- Sadducees
The Sadducees were members of a Jewish sect founded in the second century BC, possibly as a political party. They ceased to exist sometime after the first century AD.
Etymology
The Hebrew name, Tsdoki, indicates their claim that they are the followers of the teachings of the High Priest Tsadok, often spelled Zadok, who anointed
Solomon king at the start of the First Temple Period. F. F. Bruce claims that this explanation is unlikely since they make their début in history as supporters of the Hasmonaean high priests. He therefore suggests that 'Sadducees' (Heb. צַדּוּקִים) is a Hebraization of the Greek word σύνδικοι sündikoi ('syndics', 'members of the council') and that it marks them out as the councillors of the Hasmonaeans; although they themselves came to associate the word with the Heb. צַדִּיק, 'righteous'. [F. F. Bruce, New Testament History. Doubleday: Garden City, New York. 1969. p. 74:]Rabbinic tradition suggests that they were not named after the High Priest Zadok, but rather another Zadok (who may still have been a priest), who rebelled against the teachings of
Antigonus of Soko , a government official of Judea in the3rd century BC and a predecessor of the Rabbinic tradition.History
While little or none of their own writings have been preserved, the Sadducees seem to have indeed been a
priest ly group, associated with the leadership of theTemple in Jerusalem . Possibly, Sadducees represent the aristocratic clan of theHasmonean high priests, who replaced the previous high priestly lineage that had allowed the Syrian EmperorAntiochus IV Epiphanes to desecrate the Temple of Jerusalem with idolatrous sacrifices and to martyr monotheistic Jews POV-statement|date=March 2008. The Jewish holiday ofHanukkah celebrates the ousting of the Syrian forces, the rededication of the Temple, and the installment of the new Hasmonean priestly line. The Hasmoneans ruled as "priest-kings", claiming both titles high priest and king simultaneously, and like other aristocracies across the Hellenistic world became increasingly influenced by Hellenisticsyncretism and Greek philosophies: presumablyStoicism , and apparentlyEpicureanism in the Talmudic tradition criticizing the anti-Torah philosophy of the "Apikorsus" אפיקורסוס (i.e., Epicurus) refers to the Hasmonean clan qua Sadducees. Like Epicureans, Sadducees rejected the existence of anafterlife , thus denied the Pharisaic doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.The
Dead Sea Scrolls community, who are probablyEssenes , were led by a high priestly leadership, who are thought to be the descendents of the "legitimate" high priestly lineage, which the Hasmoneans ousted. The Dead Sea Scrolls bitterly opposed the current high priests of the Temple. Since Hasmoneans constituted a different priestly line, it was in their political interest to emphasize their family's priestly pedigree that descended from their ancestor, the high priest Zadok, who had the authority to anoint the kingship of Solomon, son of David.Most of what is known about the Sadducees comes from
Josephus , who wrote that they were a quarrelsome group whose followers were wealthy and powerful, and that he considered them boorish in social interactions (see Josephus's [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=2529&pageno=105 Wars of the Jews, Book II, Chapter VIII, Paragraph 14] ). We know something of them from discussions in theTalmud (mainly the Jerusalem), the core work of rabbinic Judaism, which is based on the teachings of Pharisaic Judaism.Beliefs
Sadducees followed the Hebrew Bible literally. They rejected the
Pharisees ' notion of an Oral Torah by which the Pentateuch could be explained hermeneutically. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of the law of retribution (lex talionis):And a man, when he maims his fellow, as he has done, so shall be done to him. A fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—as he gives a wound in a man, so shall be given in him. (Leviticus 24:19-20)
Most Pharisees understood this to mean that the value of an eye was to be sought by the perpetrator rather than actually removing his eye too. In the Sadducees' view the law was to be taken literally.
R' Yitchak
Isaac Halevi suggests that while there is evidence of a Sadducee sect from the times ofEzra , it emerged as major force only after the Hasmonean rebellion. The reason for this was not, in fact, a matter of religion. He claims that as complete rejection of Judaism would not have been tolerated under the Hasmonean rule, the Hellenists joined the Sadducees maintaining that they were rejecting not Judaism but Rabbinic law. Thus, the Sadducees were for the most part a political party and not a religious sect ("Dorot Ha'Rishonim"). Professor Lawrence Schiffman also cites interpretations of the purity regulations in the Dead Sea scroll "MMT" (ca. 150 bce) which closely parallel Sadducean views recorded by the spiritual heirs of thePharisees , who authored the Talmud (Oral Law). But more importantly, he identifies very detailed Pharisaic (or proto-Pharisaic) views in the MMT scroll. Thus, it can no longer be argued that there is no pre-Temple evidence for the Oral Law. However there is evidence [Cf., for one example of a sect that could have represented a Sadducee schism and did believe in Angels, the Afterlife, etc.: Lawrence H. Schiffman, 'The Sadducean Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect', in "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls", ed. H. Shanks, New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 35-49. It is widely known that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls never recognizably refer to themselves as "Essenes "—possibly due to the fact that they wrote mainly in Hebrew and Aramaic, whereas we have the term "Essenes" from Greek—but they do refer to themselves in various places as the "Zadokites"/"Sons of Zadok", which term is apparently identical to that by which the Sadducees identified themselves. Among other arguments for a Sadducean Essene origin, Schiffman also cites interpretations of the purity regulations which closely parallel Sadducean views recorded by the spiritual heirs of thePharisees , who authored the Talmud.] that there was an internal schism among those called "Sadducees" - some who rejected Angels, the Soul, and Resurrection - and some which accepted these teachings and the entirety of the Hebrew Bible.In regard to criminal jurisdiction they were so rigorous that the day on which their code was abolished by the Pharisaic Sanhedrin under
Simeon ben Shetah 's leadership, during the reign ofSalome Alexandra , was celebrated as a festival. The Sadducees are said to have insisted on the literal execution of the law of retaliation: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth", which pharisaic Judaism, and later rabbinic Judaism, rejected. On the other hand, they would not inflict thedeath penalty on false witnesses in a case where capital punishment had been wrongfully carried out, unless the accused had been executed solely in consequence of the testimony of such witnesses.According to the Talmud, they granted the daughter the same right of inheritance as the son in case the son was dead (see chapter Yeish Nochalin of the Babylonain Talmud, tractate Bava Batra). Emet L' Yaakov explains that the focus of their argument was theological. The question was whether there is an afterlife (see above), and if there is, can the dead person be in the line of inheritance as if they were alive.
According to the Talmud, they contended that the seven weeks from the first barley-sheaf-offering ("omer") to
Shavuot (Pentecost in Christian reference) should, according toLeviticus 23:15-16, be counted from "the day after Sabbath," and, consequently, that Shavuot should always be celebrated on the first day of the week (Meg. Ta'an. i.; Men. 65a). In this they followed a literal reading of the Bible which regards the festival of the firstlings as having no direct connection with Passover, while the Pharisees, connecting the festival of the Exodus with the festival of the giving of the Law, interpreted the "morrow after the Sabbath" to signify the second day of Passover.In regard to rituals at the Temple in Jerusalem:
* They held that the daily
burnt offering s were to be offered by the high priest at his own expense, whereas the Pharisees contended that they were to be furnished as a nationalsacrifice at the cost of the Temple treasury into which taxes were paid.* They held that the meal offering belonged to the priest's portion; whereas the Pharisees claimed it for the altar.
* They insisted on an especially high degree of purity in those who officiated at the preparation of the ashes of the
Red Heifer . The Pharisees, by contrast, opposed such strictness.* They declared that the kindling of the incense in the vessel with which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement (
Yom Kippur ) was to take place outside, so that he might be wrapped in smoke while meeting theShekhinah within, according to Lev. xvi. 2; whereas the Pharisees, denying the high priest the claim of such supernatural vision, insisted that the incense be kindled within.* They opposed the popular festivity of the water libation and the procession preceding it on each night of the
Sukkot feast.* They opposed the Pharisaic assertion that the scrolls of the Holy Scriptures have, like any holy vessel, the power to render ritually unclean the hands that touch them.
* They opposed the Pharisaic idea of the "
eruv ", the merging of several private precincts into one in order to admit of the carrying of food and vessels from one house to another on the Sabbath.* In dating all civil documents they used the phrase "after the high priest of the Most High," and they opposed the formula introduced by the Pharisees in divorce documents, "According to the law of Moses and Israel".
*
Ben Sira , one of theDeuterocanonical books , is believed by many scholars to have been by a Sadducee Fact|date=February 2007 (note, the Talmud says clearly he was rejected by the Sadducees).Reliability of claims
None of the writings we have about Sadducees present their own side of these controversies, and it is possible that positions attributed to "Sadducees" in later literature such as
Josephus are meant asrhetoric al foils for whatever opinion the author wishes to present, and do not in fact represent the teachings of the sect. [Meyer Waxman - History of Jewish Literature Vol.1- in reference toJosephus ] Yet, although these texts were written long after these periods, many scholars have said that they are a fairly reliable account of history during the Second Temple era.Legendary origin
Josephus relates nothing concerning the origin of the Sadducees; he knows only that the three "sects" — the Pharisees,
Essenes , and Sadducees — dated back to "very ancient times" (Ant. xviii. 1, § 2), which point to a time prior toJohn Hyrcanus (ib. xiii. 8, § 6) or the Maccabean war (ib. xiii. 5, § 9).Among the rabbis of the second century the following legend circulated:
Antigonus of Soko , successor ofSimeon the Just , the last of theMen of the Great Assembly , and consequently living at the time of the influx of Hellenistic ideas (i.e.,Hellenization ), taught the maxim, "Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of a reward, but be rather like those who serve without thought of receiving a reward" (Avot 1:3); whereupon two of his disciples, Zadok and Boethus, mistaking the high ethical purport of the maxim, arrived at the conclusion that there was no future retribution, saying, "What servant would work all day without obtaining his due reward in the evening?" Instantly they broke away from the Law and lived in great luxury, using many silver and gold vessels at their banquets; and they established schools which declared the enjoyment of this life to be the goal of man, at the same time pitying the Pharisees for their bitter privation in this world with no hope of another world to compensate them. These two schools were called, after their founders, Sadducees andBoethusians .New Testament/Greek Scriptures
The Sadducees are mentioned in the
New Testament /Greek Scriptures of theChristian Bible . TheGospel of Matthew indicates that the Sadducees did not believe in theresurrection of the dead. bibleref|Matthew|22:29, 31-32 says::29 In reply
Jesus said to them: “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power ofGod ... [30] ... 31 As regards the resurrection of the dead, did you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God ofAbraham and the God ofIsaac and the God ofJacob ’? He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living.”The
Acts of the Apostles likewise indicates that Sadducees did not share the Pharisees’ belief in a resurrection; Paul starts a conflict during his trial, by claiming that his accusers were motivated by his advocacy of the doctrine of the resurrection (in an aside, Acts 23:8 asserts that “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three”).The End of the Sadducees
Being associated closely with the Temple in Jerusalem, after the Temple was destroyed in
70 AD the Sadducees vanish from history as a group. There is, however, some evidence that Sadducees survived as a minority group within Judaism up until early medieval times. In refutations of Sadducean beliefs,Karaite Sages such asYa'akov al-Qirqisani quoted one of their texts, which was called "Sefer Zadok". Translations into English of some of these quotes can be found in Zvi Cahn's "Rise of the Karaite sect".ee also
*
Sefer Zadok Other Uses
The film
Privates on Parade , a British comedy starringJohn Cleese , focused on the antics of the members of the fictitious SADUSEAs -- the Song and Dance Unit, Southeast Asia -- during the Second World War.Footnotes
External links
* [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=40&letter=S&search=Sadducees Jewish Encyclopedia: Sadducees]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13323a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Sadducees]
* [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Sadducees Encyclopedia Britannica: Sadducees]
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