Would this point of view be
as a Sadducees or Pharisees by which Jesus was in constant conflict with them?
That’s why the Jews are no longer the chosen people for killing Jesus for
attempting to teach the people the true form of God’s laws and ways by
confusing or misinterpreting Gods laws to benefit only themselves not the
people, one of many would be the personal name of God.
The Sadducees:
During the time of Christ and the New Testament era, the Sadducees were
aristocrats. They tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions, including
that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70
seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. They worked hard to keep the
peace by agreeing with the decisions of Rome (Israel at this time was under
Roman control), and they seemed to be more concerned with politics than
religion. Because they were accommodating to Rome and were the wealthy upper
class, they did not relate well to the common man, nor did the common man hold
them in high opinion. The common man related better to those who belonged to
the party of the Pharisees. Though the Sadducees held the majority of seats in
the Sanhedrin, history indicates that much of the time they had to go along
with the ideas of the Pharisaic minority, because the Pharisees were popular
with the masses.
Religiously, the Sadducees were more conservative in one main area of doctrine.
The Pharisees gave oral tradition equal authority to the written Word of God,
while the Sadducees considered only the written Word to be from God. The
Sadducees preserved the authority of the written Word of God, especially the
books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). While they could be commended for
this, they definitely were not perfect in their doctrinal views. The following
is a brief list of beliefs they held that contradict Scripture:
1. they were extremely self-sufficient to the point of denying God's
involvement in everyday life.
2. They denied any resurrection of the dead (Matthew
22:23; Mark
12:18-27; Acts
23:8).
3. They denied any afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death, and
therefore denying any penalty or reward after the earthly life.
4. They denied the existence of a spiritual world, i.e., angels and demons (Acts
23:8).
Because the Sadducees were more concerned with politics than religion, they
were unconcerned with Jesus until they became afraid He might bring unwanted
Roman attention. It was at this point that the Sadducees and Pharisees united
and conspired to put Christ to death (John
11:48-50; Mark
14:53; 15:1).
Other mentions of the Sadducees are found in Acts
4:1 and Acts
5:17, and the Sadducees are implicated in the death of James by the
historian Josephus (Acts 12:1-2).
The Sadducees ceased to exist in A.D. 70. Since this party existed because of
their political and priestly ties, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple
in A.D. 70, the Sadducees were also destroyed.
The Pharisees: In contrast to
the Sadducees, the Pharisees were mostly middle-class businessmen, and
therefore were in contact with the common man. The Pharisees were held in much
higher esteem by the common man than the Sadducees. Though they were a minority
in the Sanhedrin and held a minority number of positions as priests, they
seemed to control the decision making of the Sanhedrin far more than the
Sadducees did, again because they had the support of the people.
Religiously, they accepted the written Word as inspired by God. At the time of
Christ's earthly ministry, this would have been what our Old Testament is now.
But they also gave equal authority to oral tradition and attempted to defend
this position by saying it went all the way back to Moses. Evolving over the
centuries, these traditions added to God's Word, which is forbidden (Deuteronomy
4:2), and the Pharisees sought to strictly obey these traditions along with
the Old Testament. The Gospels abound with examples of the Pharisees treating
these traditions as equal to God's Word (Matthew
9:14; 15:1-9;
23:5;
23:16,
23,
Mark
7:1-23; Luke
11:42). However, they did remain true to God's Word in reference to certain
other important doctrines. In contrast to the Sadducees, they believed the
following:
1. they believed that God controlled all things, yet decisions made by
individuals also contributed to the course of a person's life.
2. They believed in the resurrection of the dead (Acts
23:6).
3. They believed in an afterlife, with appropriate reward and punishment on an
individual basis.
4. They believed in the existence of angels and demons (Acts
23:8).
Though the Pharisees were rivals of the Sadducees, they managed to set aside
their differences on one occasion—the trial of Christ. It was at this point
that the Sadducees and Pharisees united to put Christ to death (Mark
14:53; 15:1;
John
11:48-50).
While the Sadducees ceased to exist after the destruction of Jerusalem, the
Pharisees, who were more concerned with religion than politics, continued to
exist. In fact, the Pharisees were against the rebellion that brought on
Jerusalem's destruction in A.D. 70, and they were the first to make peace with
the Romans afterward. The Pharisees were also responsible for the compilation
of the Mishnah, an important document with reference to the continuation of
Judaism beyond the destruction of the temple.
Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees
earned numerous rebukes from Jesus. Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from
the Pharisees and Sadducees is to not be like them. Unlike the Sadducees, we
are to believe everything the Bible says, including the miraculous and the
afterlife. Unlike the Pharisees, we are not to treat traditions as having equal
authority as Scripture, and we are not to allow our relationship with God to be
reduced to a legalistic list of rules and rituals.
