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143-674: Conflicts between Pharisees and Sadducees took place in the context of much broader and longstanding social and religious conflicts among Jews, made worse by the Roman conquest. One conflict was cultural, between those who favored Hellenization (the Sadducees) and those who resisted it (the Pharisees). Another was juridical-religious, between those who emphasized the importance of the Temple with its rites and services , and those who emphasized

286-561: A beit knesset or in Greek as a synagogue ) and houses of prayer (Hebrew Beit Tefilah ; Greek προσευχαί , proseuchai ) were the primary meeting places for prayer, and the house of study ( beit midrash ) was the counterpart for the synagogue. In 539 BCE the Persians conquered Babylon , and in 537 BCE Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild

429-635: A citron as opposed to any other fruit), the methods of textual exegesis (the disagreements recorded in the Mishna and Talmud generally focus on methods of exegesis), and Laws with Mosaic authority that cannot be derived from the Biblical text (these include measurements (e.g. what amount of a non-kosher food must one eat to be liable), the amount and order of the scrolls to be placed in the phylacteries, etc.). The Pharisees were also innovators in that they enacted specific laws as they saw necessary according to

572-652: A sect of Jews active in Judea during the Second Temple period , from the second century BCE to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Sadducees are described in contemporary literary sources in contrast to the two other major sects at the time, the Pharisees and the Essenes . Josephus , writing at the end of the 1st century CE, associates the sect with the upper echelons of Judean society. As

715-517: A Pharisee, estimated the total Pharisee population before the fall of the Second Temple to be around 6,000. He claimed that the Pharisees' influence over the common people was so great that anything they said against the king or the high priest was believed, apparently in contrast to the more elite Sadducees, who were the upper class. Pharisees claimed Mosaic authority for their interpretation of Jewish religious law , while Sadducees represented

858-548: A charismatic human figure or is a symbol of the redemption of mankind from the evils of the world. Through the doctrine of a Messianic figure, Judaism teaches us that every individual human being must live as if he or she, individually, has the responsibility to bring about the messianic age. Beyond that, we echo the words of Maimonides based on the prophet Habakkuk (2:3) that though he may tarry, yet do we wait for him each day... ( Emet ve-Emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism ) Reform Judaism generally concurs with

1001-407: A counterpoint to "otherworldly" Christianity. Greenberg sees each of these views as leading to an undesired extreme – overemphasizing the afterlife leads to asceticism, while devaluing the afterlife deprives Jews of the consolation of eternal life and justice – and calls for a synthesis, in which Jews can work to perfect this world, while also recognizing the immortality of

1144-451: A day (morning, afternoon and evening), and include in their prayers a recitation of these passages in the morning ( Shacharit ) and evening ( Ma'ariv ) prayers. Pharisaic wisdom was compiled in one book of the Mishna, Pirkei Avot . The Pharisaic attitude is perhaps best exemplified by a story about the sages Hillel the Elder and Shammai , who both lived in the latter half of

1287-615: A death. Gehinnom is considered a spiritual forge where the soul is purified for its eventual ascent to Gan Eden ("Garden of Eden"). Rabbinic literature includes many legends about the World to Come and the two Gardens of Eden. As compiled by Louis Ginzberg in the book Legends of the Jews , these include the world to come, which is called Paradise and said to have a double gate made of carbuncle guarded by 600,000 shining angels. Seven clouds of glory overshadow Paradise, and under them, in

1430-541: A divine book would be resurrected. Moreover, Daniel's promise of resurrection was intended only for the most righteous and the most sinful because the afterlife was a place for the virtuous individuals to be rewarded and the sinful individuals to receive eternal punishment. Greek and Persian culture influenced Jewish sects to believe in an afterlife between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE as well. The Hebrew Bible , at least as seen through interpretation of Bavli Sanhedrin , contains frequent references to resurrection of

1573-573: A kingdom of priests and a holy nation," and the words of 2 Maccabees (2:17): "God gave all the people the heritage, the kingdom, the priesthood, and the holiness." The Pharisees believed that the idea that all of the children of Israel were to be like priests was expressed elsewhere in the Torah, for example, when the Law itself was transferred from the sphere of the priesthood to every man in Israel. Moreover,

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1716-522: A long discussion of the events leading to the coming of the Messiah. Throughout their history Jews have compared these passages (and others) to contemporary events in search of signs of the Messiah's imminent arrival, continuing into present times. The Talmud tells many stories about the Messiah, some of which represent famous Talmudic rabbis as receiving personal visitations from Elijah the Prophet and

1859-690: A rebellion in Judea. The most successful rebels were led by the Hasmonean family in what became the Maccabean Revolt , and eventually established the independent Hasmonean kingdom around 142 BCE. While the Sadducees are not attested to this early, many scholars presume that the later sects began to form during the Maccabean era (see Jewish sectarianism below). It is often speculated that

2002-698: A revolt". Paul L. Maier suggests that the sect drew their name from the Sadduc mentioned by Josephus. The Second Temple period is the period between the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 516 BCE and its destruction by the Romans during the Siege of Jerusalem. Throughout the Second Temple period, Jerusalem saw several shifts in rule. In Achaemenid Judea , the Temple in Jerusalem became

2145-829: A sort of schism in the Jewish community. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies until 198 BCE, when the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire , under Antiochus III , seized control. Then, in 167 BCE, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV invaded Judea, entered the Temple, and stripped it of money and ceremonial objects. He imposed a program of forced Hellenization , requiring Jews to abandon their own laws and customs, thus precipitating

2288-473: A whole, they fulfilled various political, social, and religious roles, including maintaining the Temple in Jerusalem . The group became extinct sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE . The English term entered via Latin from Koinē Greek : Σαδδουκαῖοι , romanized:  Saddukaioi . The name Zadok is related to the root צָדַק , ṣāḏaq (to be right, just), which could be indicative of their aristocratic status in society in

2431-430: Is a great deal of surviving rabbinic material concerning the fate of the soul after death, its experiences, and where it goes. At various points in the afterlife journey, the soul may encounter: Hibbut ha-kever , the pains and experiences of the physico-spiritual dissolution or reconfiguration within the grave; Dumah , the angel in charge of funerary matters; Satan as the angel of death or other equally grim figure;

2574-498: Is a table of gems and pearls attended to by sixty angels. The light of Paradise is the light of the righteous people therein. Each day in Paradise, one wakes up a child and goes to bed an elder to enjoy the pleasures of childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. In each corner of Paradise is a forest of 800,000 trees, the least among these greater than the best herbs and spices, attended to by 800,000 sweetly singing angels. Paradise

2717-709: Is a teacher sent from God, Joseph of Arimathea , who was a disciple, and an unknown number of "those of the party of the Pharisees who believed", among them the Apostle Paul – a student of Gamaliel , who warned the Sanhedrin that opposing the disciples of Jesus could prove to be tantamount to opposing God. "Pharisee" is derived from Ancient Greek Pharisaios ( Φαρισαῖος ), from Aramaic Pərīšā ( פְּרִישָׁא ), plural Pərīšayyā ( פְּרִישַׁיָּא ), meaning "set apart, separated", related to Hebrew Pārūš ( פָּרוּשׁ ), plural Pərūšīm ( פְּרוּשִׁים ),

2860-559: Is coming for any of the religious duties," suggesting that all laws are of equal importance). One belief central to the Pharisees which was shared by all Jews of the time is monotheism . This is evident in the practice of reciting the Shema , a prayer composed of select verses from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4), at the Temple and in synagogues; the Shema begins with the verses, "Hear O Israel,

3003-485: Is destroyed. We never witnessed its glory. But Rabbi Joshua did. And when he looked at the Temple ruins one day, he burst into tears. "Alas for us! The place which atoned for the sins of all the people Israel lies in ruins!" Then Rabbi Yohannan ben Zakkai spoke to him these words of comfort: "Be not grieved, my son. There is another way of gaining ritual atonement, even though the Temple is destroyed. We must now gain ritual atonement through deeds of loving-kindness." Following

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3146-544: Is divided into seven sub-paradises, each one 120,000 miles long and wide. Depending on one's merit, a soul is assigned to one of these sections of Paradise: the first is made of glass and cedar and is for converts to Judaism ; the second is of silver and cedar and is for penitents; the third is of silver, gold, gems and pearls, and is for the Patriarchs , Moses and Aaron , the Israelites that left Egypt and lived in

3289-501: Is evidence of Jewish belief in a personal afterlife with reward or punishment referenced in the Torah . In Judaism , the main textual source for the belief in the end of days and accompanying events is the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible . The roots of Jewish eschatology are to be found in the pre- exile prophets , including Isaiah and Jeremiah , and the exilic prophets Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah . The main tenets of Jewish eschatology are

3432-609: Is fairly well defined in rabbinic literature . It is sometimes translated as "hell", but is more similar to the Nicene Christian view of Purgatory than to its Hell . Rabbinic thought maintains that souls are not tortured in Gehinnom forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be eleven months, with the exception of heretics and extremely sinful Jews. This is why Jews mourning for near relatives will not recite mourner's kaddish for more than eleven months after

3575-541: Is not a biblical doctrine, the Torah was not divinely revealed, and an Apikoros ('heretic'). In the late Second Temple period , the Pharisees believed in resurrection , while Essenes and Sadducees did not. During the Rabbinic period , beginning in the late first century and carrying on to the present, the works of Daniel were included into the Hebrew Bible, signaling the adoption of Jewish resurrection into

3718-420: Is proffered by Michael the archangel to God on the altar of the Temple in the heavenly Jerusalem. One is transfigured into an angel, with the ugliest person becoming as beautiful and shining as "the grains of a silver pomegranate upon which fall the rays of the sun". The angels that guard Paradise's gate adorn the soul in seven clouds of glory, crown it with gems and pearls and gold, place eight myrtles in

3861-593: Is that the Pharisees differed from Sadducees in the sense that they accepted the Oral Torah in addition to the Scripture. Anthony J. Saldarini argues that this assumption has neither implicit nor explicit evidence. A critique of the ancient interpretations of the Bible are distant from what modern scholars consider literal. Saldarini states that the Oral Torah did not come about until the third century CE, although there

4004-602: Is the area of Jewish theology concerned with events that will happen in the end of days and related concepts. This includes the ingathering of the exiled diaspora , the coming of the Jewish Messiah , the afterlife , and the resurrection of the dead . In Judaism , the end times are usually called the "end of days" ( aḥarit ha-yamim , אחרית הימים), a phrase that appears several times in the Tanakh . These beliefs have evolved over time, and according to some authors there

4147-414: Is the higher Gan Eden, where God is enthroned and explains the Torah to its inhabitants. The higher Gan Eden contains 310 worlds and is divided into seven compartments. The compartments are not described, though it is implied that each compartment is greater than the previous one and is made open to a soul based on its merit. The first compartment is for Jewish martyrs , the second for those who drowned,

4290-468: The Essenes , was shared and elevated by the Pharisees. At first, the values of the Pharisees developed through their sectarian debates with the Sadducees; then they developed through internal, non-sectarian debates over the law as an adaptation to life without the Temple, and life in exile, and eventually, to a more limited degree, life in conflict with Christianity. These shifts mark the transformation of Pharisaic to Rabbinic Judaism. No single tractate of

4433-613: The Hebrew Bible . The accepted halakha is that it is impossible for living human beings to know what the world to come is like. In the late Second Temple period , beliefs about the ultimate fate of an individual were diverse. The Pharisees and Essenes believed in the immortality of the soul , but the Sadducees did not. The Dead Sea Scrolls , Jewish pseudepigrapha and Jewish magical papyri all reflect this variety of opinions. While all classical rabbinic sources discuss

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4576-609: The Israelites in an arguably Hades -like afterworld, where both the righteous (see Samuel ) and the sinners continue their existence in a miserable manner. The afterlife is known as olam ha-ba ( Hebrew : עולם הבא , lit.   'coming world', 'next world'), and is related to concepts of Gan Eden , the Heavenly " Garden in Eden ", or Paradise , and Gehinnom . The phrase " olam ha-ba " itself does not occur in

4719-599: The Kaf ha-Kela , the ensnarement or confinement of the stripped-down soul within various ghostly material reallocations (devised for the purpose of cleansing a soul of contamination but not severe enough to warrant Gehinnom, see Tanya Chapter 8)); Gehinnom (pure purgatory ); and Gan Eden ( heavenly respite or paradise , a purified state). All classical rabbinic scholars agree that these concepts are beyond typical human understanding, so these ideas are expressed throughout rabbinic literature via parables and analogies. Gehinnom

4862-499: The Maccabean Revolt . Jerusalem was liberated in 165 BCE and the Temple was restored. In 141 BCE an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon Maccabeus as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean dynasty. After defeating the Seleucid forces, Judas Maccabaeus 's nephew John Hyrcanus established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean dynasty in 152 BCE, thus establishing priests as political as well as religious authorities. Although

5005-610: The Qal passive participle of the verb pāraš ( פָּרַשׁ ). It may refer to their separation from Gentiles, sources of ritual impurity or from irreligious Jews.Alternatively, it may have a particular political meaning as "separatists" due to their division from the Sadducee elite, with Yitzhak Isaac Halevi characterizing the Sadducees and Pharisees as political sects, not religious ones. Scholar Thomas Walter Manson and Talmud-expert Louis Finkelstein suggest that "Pharisee" derives from

5148-579: The Seleucid Empire of Syria ( r.  200 – 142 BCE ). During this period, the High Priest of Israel was generally appointed with the direct approval of the Greek rulership, continuing the intermixing of religious politics with government. King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucids began a persecution of traditional Jewish practices around 168–167 BCE, which set off

5291-569: The Therapeutae in Egypt . However, their status as Jews is unclear. The Books of the Maccabees , two deuterocanonical books in the Bible, focus on the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids under king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of General Nicanor , in 161 BCE by Judas Maccabeus , the hero of the work. It included several theological points: prayer for

5434-557: The divinity of the Torah , and Epicureans (who deny divine supervision of human affairs). Another passage suggests a different set of core principles: normally, a Jew may violate any law to save a life, but in Sanhedrin 74a, a ruling orders Jews to accept martyrdom rather than violate the laws against idolatry , murder , or adultery . ( Judah ha-Nasi , however, said that Jews must "be meticulous in small religious duties as well as large ones, because you do not know what sort of reward

5577-522: The "End of Days". This existence entails an extremely heightened understanding of and connection to the Divine Presence . This view is shared by all classical rabbinic scholars. According to Maimonides, any non-Jew who lives according to the Seven Laws of Noah is regarded as a righteous gentile , and is assured of a place in the world to come, the final reward of the righteous. There

5720-408: The 1st century BCE. A Gentile once challenged Shammai to teach him the wisdom of the Torah while he stood on one foot. Shammai drove him away. The same gentile approached Hillel and asked of him the same thing. Hillel chastised him gently by saying, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation – now go and study." According to Josephus, whereas

5863-601: The Aramaic words pārsāh or parsāh , meaning "Persian" or "Persianizer", based on the demonym pārsi , meaning ' Persian ' in the Persian language and further akin to Pārsa and Fārs . Harvard University scholar Shaye J. D. Cohen denies this, stating: "Practically all scholars now agree that the name "Pharisee" derives from the Hebrew and Aramaic parush or persushi ." The first historical mention of

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6006-531: The Essenes and the Sadducees. In fact, some scholars suggest that the Essenes originated as a sect of Zadokites , which would indicate that the group itself had priestly, and thus Sadducaic origins. Within the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Sadducees are often referred to as Manasseh. The scrolls suggest that the Sadducees (Manasseh) and the Pharisees (Ephraim) became religious communities that were distinct from

6149-511: The Essenes, the true Judah. Clashes between the Essenes and the Sadducees are depicted in the Pesher on Nahum , which states "They [Manasseh] are the wicked ones ... whose reign over Israel will be brought down ... his wives, his children, and his infant will go into captivity. His warriors and his honored ones [will perish] by the sword." The reference to the Sadducees as those who reign over Israel corroborates their aristocratic status as opposed to

6292-575: The Hasmoneans were considered heroes for resisting the Seleucids, their reign lacked the legitimacy conferred by descent from the Davidic dynasty of the First Temple era. The Pharisees emerged largely out of the group of scribes and sages. Some scholars observe significant Idumean influences in the development of Pharisaical Judaism. The Pharisees, among other Jewish sects, were active from

6435-705: The Jews in the 1st century CE. (The other schools were the Essenes , who were generally apolitical and who may have emerged as a sect of dissident priests who rejected either the Seleucid -appointed or the Hasmonean high priests as illegitimate; the Sadducees , the main antagonists of the Pharisees; and the Zealots .) Other sects may have emerged at this time, such as the Early Christians in Jerusalem and

6578-648: The Lord is our God; the Lord is one." According to the Mishna , these passages were recited in the Temple along with the twice-daily Tamid offering; Jews in the diaspora , who did not have access to the Temple, recited these passages in their houses of assembly. According to the Mishnah and Talmud, the men of the Great Assembly instituted the requirement that Jews both in Judea and in the diaspora pray three times

6721-419: The Messiah. In rabbinic literature , the rabbis elaborated and explained the prophecies that were found in the Hebrew Bible along with the oral law and rabbinic traditions about its meaning. Maimonides ' commentary to tractate Sanhedrin stresses a relatively naturalistic interpretation of the Messiah, de-emphasizing miraculous elements. His commentary became widely (although not universally) accepted in

6864-567: The Pharisaic proclamation of the Oral Torah was their way of freeing Judaism from the clutches of Aaronite priesthood, represented by the Sadducees. The Oral Torah was to remain oral but was later given a written form. It did not refer to the Torah in a status as a commentary, rather had its own separate existence which allowed Pharisaic innovations. The sages of the Talmud believed that the Oral law

7007-591: The Pharisees and their beliefs comes in the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles , in which both their meticulous adherence to their interpretation of the Torah as well as their eschatological views are described. A later historical mention of the Pharisees comes from the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus (37–100 CE) in a description of the "four schools of thought", or "four sects", into which he divided

7150-511: The Pharisees and their teachings. The deportation and exile of an unknown number of Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II , starting with the first deportation in 597 BCE and continuing after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 587 BCE, resulted in dramatic changes to Jewish culture and religion. During the 70-year exile in Babylon, Jewish houses of assembly (known in Hebrew as

7293-522: The Pharisees) is uniformly hostile. The Sadducees rejected the Oral Torah as proposed by the Pharisees. Rather, they saw the Written Torah as the sole source of divine authority. Later writings of the Pharisees criticized this belief as one that strengthened the Sadducees' own power. According to Josephus, the Sadducees beliefs included: The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection of

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7436-510: The Pharisees, as he says that the Pharisees were more popular with the multitude. The Sadducees occasionally show up in the Christian gospels , but without much detail: usually merely as parts of a list of opponents of Jesus. The Christian Acts of the Apostles contains somewhat more information: Later rabbinic literature took a dim view of both the Sadducees and Boethusians , not only due to their perceived carefree approach to keeping to

7579-418: The Pharisees. Although the Pharisees did not support the wars of expansion of the Hasmoneans and the forced conversions of the Idumeans , the political rift between them became wider when a Pharisee named Eleazar insulted the Hasmonean ethnarch John Hyrcanus at his own table, suggesting that he should abandon his role as High Priest due to a rumour, probably untrue, that he had been conceived while his mother

7722-410: The Pharisees. Her brother was Shimon ben Shetach , a leading Pharisee. Josephus attests that Salome was favorably inclined toward the Pharisees, and their political influence grew tremendously under her reign, especially in the Sanhedrin or Jewish Council, which they came to dominate. After her death her elder son Hyrcanus II was generally supported by the Pharisees. Her younger son, Aristobulus II ,

7865-477: The Romans, and actively supported them against the Sadducean faction. When the Romans finally broke the entrance to the Jerusalem's Temple, the Pharisees killed the priests who were officiating the Temple services on Saturday. They regarded Pompey's defilement of the Temple in Jerusalem as a divine punishment of Sadducean misrule. Pompey ended the monarchy in 63 BCE and named Hyrcanus II high priest and ethnarch (a lesser title than "king"). Six years later Hyrcanus

8008-402: The Sadducees as a sect that interpreted the Torah literally, and the Pharisees as interpreting the Torah liberally. R' Yitzhak Isaac Halevi suggests that this was not, in fact, a matter of religion. He claims that the complete rejection of Judaism would not have been tolerated under the Hasmonean rule and therefore Hellenists maintained that they were rejecting not Judaism but Rabbinic law. Thus,

8151-431: The Sadducees believed that people have total free will and the Essenes believed that all of a person's life is predestined , the Pharisees believed that people have free will but that God also has foreknowledge of human destiny . This also accords with the statement in Pirkei Avot 3:19, "Rabbi Akiva said: All is foreseen, but freedom of choice is given". According to Josephus, Pharisees were further distinguished from

8294-433: The Sadducees grew out of the Judean religious elite in the early Hasmonean period, under rulers such as John Hyrcanus . Hasmonean rule lasted until 63 BCE, when the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem , at which point the Roman period of Judea began. The province of Roman Judea was created in 6 CE (see also Syria Palaestina ). While cooperation between the Romans and the Jews had been strongest during

8437-404: The Sadducees in that Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead . Unlike the Sadducees, who are generally held to have rejected any existence after death, the sources vary on the beliefs of the Pharisees on the afterlife. According to the New Testament the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead . According to Josephus , who himself was a Pharisee, the Pharisees held that only

8580-454: The Sadducees included the maintenance of the Temple in Jerusalem. Their high social status was reinforced by their priestly responsibilities, as mandated in the Torah. The priests were responsible for performing sacrifices at the Temple, the primary method of worship in ancient Israel. This included presiding over sacrifices during the three festivals of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their religious beliefs and social status were mutually reinforcing, as

8723-411: The Sadducees is limited by the fact that not a single line of their own writings has survived out of antiquity, as the destruction of Jerusalem and much of the Judean elite in 70 CE seems to have broken them. Extant writings on the Sadducees are often from sources hostile to them; Josephus was a rival Pharisee, Christian records were generally not sympathetic, and the rabbinic tradition (descended from

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8866-442: The Sadducees produced no primary works themselves, their attributes can be derived from other contemporaneous texts, including the New Testament , the Dead Sea Scrolls , and later, the Mishnah and Talmud . Overall, the Sadducees represented an aristocratic, wealthy, and traditional elite within the hierarchy. The Dead Sea Scrolls , which are often attributed to the Essenes, suggest clashing ideologies and social positions between

9009-482: The Sadducees state, "So too, regarding the Holy Scriptures, their impurity is according to (our) love for them. But the books of Homer, which are not beloved, do not defile the hands." A passage from the book of Acts suggests that both Pharisees and Sadducees collaborated in the Sanhedrin , the high Jewish court. Jewish eschatology —  Events  — —  Figures  — —  Events and terms  — —  Events  — Jewish eschatology

9152-414: The Sadducees were aristocratic monarchists, the Pharisees were eclectic, popular, and more democratic. The Pharisaic position is exemplified by the assertion that "A learned mamzer takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest." (A mamzer , literally, bastard, according to the Pharisaic definition, is an outcast child born of a forbidden relationship, such as adultery or incest, in which marriage of

9295-429: The Sadducees were in fact a political party not a religious sect. However, according to Jacob Neusner , this view is a distortion. He suggests that two things fundamentally distinguished the Pharisaic from the Sadducean approach to the Torah. First, Pharisees believed in a broad and literal interpretation of Exodus (19:3–6), "you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me

9438-480: The Sadducees' view the words were given a more literal interpretation, in which the offender's eye would be removed. The sages of the Talmud see a direct link between themselves and the Pharisees, and historians generally consider Pharisaic Judaism to be the progenitor of Rabbinic Judaism , that is normative, mainstream Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple. All mainstream forms of Judaism today consider themselves heirs of Rabbinic Judaism and, ultimately,

9581-409: The Temple three times a year : Pesach ( Passover ), Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). The Pharisees, like the Sadducees, were politically quiescent, and studied, taught, and worshiped in their own way. At this time serious theological differences emerged between the Sadducees and Pharisees. The notion that the sacred could exist outside the Temple, a view central to

9724-428: The Temple, torts, criminal law, and governance. In their day, the influence of the Pharisees over the lives of the common people was strong and their rulings on Jewish law were deemed authoritative by many. According to Josephus, the Pharisees appeared before Pompey asking him to interfere and restore the old priesthood while abolishing the royalty of the Hasmoneans altogether. Pharisees also opened Jerusalem's gates to

9867-437: The Temple. He did not, however, allow the restoration of the Judean monarchy , which left the Judean priests as the dominant authority. Without the constraining power of the monarchy, the authority of the Temple in civic life was amplified. It was around this time that the Sadducee party emerged as the party of priests and allied elites. However, the Second Temple , which was completed in 515 BCE, had been constructed under

10010-463: The Torah already provided ways for all Jews to lead a priestly life: the laws of kosher animals were perhaps intended originally for the priests, but were extended to the whole people; similarly the prohibition of cutting the flesh in mourning for the dead. The Pharisees believed that all Jews in their ordinary life, and not just the Temple priesthood or Jews visiting the Temple, should observe rules and rituals concerning purification. The standard view

10153-440: The Torah and the Oral Torah but also due to their attempts to persuade the common folk to join their ranks according to Sifri to Deuteronomy (p. 233, Torah Ve'Hamitzvah edition). Maimonides viewed the Sadducees as rejecting the Oral Torah as an excuse to interpret the Written Torah in a lenient, personally convenient manner in his commentary to Pirkei Avot , 1.3.1 1:3. He described the Sadducees as "harming Israel and causing

10296-462: The afterlife, Medieval scholars dispute the nature of existence in the "End of Days" after the Messianic Age. While Maimonides describes an entirely spiritual existence for souls, which he calls "disembodied intellects", Nachmanides discusses an intensely spiritual existence on Earth, where spirituality and physicality are merged. Both agree that life after death is as Maimonides describes

10439-442: The auspices of a foreign power, and there were lingering questions about its legitimacy. This provided the condition for the development of various sects or "schools of thought," each of which claimed exclusive authority to represent "Judaism," and which typically shunned social intercourse, especially marriage, with members of other sects. In the same period, the council of sages known as the Sanhedrin may have codified and canonized

10582-565: The author of the most extensive historical account of the Second Temple Period, gives a lengthy account of Jewish sectarianism in both The Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities . In Antiquities , he describes "the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses, and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to esteem those observance to be obligatory which are in

10725-480: The authority of the priestly privileges and prerogatives established since the days of Solomon , when Zadok , their ancestor, officiated as high priest. Pharisees are notable by the numerous references to them in the New Testament . While the writers record hostilities between the Pharisees and Jesus , they also reference Pharisees who believed in him, including Nicodemus , who said it is known that Jesus

10868-533: The beginning of the transition from Pharisaic to Rabbinic Judaism . The Mishnah was supremely important because it compiled the oral interpretations and traditions of the Pharisees and, later on, the rabbis , into a single authoritative text, thus allowing oral tradition within Judaism to survive the destruction of the Second Temple. However, none of the Rabbinic sources include identifiable eyewitness accounts of

11011-517: The books of Mark and Matthew , describe anecdotes which hint at hostility between Jesus and the Sadducaic establishment. A pericope in Mark 12 and Matthew 22 recounts a dispute between Jesus and a Sadducee who challenged the resurrection of the dead by asking who the husband of a resurrected woman would be who had been married to each of seven brothers at one point. Jesus responds by saying that

11154-436: The center of Paradise, stands the tree of life . The tree of life overshadows Paradise too, and it has fifteen thousand different tastes and aromas that winds blow all across Paradise. Under the tree of life are many pairs of canopies, one of stars and the other of sun and moon, while a cloud of glory separates the two. In each pair of canopies sits a rabbinic scholar who explains the Torah to one. When one enters Paradise, one

11297-612: The center of worship in Judea. Its priests and attendants appear to have been powerful and influential in secular matters as well, a trend that would continue into the Hellenistic period . This power and influence also brought accusations of corruption. Alexander's conquest of the Mediterranean world brought an end to Achaemenid control of Jerusalem (539–334/333 BCE) and ushered in the Hellenistic period, which saw

11440-406: The coming of the new age, but he was somehow supposed to bring it about. The "Lord's anointed" thus became the "savior and redeemer" and the focus of more intense expectations and doctrines." Messianic ideas developed both by new interpretations ( pesher , midrash ) of the Jewish scriptures, but also by visionary revelations. The Babylonian Talmud (200–500 CE), tractate Sanhedrin , contains

11583-500: The concerns of the times, perhaps because they were sacked by the Romans at Qumran . Of all the major Second Temple sects, only the Pharisees remained . Their vision of Jewish law as a means by which ordinary people could engage with the sacred in their daily lives was a position meaningful to the majority of Jews. Such teachings extended beyond ritual practices. According to the classic midrash in Avot D'Rabbi Nathan (4:5): The Temple

11726-475: The dead , but believed (contrary to the claim of Josephus) in the traditional Jewish concept of Sheol for those who had died. Josephus also includes a claim that the Sadducees are rude compared to loving and compassionate Pharisees, but this is generally considered more of a sectarian insult rather than an unbiased judgment of the Sadducees on their own terms. Similarly, Josephus brags that the Sadducees were often forced to back down if their judgments clashed with

11869-513: The dead , the last judgment , intercession of saints , and martyrology . The New Testament apocrypha known as the Gospel of Peter also alludes to the Pharisees. Judah ha-Nasi redacted the Mishnah , an authoritative codification of Pharisaic interpretations, around 200 CE. Most of the authorities quoted in the Mishnah lived after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE; it thus marks

12012-448: The dead . The Mishnah (c. 200) lists belief in the resurrection of the dead as one of three essential beliefs necessary for a Jew to participate in it: All Israel have a portion in the world to come, for it is written: 'Thy people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.' But the following have no portion therein: one who maintains that resurrection

12155-500: The dead would be resurrected and the Kingdom of Heaven would be established on earth. The Messiah might be a kingly " son of David " or a more heavenly " son of man ", but "Messianism became increasingly eschatological, and eschatology was decisively influenced by apocalypticism," while messianic expectations became increasingly focused on the figure of an individual savior. According to Zwi Werblowsky , "the Messiah no longer symbolized

12298-479: The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Sadducees appear only in a few references in the Talmud and some Christian texts. In the beginning of Karaite Judaism , the followers of Anan ben David were called "Sadducees" and set a claim of the former being a historical continuity from the latter. The Sadducee concept of the mortality of the soul is reflected on by Uriel da Costa , who mentions them in his writings. The religious responsibilities of

12441-487: The destruction of the Temple, Rome governed Judea through a Procurator at Caesarea and a Jewish Patriarch and levied the Fiscus Judaicus . Yohanan ben Zakkai , a leading Pharisee, was appointed the first Patriarch (the Hebrew word, Nasi, also means prince , or president ), and he reestablished the Sanhedrin at Yavneh (see the related Council of Jamnia ) under Pharisee control. Instead of giving tithes to

12584-474: The events of the Messianic Era are not specifically connected with the resurrection. Conservative Judaism varies in its teachings. While it retains traditional references to a personal redeemer and prayers for the restoration of the Davidic line in the liturgy, Conservative Jews are more inclined to accept the idea of a Messianic Era: We do not know when the Messiah will come, nor whether he will be

12727-519: The everyday world. This was monumental as a practice during this era, as it helped the Jews of the time to truly align themselves with the law, applying even to the mundanities of life. This was a more participatory (or "democratic") form of Judaism, in which rituals were not monopolized by an inherited priesthood but rather could be performed by all adult Jews individually or collectively, whose leaders were not determined by birth but by scholarly achievement. Many, including some scholars, have characterized

12870-403: The first century, for example, the two major Pharisaic schools were those of Hillel and Shammai . After Hillel died in 20 CE, Shammai assumed the office of president of the Sanhedrin until he died in 30 CE. Followers of these two sages dominated scholarly debate over the following decades. Although the Talmud records the arguments and positions of the school of Shammai, the teachings of

13013-452: The following, in no particular order, elaborated in the Book of Isaiah , the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Ezekiel . According to Ezekiel chapter 38, the "war of Gog and Magog" is a climactic war that will happen at the end of the Jewish exile. According to biblical commentator and rabbi David Kimhi , this war will take place in Jerusalem . The Hebrew Bible reflects the belief of

13156-404: The hand, and praise it for being righteous while leading it to a garden of eight hundred roses and myrtles watered by many rivers. In the garden is one's canopy, its beauty according to one's merit, but each canopy has four rivers – milk, honey, wine, and balsam  – flowing out from it, and has a golden vine and thirty shining pearls hanging from it. Under each canopy

13299-445: The importance of other Mosaic Laws . A specifically religious point of conflict involved different interpretations of the Torah and how to apply it to current Jewish life, with Sadducees recognizing only the Written Torah and rejecting Prophets , Writings , and doctrines such as the Oral Torah and the resurrection of the dead . Josephus ( c.  37  – c.  100 CE ), believed by many historians to have been

13442-461: The importance of the "here and now", as opposed to reward and punishment. The Union for Reform Judaism believes the righteous of any faith have a place in heaven but does not believe in a concept of hell. The Hebrew word mashiach (or moshiach ) refers to the Jewish idea of the messiah. In biblical times the title mashiach was awarded to someone in a high position of nobility and greatness. For example, Cohen ha-Mašíaḥ means High Priest . While

13585-508: The initial period of their existence. According to Abraham Geiger , the Sadducee sect of Judaism derived their name from that of Zadok , the first High Priest of Israel to serve in Solomon's Temple . The leaders of the sect were proposed as the Kohanim (priests, the " Sons of Zadok ", descendants of Eleazar , son of Aaron ). The aggadic work Avot of Rabbi Natan tells the story of

13728-469: The key Rabbinic texts, the Mishnah and the Talmud , is devoted to theological issues; these texts are concerned primarily with interpretations of Jewish law, and anecdotes about the sages and their values. Only one chapter of the Mishnah deals with theological issues; it asserts that three kinds of people will have no share in "the world to come :" those who deny the resurrection of the dead , those who deny

13871-485: The last Hasmonaeans further eroded his popularity. According to Josephus, the Pharisees ultimately opposed him and thus fell victims (4 BCE) to his bloodthirstiness. The family of Boethus , whom Herod had raised to the high-priesthood, revived the spirit of the Sadducees, and thenceforth the Pharisees again had them as antagonists. While it stood, the Second Temple remained the center of Jewish ritual life. Jews were required to travel to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices at

14014-469: The last judgment only applies to the gentile nations and not the Jewish people. Irving Greenberg , representing an Open Orthodox viewpoint, describes the afterlife as a central Jewish teaching, deriving from the belief in reward and punishment. According to Greenberg, suffering Medieval Jews emphasized the World to Come as a counterpoint to the difficulties of this life, while early Jewish modernizers portrayed Judaism as interested only in this world as

14157-464: The latter sections of the Hebrew Bible ( Nakh ), from which, following the return from Babylon, the Torah was read publicly on market-days. The Temple was no longer the only institution for Jewish religious life. After the building of the Second Temple in the time of Ezra the Scribe , the houses of study and worship remained important secondary institutions in Jewish life. Outside Judea, the synagogue

14300-640: The law has led some (notably, Saint Paul and Martin Luther ) to infer that the Pharisees were more legalistic than other sects in the Second Temple Era. The authors of the Gospels present Jesus as speaking harshly against some Pharisees (Josephus does claim that the Pharisees were the "strictest" observers of the law). Yet, as Neusner has observed, Pharisaism was but one of many "Judaisms" in its day, and its legal interpretation are what set it apart from

14443-444: The meaning of the Torah or how best to put it into practice, no rabbi felt that he (or his opponent) was rejecting God or threatening Judaism; on the contrary, it was precisely through such arguments that the rabbis imitated and honored God. One sign of the Pharisaic emphasis on debate and differences of opinion is that the Mishnah and Talmud mark different generations of scholars in terms of different pairs of contending schools. In

14586-434: The middle of the second century BCE until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Josephus first mentions them in connection with Jonathan, the successor of Judas Maccabeus. One of the factors that distinguished the Pharisees from other groups prior to the destruction of the Temple was their belief that all Jews had to observe the purity laws (which applied to the Temple service) outside the Temple. The major difference, however,

14729-478: The more fringe group of Essenes. Furthermore, it suggests that the Essenes challenged the authenticity of the rule of the Sadducees, blaming the downfall of ancient Israel and the siege of Jerusalem on their impiety. The Dead Sea Scrolls specify the Sadducaic elite as those who broke the covenant with God in their rule of the Judean state, and thus became targets of divine vengeance. The New Testament , specifically

14872-534: The name of the Jewish Messiah is considered to be one of the things that precede creation, he is not considered divine, in contrast to Christianity where Jesus is both divine and the Messiah. In the Talmudic era the title Mashiach or מלך המשיח, Méleḵ ha-Mašíaḥ literally means "the anointed King". The Messiah is to be a human leader, physically descended from the Davidic line , who will rule and unite

15015-632: The nation to stray from following God" in the Mishneh Torah , Hilchoth Avodah Zarah 10:2. The Jewish community of the Second Temple period is often defined by its sectarian and fragmented attributes. Josephus, in Antiquities , contextualizes the Sadducees as opposed to the Pharisees and the Essenes . The Sadducees are also notably distinguishable from the growing Jesus movement, which later evolved into Christianity . These groups differed in their beliefs, social statuses, and sacred texts. Though

15158-513: The needs of the time. These included prohibitions to prevent an infringement of a biblical prohibition (e.g. one does not take a Lulav on Shabbat "Lest one carry it in the public domain") called gezeirot , among others. The commandment to read the Megillah ( Book of Esther ) on Purim and to light the Menorah on Hanukkah are Rabbinic innovations. Much of the legal system is based on "what

15301-473: The non- or less-mystical branches of Orthodox Judaism . The belief in a human Messiah of the Davidic line is a universal tenet of faith among Orthodox Jews and one of Maimonides ' thirteen principles of faith . Some authorities in Orthodox Judaism believe that this era will lead to supernatural events culminating in a bodily resurrection of the dead. Maimonides, on the other hand, holds that

15444-506: The officially sacred texts. Jewish liturgy , most notably the Amidah , contains references to the tenet of the bodily resurrection of the dead. In contemporary Judaism, both Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism maintain the traditional references to it in their liturgy. However, many Conservative Jews interpret the tenet metaphorically rather than literally. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism have altered traditional references to

15587-474: The other sects of Judaism. The Mishna in the beginning of Avot and (in more detail) Maimonides in his Introduction to Mishneh Torah records a chain of tradition ( mesorah ) from Moses at Mount Sinai down to R' Ashi, redactor of the Talmud and last of the Amoraim . This chain of tradition includes the interpretation of unclear statements in the Bible (e.g. that the "fruit of a beautiful tree" refers to

15730-402: The parents could not lawfully occur. The word is often, but incorrectly, translated as "illegitimate".) Sadducees rejected the Pharisaic tenet of an Oral Torah, creating two Jewish understandings of the Torah. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of, " an eye in place of an eye ". The Pharisaic understanding was that the value of an eye was to be paid by the perpetrator. In

15873-700: The people of Israel and will usher in the Messianic Age of global and universal peace. Early in the Second Temple period hopes for a better future are described in the Jewish scriptures. After the return from the Babylonian exile, Cyrus the Great was called " messiah " in Isaiah, due to his role in the return of the Jews exiles. A number of messianic ideas developed during the later Second Temple Period, ranging from this-worldy, political expectations, to apocalyptic expectations of an endtime in which

16016-478: The priesthood often represented the highest class in Judean society. However, Sadducees and the priests were not completely synonymous. Cohen writes that "not all priests, high priests, and aristocrats were Sadducees; many were Pharisees, and many were not members of any group at all." The Sadducees oversaw many formal affairs of the state. Members of the Sadducees: Knowledge about the beliefs of

16159-447: The priests and sacrificing offerings at the (now-destroyed) Temple, the rabbis instructed Jews to give charity. Moreover, they argued that all Jews should study in local synagogues , because Torah is "the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob" (Deuteronomy 33:4). Sadducees The Sadducees ( / ˈ s æ dj ə s iː z / ; Hebrew : צְדוּקִים , romanized :  Ṣəḏūqīm , lit.   'Zadokites') were

16302-410: The rabbis believe that they themselves are projections of heavenly values onto earth. The rabbis thus conceive that on earth they study Torah just as God, the angels, and Moses, "our rabbi," do in heaven. The heavenly schoolmen are even aware of Babylonian scholastic discussions, so they require a rabbi's information about an aspect of purity taboos. The commitment to relate religion to daily life through

16445-477: The reign of Queen Salome Alexandra . As Josephus was himself a Pharisee, his account might represent a historical creation meant to elevate the status of the Pharisees during the height of the Hasmonean Dynasty. Later texts like the Mishnah and the Talmud record a host of rulings by rabbis, some of whom are believed to be from among the Pharisees, concerning sacrifices and other ritual practices in

16588-468: The reigns of Herod and his grandson, Agrippa I , the Romans moved power out of the hands of vassal kings and into the hands of Roman administrators , beginning with the Census of Quirinius in 6 CE. The First Jewish–Roman War broke out in 66 CE. After a few years of conflict, the Romans retook Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, bringing an end to the Second Temple period in 70 CE. After

16731-479: The resurrected "neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." He also insults them on their own terms as knowing neither the scriptures nor the power of God, presumably a claim that even though the Sadducee insisted on the written law, Jesus considered them to have gotten it wrong. Matthew records John the Baptist calling both the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers". Josephus,

16874-513: The resurrection of the dead in the liturgy ("who gives life to the dead") to refer to "who gives life to all". In Judaism, the day of judgment happens every year on Rosh Hashanah ; therefore, the belief in a last day of judgment for all mankind is disputed. Some rabbis hold that there will be such a day following the resurrection of the dead. Others hold that there is no need for that because of Rosh Hashanah. Yet others hold that this accounting and judgment happens when one dies. Other rabbis hold that

17017-491: The sages constructed via logical reasoning and from established practice". Also, the blessings before meals and the wording of the Amidah. These are known as Takanot . The Pharisees based their authority to innovate on the verses: "....according to the word they tell you... according to all they instruct you. According to the law they instruct you and according to the judgment they say to you, you shall do; you shall not divert from

17160-461: The same time. The use of gold and silver vessels perhaps argues against a priestly association for these groups, as priests at the time would typically use stone vessels , to prevent transmission of impurity . Josephus mentioned in Antiquities of the Jews that "one Judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala , who taking with him Sadduc, a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to

17303-520: The school of Hillel were ultimately taken as authoritative. Following the Jewish–Roman wars , revolutionaries like the Zealots had been crushed by the Romans, and had little credibility (the last Zealots died at Masada in 73 CE). Similarly, the Sadducees, whose teachings were closely connected to the Temple, disappeared with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Essenes too disappeared, perhaps because their teachings so diverged from

17446-412: The school, replicates on earth the heavenly academy, just as the disciple incarnates the heavenly model of Moses, "our rabbi." The rabbis believe that Moses was (and the Messiah will be) a rabbi, God dons phylacteries, and the heavenly court studies Torah precisely as does the earthly one, even arguing about the same questions. These beliefs today may seem as projections of rabbinical values onto heaven, but

17589-441: The schools of the Pharisees and rabbis were and are holy: "...because there men achieve sainthood through study of Torah and imitation of the conduct of the masters. In doing so, they conform to the heavenly paradigm, the Torah believed to have been created by God "in his image," revealed at Sinai, and handed down to their own teachers ... If the masters and disciples obey the divine teaching of Moses, "our rabbi," then their society,

17732-532: The soul was immortal and the souls of good people would be resurrected or reincarnated and "pass into other bodies," while "the souls of the wicked will suffer eternal punishment." Paul the Apostle declared himself to be a Pharisee even after his belief in Jesus. Fundamentally, the Pharisees continued a form of Judaism that extended beyond the Temple, applying Jewish law to mundane activities in order to sanctify

17875-413: The soul. Conservative Judaism both affirms belief in the world beyond (as referenced in the Amidah and Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith ) while recognizing that human understanding is limited and we cannot know exactly what the world beyond consists of. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism affirm belief in the afterlife, though they downplay the theological implications in favor of emphasizing

18018-399: The spread of Greek language, culture, and philosophical ideas, which intermixed with Judaism and created Hellenistic Judaism . After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, his generals divided the empire amongst themselves, and for the next 30 years they fought for control of the empire. Judea was first controlled by Ptolemaic Egypt ( r.  301–200 BCE ) and later by

18161-438: The study of the Torah. These men maintained an oral tradition that they believed had originated at Mount Sinai alongside the Torah of Moses; a God-given interpretation of the Torah . The Hellenistic period of Jewish history began when Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 332 BCE. The rift between the priests and the sages developed during this time, when Jews faced new political and cultural struggles. This created

18304-481: The support of Mark Antony and Octavian , and secured recognition by the Roman Senate as king, confirming the termination of the Hasmonean dynasty. According to Josephus, Sadducean opposition to Herod led him to treat the Pharisees favorably. Herod was an unpopular ruler, perceived as a Roman puppet. Despite his restoration and expansion of the Second Temple , Herod's notorious treatment of his own family and of

18447-565: The third for "Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and his disciples", the fourth for those whom the cloud of glory carried off, the fifth for penitents, the sixth for youths who have never sinned, and the seventh for the poor who lived decently and studied the Torah. An early explicit mention of resurrection in Hebrew texts is the Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones in the Book of Ezekiel , dated somewhere around 539 BCE. Alan Segal argues that this narrative

18590-417: The two disciples of Antigonus of Sokho (3rd century BCE), Zadok and Boethus. Antigonus having taught the maxim, "Be not like the servants who serve their masters for the sake of the wages, but be rather like those who serve without thought of receiving wages", his students repeated this maxim to their students. Eventually, either the two teachers or their pupils understood this to express the belief that there

18733-483: The wilderness, and the kings of Israel; the fourth is of rubies and olive wood and is for the holy and steadfast in faith; the fifth is like the third, except a river flows through it and its bed was woven by Eve and the angels, and it is for the Messiah and Elijah ; and the sixth and seventh divisions are not described, except that they are respectively for those who died doing pious acts and those who died from illness in expiation for Israel's sins. Above this Paradise

18876-489: The word they tell you, either right or left" (Deuteronomy 17:10–11) (see Encyclopedia Talmudit entry "Divrei Soferim"). In an interesting twist, Abraham Geiger posits that the Sadducees were the more hidebound adherents to an ancient Halacha whereas the Pharisees were more willing to develop Halacha as the times required. See however, Bernard Revel 's "Karaite Halacha" which rejects many of Geiger's proofs. Just as important as (if not more important than) any particular law

19019-574: The written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers." The Sadducees rejected the Pharisaic use of the Oral Torah to enforce their claims to power, citing the Written Torah as the sole manifestation of divinity. The rabbis , who are traditionally seen as the descendants of the Pharisees, describe the similarities and differences between the two sects in Mishnah Yadaim . The Mishnah explains that

19162-467: Was a prisoner of war. In response, he distanced himself from the Pharisees. After the death of John Hyrcanus, his younger son Alexander Jannaeus made himself king and openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites in the Temple. His actions caused a riot in the Temple, and led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees. However, on his deathbed Jannaeus advised his widow, Salome Alexandra , to seek reconciliation with

19305-403: Was an unstated idea about it in existence. Every Jewish community in a way possessed their own version of the Oral Torah which governed their religious practices. Josephus stated that the Sadducees only followed literal interpretations of the Torah. To Saldarini, this only means that the Sadducees followed their own way of Judaism and rejected the Pharisaic version of Judaism. To Rosemary Ruether,

19448-498: Was deprived of the remainder of political authority and ultimate jurisdiction was given to the Proconsul of Syria , who ruled through Hyrcanus's Idumaean associate Antipater , and later Antipater's two sons Phasael (military governor of Judea) and Herod (military governor of Galilee). In 40 BCE Aristobulus's son Antigonus overthrew Hyrcanus and named himself king and high priest, and Herod fled to Rome. In Rome, Herod sought

19591-460: Was in conflict with Hyrcanus, and tried to seize power. The Pharisees seemed to be in a vulnerable position at this time. The conflict between the two sons culminated in a civil war that ended when the Roman general Pompey intervened, and captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE. Josephus' account may overstate the role of the Pharisees. He reports elsewhere that the Pharisees did not grow to power until

19734-476: Was intended as a metaphor for national rebirth, promising the Jews' return to Israel and reconstruction of the Temple , not as a description of personal resurrection. The Book of Daniel promised literal resurrection to the Jews, in concrete detail. Alan Segal interprets Daniel as writing that with the coming of the Archangel Michael , misery would beset the world, and only those whose names were in

19877-464: Was neither an afterlife nor a resurrection of the dead , and founded the Sadducee and Boethusian sects. They lived luxuriously, using silver and golden vessels, because (as they claimed) the Pharisees led a hard life on earth and yet would have nothing to show for it in the world to come . The two sects of the Sadducees and Boethusians are thus, in all later Rabbinic sources, always mentioned together, not only as being similar, but as originating at

20020-488: Was often called a house of prayer. While most Jews could not regularly attend the Temple service, they could meet at the synagogue for morning, afternoon and evening prayers. On Mondays, Thursdays and Shabbat , a weekly Torah portion was read publicly in the synagogues, following the tradition of public Torah readings instituted by Ezra. Although priests controlled the rituals of the Temple, the scribes and sages, later called rabbis (Hebrew for "Teacher/master"), dominated

20163-548: Was simultaneously revealed to Moses at Sinai, and the product of debates among rabbis. Thus, one may conceive of the "Oral Torah" as both based on the fixed text and as an ongoing process of analysis and argument in which God is actively involved; it was this ongoing process that was revealed at Sinai along with the scripture, and by participating in this ongoing process rabbis and their students are actively participating in God's ongoing act of revelation . As Jacob Neusner has explained,

20306-429: Was the continued adherence of the Pharisees to the laws and traditions of the Jewish people in the face of assimilation. As Josephus noted, the Pharisees were considered the most expert and accurate expositors of Jewish law. Josephus indicates that the Pharisees received the backing and good-will of the common people, apparently in contrast to the more elite Sadducees associated with the ruling classes. In general, whereas

20449-403: Was the value the rabbis placed on legal study and debate. The sages of the Talmud believed that when they taught the Oral Torah to their students, they were imitating Moses, who taught the law to the children of Israel. Moreover, the rabbis believed that "the heavenly court studies Torah precisely as does the earthly one, even arguing about the same questions." Thus, in debating and disagreeing over

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