What were the main grouping or sects in the time of Jesus?

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INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL STUDIES

URE 005

The Jerusalem Community

Lecturer: Sr Bernadette Kiley

Student: Sebestyen Maglai

Date: 14 05 1996

Introduction

 

In our society we have different political parties different religious groups and different trends and beliefs in a religion. Parties such as the Australian Labour Party or the Liberal Party went through transition through the decades. This type of transition happened in the Palestinian Jewish society through centuries.

What were the main grouping or sects in the time of  Jesus?

We can differentiate between many religious sects and political groups in this time of  Jewish history but in this essay we will explore five major religious sects: Sadducees, Scribes, Pharisees, Essenes (Orlando, 1985). Which one of these did the Jerusalem community share most in common with and how did the two differ?  

The two most important parts of Jewish religious life were the Temple and the Torah. Under foreign powers such as the Greeks and Romans the Temple and Torah became even more important than before in the life of most Jewish people. The reason for these changes are that many Jews lived outside Palestine and the Palestine Jews were under Roman rule. The Temple in Jerusalem became a central national symbol to Jewish people.  Under these circumstances the Torah and Temple became the basic religious symbols for the Jewish identity. The two (most) well known sects within Judaism in the time of Jesus were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two groups' beliefs were based on the Torah but their interpretations were different.

Sadducees  

In the Jewish society the Sadducees were an aristocratic party made up of the priests and the Levits plus the rich landowners. They accepted the law of Moses literally but they did not accept the idea of oral tradition, furthermore, they rejected anything which was outside the Torah.

According to Heater (1966:54), "the Sadducees, who formed the larger part of the priesthood of Temple, appear to have been theologically conservative."

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Because of this conservative point of view they denied the continuance of the soul after death, penalties in the underworld and also rewards in heaven.

Sadducees come into view in the gospel of Mark 12:18 in connection with the resurrection.

"Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said,"

According to Cwiekowski (1988) Sadducees stuck to the Torah because this way they could "keep interpretation of the Torah in the hands of the priestly families".

In the time of Jesus Sadducees controlled the Temple in Jerusalem. To keep ...

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