Zedukim / Sadducees
Zedukim / Sadducees, one of the thrre sects of Jewish philosophers, of which the Pharisees and the Essenes were the others, had readied their highest state of prosperity about the commencement of the Christian era. In every highly developed social system the elements are found to exist which led to the formation of the sect of Sadducees. But these elements were in fuller amplitude and more decided energy among the post-exilian Jews than in most ancient nations. The peculiar doctrines and practices of the Pharisees, ideas about every Jew being a priest, naturally begot the Sadduceean system.
The Sadducees were satisfied with Roman rule. They were quite happy, because they belonged to the great families of the High Priests. The Romans didn't interfere with their religion. If Judea were once again independent, their position could not be much better than it was, and it might be much worse. Theyr were quite willing to do what they could to help their Roman masters and friends.
Just as the kinship of the Pharisee was with the Stoic, the kinship of the Sadducee was with the Epicurean. The Sadducees rejected "the traditions of the elders," but that was because they adhered exclusively to the written word; rejecting all oral law, and setting against all innovations. The Pharisees differed from the Sadducees in accepting and throwing the weight of their influence in favor of the oral law of the scribes and many beliefs not set forth in the Pentateuch, such as the doctrine of the resurrection and the belief in the existence of angels and future rewards and punishments. But while indifferent to religion, and untroubled by ordinary scruples, the Sadducees were far from indifferent to the outward forms of religion. The Sadducees were conservatives of the first water.
Along with intense conservatism as to outward forms went a spirit of denial as to spiritual realities. He denied the existence of "spirits and angels," and of everything supramundane; he denied the doctrine of the resurrection and held that the soul of man perishes with his body; he was an agnostic touching everything beyond the present life, and took a worldly view of religion, never going beyond the temporal rewards and punishments of the Pentateuch, and maintaining that a man is rewarded in this life according to his deeds; and that consequently prosperity is a sign of piety and adversity a sign of wickedness. Ruling out the punishments of the after life, he saw to it that transgressors of the law got their due punishment here.
Naturally enough, the easy-going Sadducee disliked the prophets. They disturbed his peace, and put thorns in his cosy nest of self-indulgence. He allied himself with the priests, forming within the priesthood a sort of "priestly aristocracy" or sacerdotal nobility. When a priest, he used his office as a ladder to worldly power. When a layman he joined himself to the rich and prosperous who have their portion in this world. For the sake of his own personal advancement he was ready to adopt the manners and customs of the gentile nations, and was specially desirous of grafting Greek culture on to Hebrew faith.
In his religion the Sadducee was a strange blend of legalist and rationalist; in his life he was an out-and-out materialist. He sneered, as his modern prototype does, at other-worldliness, and took as his motto, "One world at a time." His philosophy of life might be summed up in the words, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
In addition to the three groups identified by Josephus (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes), Judaism was further divided into numerous religious sects and political parties. With the destruction of the Temple and the commonwealth in 70 C.E., all that came to an end. Only the Judaism of the Pharisees -- Rabbinic Judaism -- survived.
But in 760 BCE a serious schism took place. Political conditions, combined with sectional strife and the growing propensity for the hair-splitting methods of rabbinical legislation, created a sect which rejected every authority but the Bible. The leader of this movement was Anan ben David, and his followers called themselves, Bene Mikra ("Sons of the Scripture"), or Karaites. (See Judaism - The Karaites.) This movement produced quite an extensive polemical literature, and led to a deepening of exegetical studies as also to various attempts at presenting the theological conceptions of Judaism in a clear and concise form, while the doctrinal part of theology had formerly been altogether neglected out of preference for the law. The most important defender of the Karaitic doctrine is Salmon ben Jeroham,
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