RE: Do Any Christians Actually Know Anything About the Sadducees and the Pharisees?
September 20, 2015 at 1:29 pm
I'm not going to pretend I didn't cheat by refreshing my reading, but whatever.
What Drich said, with some modification:
Pharisees
There are problems with bias of all our sources on them
They operated a purity code as part of a wider agenda of national liberation, but could also use violence.
The Temple was still their controlling symbol, but they had influence rather than power.
Their belief was in the restoration of God's kingdom, in which resurrection was one part.
Importantly, Jesus wasn't against Pharisees as such. Nicodemus and Gamaliel come out well, for example, and Jesus socialised with them at dinners. However on the whole, the Pharisaic movement regarded the claim that Jesus was inaugurating the Kingdom of God as dangerously wrong, and opposed it. Hence the beef.
Sadducees
Little is known about them.
They were the party with the power (secular and priestly).
Because trying to bring God's Kingdom in would have been a political power move against them as the authority, they had little time for resurrection ideas.
Jesus' claim to act as a Temple replacement brought him into direct conflict with the Sadducees. Also, they tended to want to stamp out religious movements without further discussion. Hence the grief.
What Drich said, with some modification:
Pharisees
There are problems with bias of all our sources on them
They operated a purity code as part of a wider agenda of national liberation, but could also use violence.
The Temple was still their controlling symbol, but they had influence rather than power.
Their belief was in the restoration of God's kingdom, in which resurrection was one part.
Importantly, Jesus wasn't against Pharisees as such. Nicodemus and Gamaliel come out well, for example, and Jesus socialised with them at dinners. However on the whole, the Pharisaic movement regarded the claim that Jesus was inaugurating the Kingdom of God as dangerously wrong, and opposed it. Hence the beef.
Sadducees
Little is known about them.
They were the party with the power (secular and priestly).
Because trying to bring God's Kingdom in would have been a political power move against them as the authority, they had little time for resurrection ideas.
Jesus' claim to act as a Temple replacement brought him into direct conflict with the Sadducees. Also, they tended to want to stamp out religious movements without further discussion. Hence the grief.
