The Pharisees were?
A religious society, chiefly of laymen, frequently mentioned in
the New Testament . . . a movement toward religious puritanism,
marked by the Priestly and Holiness codes and stimulated by the
reformation of Ezra and Nehemiah. (Ezra 6:21 and Neh 10:29). Where
it characterizes one 'who separated himself from the spiritual
uncleanness of the gentiles of the land' and from Jewish 'people
of the land' to follow the law of God.
The Pharisees drew their following from all sections of the people
irrespective of economic, social, and hereditary distinctions.
They included priests and even members of the high priestly families.
Their influence radiated not from the market place, but from the
synagogue as the center of the threefold activity of study, worship,
and works of charity.
Their chief distinction derived from their attitude toward the
Law. As the word of God, the Torah, they believed, must be adequate
for all times and circumstances. Accordingly, they devoted themselves
to the interpretation of the Scriptural text in such a way as
to find with it light for all conditions of changing times. 'Turn
it and turn it again, for everything is within it.'
The Pharisees also drew the antagonism of Jesus and His disciples
and particularly of Paul whose messianic claims and antinomist
teachings they rejected. In consequence they were branded as bigoted
formalists, hair-splitting legalists, and crafty hypocrites, devoid
of "charis" (Mk 7:1-23; Mt 23; Lk 11:38-54).
The Pharisees were in a sense Churchmen rather than statesmen.
They emphasized spiritual methods. Their interests lay in the
synagogue, in the schooling of children, in missionary extension
amongst the heathen. Hence we are not surprised when we learn
that, after the conflicts with Rome (A.D. 66-135). Pharisaism
became practically synonymous with Judaism.
The priesthood was a close corporation. No man who was unable
to trace his descent from a priestly family could exercise any
function in the Temple. But the Pharisees and the Scribes opened
a great career to all the talents. Furthermore, the priesthood
exhausted itself in the ritual of the Temple. But the Pharisees
found their main function in teaching and preaching. So Pharisaism
cleared the ground for Christianity.
. . . About The Sadducees?
Probably the name 'Sadducee' is derived from the name Zadok, a
notable priest in the time of David and Solomon (2 Samuel 8:17;
15:24; 1 Kings 1:34). His descendants long played the leading
part among the priests, so that Ezekiel regarded them as the only
legitimate priests (Ezk 40:46, 43:19, 44:15, 48:11). About the
year 200 B.C., when party lines were beginning to be drawn, the
name was chosen to point out the party of the priests. That is
not saying that no priest could be a Pharisee or a Scribe. Neither
is it saying that all the priests were Sadducees. In the time
of Jesus many of the poor priests were Pharisees. But the higher
priestly families and the priests as a body were Sadducees. With
them were joined the majority of the aristocratic lay families
of Judaea and Jerusalem. This fact gives us the key to their career.
It is wrapped up in the history of the high priesthood. But in
Jesus' time its leadership lay far back in the past. Its moral
greatness had been undermined.
The Levitical priesthood was a close corporation. No man not born
a priest could become a priest. More and more, as the interests
of the nation widened and deepened, the priesthood failed to keep
pace. Its alliance with the aristocratic families made thing worse.
The Sadducees did not deny the immortality of the soul. But they
lingered in the past, the period when the belief in immortality
was vague, shadowy, and had not yet become a working motive for
goodness. The Sadducees also denied the Pharisaic doctrine regarding
angels and ministering spirits (Acts 23:8 -- "For the Sadducees
say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the
Pharisees confess both.")..
From this sketch we can see why Jesus had almost no dealings with
the Sadducees during His ministry. His interests were with the
common people. This brought Him into continual conflict with the
Pharisees. It was not until His popularity seemed to threaten
the peace of Jerusalem that the high priest, with the Sadducees
at his back, was moved to decisive action. We can also see why
the Apostolic Church, in her first years, had most to fear from
the Sadducees (Acts 4 and 5).
. . . About The Scribes?
The scribes were the writers, copyists, 'bookmen' and consequently
the interpreters of the sacred writings of the Old Testament,
as their professional occupation gave them unusual familiarity
with these books. Among the forerunners of the scribes were also
to be reckoned 'wise' teachers of Israel who produced and handed
on a body of oral teaching and eventually the compendium of Wisdom
Literature..
After the Exile, the scribe tended to take the place of the priest
as teacher of the Law. In the Gospels the scribes are sometimes
referred to as 'lawyers', i.e. Experts in the sacred Mosaic Law which was in theory the sole
legislation, civil and religious, governing the Jewish people.
They were usually associated with the Pharisees. Many of the scribes
became members of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal administration
body in the Jewish theocratic state. Among them were Gamaliel
in Ac 5, Nicodemus in Jn 3 and 7. They sat 'on Moses' seat' (Mt
23:2) as official interpreters of the Law. They had the power
of 'binding and loosing,' i.e. Of issuing authoritative judgments or decisions upon the legality
or illegality of actions..
Their services, both educational and judicial, were rendered freely
and without compensation. Unless he possessed independent means
the scribe had to earn a livelihood in other ways and then teach
as an avocation. It has been suggested that the rule grew out
of the danger of bribery, cited in Ex 23;8 and Dt 16:19 {where 'judges'
were ordered not to accept fees or gifts}.
. . . About The Essenes?
In the life of a modern nation a great war has large results.
Far greater were the effects of the Maccabaean War upon a small
nation. The Essenes appear as a party shortly after the war. It
is not necessary to suppose that at the outset they were a monastic
order. It is more likely that they at first took form as small
groups or brotherhood of men intent on holiness, according to
the Jewish model. This meant a kind of holiness that put an immense
emphasis on Levitical precision. To keep the Torah in its smallest
details was part and parcel of the very essence of morality..
The groups of men who devoted themselves to the realization of
that ideal started with a bias against the Temple as a place made
unclean by the heathenism of the priests. So these men, knit into
closely coherent groups, mainly in Judaea, found satisfactions
of life in deepening fellowship, and an ever more intense devotion
to the ideal of Levitical perfection. In course of time, as the
logic of life carried them forward into positions of which they
had not at first dreamed, the groups became more and more closely
knit, and at the same time fundamentally separatistic regarding
the common life of the Jews. So we find, possibly into the 1st
Century B.C., the main group of Essenes colonizing near the Dead
Sea, and constituting a true monastic order..
The stricter Essenes adjured private property and marriage in
order to secure entire attention to the Torah. The Levitical laws
of holiness were observed with great zeal. An Essene of the higher
class became unclean if a fellow-Essene of lower degree so much
as touched his garment. They held the name of Moses next in honour
to the name of God. And their Sabbatarianism went to such lengths
that the bowels must not perform their wonted functions on the
Seventh Day..
At the same time, there are reasons for thinking that foreign
influences had a hand in their constitution. They worshipped towards
the sun, not towards the Temple. This may have been due to the
influence of Pharism. Their doctrine of immortality was Hellenic,
not Pharisaic. Foreign influences in this period are quite possible,
for it was not until the wars with Rome (circa 70 AD) and the Diaspora had imposed on Judaism a hard-and-fast
form, that the doors were locked and bolted. Yet, when all is said,
the foreign influence imparted nothing more than minor modifications in Essen Doctrine.
Its innermost nature and deepest motive were thoroughly Jewish..
It is possible that John the Baptist was affected by Essenism.
It is also possible that the Apostolic Church may have reflected their
influence to a certain degree; but, anything of a more direct nature
is out of the question. The impassioned yet sane moral enthusiasm
of early Christianity was too strong in its own kind to be deeply
touched by a spirit so unlike its own. The Dead Sea Scrolls on
the whole confirm these impressions. Whether the sect which produced
them were identical with the Essenes or a distinct but closely
related group, what has been said here applies to it as well as
to the people described by Josephus, Philo, and Pliny. The Scrolls,
however, give us an incomparably richer and more authentic picture
of the sect.
