Religious Sects

Jesus, Pharisees, Sadducees & Essenes

The Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes were all Jewish schools or sects with their own ideology concerning religion. Of the three, the Essenes were closest to the ideology and values of Jesus because they believed in love of God, love of virtue and love of one's fellow man. The other two, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were denounced by Jesus among his followers. In The Gospel of St. Matthew Jesus warns "Take heed and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" (Tynan 42). Later he must further explain that he did not warn his followers with regard to the bread of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but of their ideology "Why perceive ye not then, that I spake not unto you of bread, when I said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Then understood they, how that he bade no them beware of the leaven of bread: but of the doctrine of the Pharisees, and of the Sadducees" (Tynan 42).

The Pharisees were a Jewish sect or school that resisted all Greek or other foreign influences which they viewed as a threat to the religious views of their fathers. All religious and state matters were based on their interpretation and standard set by Divine Law. They paid little attention to aristocratic or priestly meddling if it differed from Divine Law. Their religious views were an ethical, spiritual form of Judaism and would eventually become the dominant ideology of the Jewish religion. Yet, when Jesus

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day of the week, the Sadducees adhered to the solar month and solar year calendar, while the Pharisees did not take such a literal interpretation to on the morrow of the Sabbath, "The Sadducees, as well as the Dead Sea sect, took the literal interpretation of on the morrow of the Sabbath, whereas the Pharisees took Sabbath to mean Festival. Their calendar was based on the biblical lunar months and they rejected the new innovative solar calendar that protected the Sabbath from being profaned" (Pharisees, Sadducees 5). In effect, the Sadducees were a politico-religious part comprised of wealthy aristocrats. These wealthy aristocrats held the highest offices in the church and state and rejected any belief in angels or resurrection of the dead. They followed only the first five books of the bible and made compromises with the Roman occupation and forces. They took a disdainful view of the passive resistance that characterized the Pharisees. Because they did not compromise with the Romans and completely rejected the Greeks, the Pharisees were viewed more as normative Jewish Rabbis. However, the Pharisees saw the Sadducees as rejecting the will of God because they rejected the Oral Torah and because they were willing to compr

Category: Philosophy - R