Sadducees
Sadducees צְדוּקִים | |
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| Historical leaders | |
| Founded | 167 BCE |
| Dissolved | 73 CE |
| Headquarters | Jerusalem |
| Ideology |
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| Religion | Hellenistic Judaism |
| Part of a series on |
| Jews and Judaism |
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The Sadducees (/ˈsædjəsiːz/; Hebrew: צְדוּקִים, romanized: Ṣəḏūqīm, lit. 'Zadokites') were 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.[1] As 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.
Etymology
The English term entered via Latin from
History
According to
Josephus mentions 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 a revolt".[8] Paul L. Maier suggests that the sect drew their name from the Sadduc mentioned by Josephus.[9]
The Second Temple period
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 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 the spread of Greek language, culture, and philosophical ideas, which intermixed with Judaism and created Hellenistic Judaism.
After the
Hasmonean rule lasted until 63 BCE, when the Roman general
After the Temple destruction
After 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.[12] 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.[citation needed]
The Sadducee concept of the mortality of the soul is reflected on by Uriel da Costa, who mentions them in his writings.
Role of the Sadducees
Religious
The religious responsibilities of 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 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."[13]
Political
The Sadducees oversaw many formal affairs of the state.[14] Members of the Sadducees:
- Administered the state domestically
- Represented the state internationally
- Participated in the Sanhedrin, and often encountered the Pharisees there.
- Collected taxes. These also came in the form of international tribute from Jews in the Diaspora.
- Equipped and led the army
- Regulated relations with the Roman Empire
- Mediated domestic grievances
Beliefs
Knowledge about the beliefs of 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 the Pharisees) is uniformly hostile.[15]
General
The Sadducees rejected the
According to Josephus, the Sadducees beliefs included:
- Rejection of the idea of fate or a pre-ordained future.
- God does not commit or even think evil.
- Man has free will; "man has the free choice of good or evil".
- The soul is not immortal and there is no afterlife, and no rewards or penalties after death.
- It is a virtue to debate and dispute with philosophy teachers.[15][17]
The Sadducees did not believe in
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:[15]
- The Sadducees were associated with the party of the high priest of the era, and seem to have had a majority of the Sanhedrin, if not all (Gamaliel is a Pharisee member).[19]
- The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, whereas the Pharisees did. In Acts, Paul of Tarsus chose this point of division to attempt to gain the protection of the Pharisees (around 59 CE).[20]
- The Sadducees rejected the notion of spirits or angels, whereas the Pharisees acknowledged them.[20]
Disputes with the Pharisees
- According to the Sadducees, spilt water becomes ritually impure through its pouring. The Pharisees denied that this was sufficient grounds for impurity.[21] Many Pharisee–Sadducee disputes revolved around issues of ritual purity.
- According to the Jewish laws of inheritance, the property of a deceased man is inherited by his sons, but if the man had only daughters, his property is inherited by his daughters upon his death (Numbers 27:8).
- The Sadducees demanded that a master pay for damages caused by his slave. The Pharisees imposed no such obligation, viewing that a slave could intentionally cause damage in order to see the liability for it brought on his master.[21]
- The Pharisees posited that false witnesses should be executed if the verdict was pronounced on the basis of their testimony—even if not yet actually carried out. The Sadducees argued that false witnesses should be executed only if the death penalty had already been carried out on the falsely accused.[27]
Later rabbinic literature took a dim view of both the Sadducees and
Jewish sectarianism
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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 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.
Opposition to the Essenes
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which are often attributed to the Essenes, suggest clashing ideologies and social positions between 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 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."[31] The reference to the Sadducees as those who reign over Israel corroborates their aristocratic status as opposed to 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.
Opposition to the early Christian church
The
Matthew records John the Baptist calling both the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers".[34]
Opposition to the Pharisees
Josephus, the author of the most extensive historical account of the Second Temple Period, gives a lengthy account of Jewish sectarianism in both
The
References
- ^ "The Antiquities of the Jews (13.298)". Lexundria.
...while the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have not the populace obsequious to them, but the Pharisees have the multitude on their side.
- ^ צָדוֹק
- ^ Newman, p. 76
- ^ Abraham Geiger, Urschrift, pp. 20–
- ^ Pirkei Avot 1:3
- Avot of Rabbi Natan5:2
- ^
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Sadducees". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- ^ Josephus. AJ. Translated by Whiston, William. 18.1.1..
- ISBN 978-0-82542924-8.
- ^ Cohen, 153–154
- ^ Cohen, 1–5, 15–16
- ^ See: Philippe Bobichon, "Autorités religieuses juives et ‘sectes’ juives dans l’œuvre de Justin Martyr", Revue des Études Augustiniennes 48/1 (2002), pp. 3–22 (online).
- ^ Cohen p. 155
- ^ Wellhausen, p. 45
- ^ ISBN 978-0-5676-9294-8.
- ^ a b Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews. 13.10.6..
- ^ Josephus (1966). The Jewish War. Translated by Thackeray, Henry St. John. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. 2.162.
Josephus, Titus Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews 18 §1.2. - ^ Manson, T.W.: Sadducee and Pharisee - The Origin and Significance of the Names John Rylands Library, p. 154.
- ^ Acts 4:1; Acts 5:17
- ^ a b c Acts 23:6–9
- ^ a b Mishnah Yadaim 4:7
- ^ Numbers 27:8
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud (Baba Bathra 21b)
- Babylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 115b–116a); Jerusalem Talmud(Baba Bathra 8:1 [21b–22a])
- OCLC 233298491.
- OCLC 233219980.
- ^ Mishnah Makot 1.6
- Sifrito Deuteronomy p. 233 (Torah Ve'Hamitzvah edition)
- ^ Maimonides, commentary to Pirkei Avot, 1:3
- ^ Mishneh Torah, Hilchoth Avodah Zarah 10:2
- ^ Pesher on Nahum in Eshol, 40
- ^ Mark 12:18–27; Matthew 22:23–33
- ^ Pulpit Commentary on Matthew 22, accessed 14 February 2017; Commentary, New Oxford Annotated Bible
- ^ Matthew 3:7
- ^ Mishnah Yadaim 4:6–8
Primary
- Coogan, Michael, ed. (2007). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. US: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-528882-7.
- Flavius, Titus Josephus (1998). Tenney, Merrill (ed.). Complete Works. Nelson Reference. ISBN 978-0-7852-1427-4.
- Vermes, Geza, ed. (2004). The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Harmondsworth, ENG: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-044952-5.
Secondary
- Cohen, Shaye (2006). From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22743-2.
- Eshel, Hanan (2008). The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State. City: Wm.B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-6285-3.
- Johnson, Paul (1988). A History of the Jews. San Francisco: Perennial Library. ISBN 978-0-06-091533-9.
- Newman, Hillel (2006). Proximity to Power and Jewish Sectarian Groups of the Ancient Period: a Review of Lifestyle, Values, and Halakha in the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Qumran. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-14699-0.
- Stemberger, Günter (1995). Jewish Contemporaries of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-2624-2.
- Vermes, Geza (2003). Jesus in His Jewish Context. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-3623-4.
- Wellhausen, Julius (2001). The Pharisees and the Sadducees. Macon: Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-729-2.
External links
- . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- "Sadducees" by Kaufmann Kohler from the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
- Two entries from Encyclopedia.com (The first is "Sadducees" from the Encyclopedia of Religion by Lawrence H. Schiffman; The second is "Sadducees" from the Encyclopaedia Judaica by Menahem Mansoor)
- Mishnah Yadayim 4:6–8, The Pharisee–Sadducee Debate, COJS.[permanent dead link]
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