed to the most rigid rules of Levitical purity while aspiring to the highest degree of holiness. Like the Pharisees, the Essenes meticulously observed the Law of Moses, the sabbath, and ritual purity. As such, they were pompous and frequently displayed in public an arrogant righteousness. The Essenes were a branch of Pharisees who emphasized a communal life and ritual purity, including full-body immersion for spiritual cleansing. Sign up for our newsletter plus get 50 free theology eBooks in our digital library! This often provoked hostilities between the two sects even though they often worked closely together in service to the temple, the people in presiding over the Sanhedrin (which was the Jewish high court of law) and in fulfilling their political positions. At that point the Sadducees joined with the Pharisees and conspired to put Christ to death (John 11:48–50; Mark 14:53; 15:1). Not all Levites, priests, high priests, and aristocrats were Sadducees; some were Pharisees, and many were not members of any group at all. Moreover, they believed that these ends would be achieved through halakha ("the walk, or how to walk"), a large collection of laws derived from a close reading of sacred texts. The Sadducees were elitists who wanted to maintain the priestly caste, but they were also liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives, something the Pharisees opposed. The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed to be the Essenes' library. The main difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees was their differing opinions on the supernatural aspects of religion. The Esseneswere a Jewish sect that flourished from about 200 BC to 100 AD which some scholars claim seceded from the Sadducees. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD Pharisaic beliefs became the basis for Rabbinic Judaism, which ultimately produced the basis for all contemporary forms of Judaism with what is known today as modern Hasidic Judaism being the oldest core foundational belief. Despite their small numbers, the Sadducees were able to maneuver themselves politically to positions of power within the Sanhedrin (a sort of religious Supreme Court) and allied themselves with the Romans. Josephus gave a detailed account of the Essenes in three of his books. Jesus Christ is believed by many notable historians and biblical scholars to have leanings toward being a non-violent type of zealot. Despite their opportunism, this sect would not survive the turbulent times ahead. They emerged from the exile as the dominant faction because they (correctly) connected Israel's abandoning of the Law as the reason for the punishment of exile. Each column of writing could have no less than forty-eight, and no more than sixty lines. Rather than emphasizing free will like the Sadducees, the Pharisees believed God's sovereignty could essentially cancel out free will, though free will did still affect a person's life. Though there are some theological and social disagreements between them, the varied opinions on how to rightly interpret and live out the law account for most of their distinguishing characteristics. They interpreted the Law with a strict literalism that often caused them to violate the very spirit of it. Man has free will; “man has the free choice of good or evil”, The soul is not immortal; there is no afterlife, and, There are no rewards or penalties after death. The Sadducees were tightly integrated with the institutions of Judaism, especially the Temple. Please check your inbox to confirm your subscription. The Sadducees rejected the belief in Resurrection of the Dead, which was a central tenet believed by the Pharisees and as prophesied in the Tanakh. This conviction prevented them from sacrificing at the temple, which further contrasts them from the two sects of Judaism discussed above. He further adds that the Essenes traded in commerce amongst themselves, ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings. Their belief in personal acts of worship put them at direct odds with the Law of Moses where God set up the Levites to be His holy priests. Keep in mind Scribes were not a sect, they were a profession. As no document containing God's Word could be destroyed, they were stored, or buried. The Jewish scribes used the following process for creating copies of the Torah and other books in the Tanakh. They must say each word aloud while they were writing. The Essenes separated themselves from both of these groups by living separately in the desert and holding to God’s Word in a more practical manner by living in community and emphasized the spiritual life above the politics of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees and Sadducees made up the Sanhedrin, a council of seventy men who made all the decisions for the Jews. They were like a religious social club of their time. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots were the four primary religious/political factions of the time. Address: God's Word First, P.O. The religious responsibilities of the Sadducees included the maintenance of the Temple in Jerusalem. Other mentions of the Sadducees are found in Acts 4:1 and Acts 5:17, and the Sadducees are implicated in the death of James the brother of John in Acts 12:1–2. It’s interesting to note that the Essenes are not mentioned in the Bible. � 2010 God's Word First International Biblical Research & Teaching Ministry and Daniel D. Sweet. Being separatists most lived outside the major cities throughout Roman Judea but most of them lived in the Dead Sea area. This is largely due to how each group dealt with those in power, which will be discussed later. Josephus records that the Essenes numbered about 4,000. In 166 BC the Maccabean Revolt occurred and the Jews took back their sovereignty for about 100 years. Realizing this fact helps us relate to the situation experienced by the Jews of this period and allows us to better understand the background of the events recorded in the New Testament. Appearing overall as a rather peaceful and pious group when viewed from the outside, in contrast their confrontational actions, public austere and arrogant “better than thou” attitudes and their “behind closed doors” hatred of their perceived enemies spoke volumes concerning the spiritual darkness within their hearts. Choose from 30 different sets of term:sects judaism = pharisees, sadducees, essenes, zealots flashcards on Quizlet. While they shared similar religious beliefs, they did not share the taste for the “high life”. Thanks! Renowned calligraphers, they produce the Hebrew Torah scrolls and other holy texts by hand to this day. Zarah ix. The Pharisees were a group that practiced a form of extreme Judaism that extended beyond the Temple, applying Jewish law to everything, even mundane activities in order to sanctify (set apart as holy) the every day world. ReasonableTheology.org exists to help the everyday Christian study theology every day. The written law, in its depiction of the priesthood, corroborated the power and enforced the dominant leadership of the Sadducees in Judean society. The Pharisees thus accuse the Sadducees as the opponents of traditional Judaism because of the way they embraced the Roman / Greek culture and political hierarchy (rule). This is when the Sadducees reestablished themselves as a ruling power. 3:7; 23:15; Luke 11:39; John 9:39-41). Pharisees were keepers of the Law and held the entire (what we would call) Hebrew Bible as the word of YHWH. After its reconstruction in 516 BC the “second” Temple became more than the center of worship in Judea; it served as the center of society. This also included presiding over sacrifices on the yearly festivals of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We don't share your email address with anyone, and you can unsubscribe any time. It is widely believed that the Sadducees sought to preserve this priestly line and the authority of the Temple. Oddly, very little is recorded about him or his acts other than him being one of the first 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. As highly trained, well paid, and respected professionals, they were generally had an over inflated sense of self worth. 25, 38; … Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. They are mentioned several times in the gospels as being on the receiving end of Jesus’ rebukes (Matt. Unlike the Pharisees they were few in number and rejected the notion of having to follow the oral law. So this goes to show the diversity among zealots as a group. Josephus lays out different views of the universe for the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Essenes. You can find me on Twitter, The Armor of God: What It Is and How to Use It, The Role of the King James Bible in the Modern Church | RTP 37, George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789, How Long It Takes to Read Each Book in the Old Testament (Infographic). In contrast, this sect had more violent tendencies than their contemporaries. Although they were certainly influential and may appear in the New Testament and various other writings of the time, this influence was not proportional to their number of followers. Rome would not allow the Jews to reestablish their kingdom monarchy, but did allow them to rebuild their temple and worship their own God. The letters, words, and paragraphs had to be counted, and the document became invalid if two letters touched each other. Such is the Kingdom of God: Those who are considered the least by man in self arrogance will be the greatest to God in meekness and grace. These documents include preserved multiple copies of the Hebrew Bible (the Torah and Tanakh) along with other literary works of the time untouched from as early as 300 BC until their discovery over 2,000 years later in 1946 AD. The danger into which the Pharisees’ fell (and the Galatians) is to abandon grace. It is important to note that the Sadducees and the Levite priests were not completely synonymous. We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. Along with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Essenes formed the three main sects of Judaism around the 1st century. Now Pharisees are one sect, Sadducees another, but in fact the third, called Essenes, seems to be the most reverential discipline. While such distinctions might seem to point to great disunity among Judaism, it is important to compare these various sects with modern day Christianity. More like revolutionists, many members of this party bore also the name Sicarii, from their custom of going about with daggers ("sicæ") hidden beneath their cloaks, with which they would stab any one found committing a sacrilegious act or anything provoking anti-Jewish feeling. We'll get to that in a little while. The Essenes are also believed to have been residents of the reclusive Qumran community which produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. They also professed belief in immortality and divine punishment for sin. But, unlike the Pharisees, the Essenes denied the resurrection of the body and refused to immerse themselves in public life. The Zealots objected to Roman rule and violently sought to eradicate it by generally targeting the Romans, their Jewish collaborators, and the Sadducees, by raiding for provisions and other activities to aid their cause. The Sanhedrin, the 70-member supreme court of ancient Israel, had members from both the Sadducees and the Pharisees. While they shared similar religious beliefs, they did not share the taste for the “high life”. The Pharisees’ theology, accepting the entire Old Testament including eschatology, is much more in line with the whole Bible than the Sadducees’ or the Essenes’ theology. Although there is still much unknown about this group, they appear to have been theologically distinct for a heightened reverence for Moses, a strict interpretation of the law, and for following their own sacrificial system. this paper, the two former groups will be considered at length, specifically in their. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Their belief that God is essentially separated from taking part in human affairs and their rejection of the afterlife makes their theology distinctive. I'm a Pastor in North Dakota and created ReasonableTheology.org to help make theology accessible for the everyday Christian. This belief entailed both a commitment to relate religion to ordinary concerns and daily life, and a commitment to study and scholarly debate. Claiming first hand knowledge, … The middle paragraph, word and letter must correspond to those of the original document. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots and Sicarii -Roman Period Political party to sect. While the Sadducees controlled the high priesthood and the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, it was the Pharisees who were the teachers in the synagogues throughout Israel. They lived solely by the work of their hands and in a state of communism, devoted their time to study and devotion and to the practise of benevolence, and refrained as far as feasible from conjugal intercourse and sensual pleasures, in order to be initiated into the highest mysteries of heaven and cause the expected Messianic time to come ('Ab. Learn history on who the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and Zealots were during Jesus' times and how they fit into the religious political landscape. Though one may at first be struck at the apparent disunity that is suggested by the Jewish faith having such distinct sects, it is important to remember two things: First, these different “schools of thought” as Josephus called them were not very large. They were the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and the Zealots. During the time in which Jesus Christ lived, there were many religious and political factions abounding. They accept the written Law of Moses known as the Torah, the written Tanakh (all other books in the OT) and in oral traditions and teachings. There must be a review within thirty days, and if as many as three pages required corrections, the entire manuscript had to be redone. Advanced Information Essenes The Essenes were a Jewish religious sect not actually mentioned in the Bible, but described by Josephus, Philo, and mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are also the group associated with instigating His arrest, trial, and crucifixion. As of the New Testament period, the Pharisees were the largest of these three groups and had the most power. Collected taxes. He says the Sadducees believe in free will; they are responsible for their own plight in life, for their own status. Basically, the Pharisees represented strict tradition among the aristocratic Jewish elite. The Essenes. This is probably due to the fact that they were a peaceful group of people who remained separate from society around them, generally avoiding involvement in public life. Jesus was not A Pharisee. Scribes in Ancient Israel belonged to an elite class of wealthy families. They also scorned what they felt was the spiritually empty and overly ‘comfortable’ life of the Pharisees. This kept the peace, at least on the surface, so that most of Judea would accept Roman rule as long as they could keep their religious roots and methods of worship. Start studying Pharisees, Sadduccees, Essenes. 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