Religious Groups Flashcards
Pharisees - what did they take literally? What was the people reception of their teaching?
They took literally being a kingdom of priests. Exodus 19:6
The most influential, and loved by the people of the three sects
Pharisees - how many time are they mentioned? What does the term mean? What is their emphasis?
Mentioned 97 times
Means separated ones, separatists
Emphasis on keeping the laws of purity, ritualism, fasting, and tithing
Pharisees - origins
Some say that there was a group resembling the Pharisees before captivity
Came to existence out of the Maccabean revolt. 165 B. C.
Seleucids and hellenization
Antiochus Epiphanes and the temple
Judas and the name Maccabee
Pharisees - beliefs
A belief in fate
The Pharisees, who are considered the most accurate interpreters of the laws, and hold the position of the lading sect, attribute everything to fate and to God, they hold that to act rightly, or otherwise rests, indeed, for the most part with man
All is foreseen but freedom but freedom of choice is given
Pharisees - beliefs (with respect to the soul)
The immortality of the soul
A final reward was to be given for good works and punishment to the wicked
Those rewarded would rise again
The wicked would be detained forever under the earth
Acceptance of the OT Scriptures and also traditions
Pharisees - what did Christ condemned about them?
Their righteousness
Their covetousness
Their pride
Seven woes upon them
Pharisees - known by name
Nicodemus
Gamaliel
Paul
Pharisees take dominance
They were the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism
They believed in an oral law that God gave Moses along with written Law
Think of the Torah much like the US constitution
A series of laws open to interpretation
The oral law was the interpretation of what these laws meant
Josephus (b. 37 CE)
Lived before 70 in Israel
Have his actual writings
A historian: apologist for Rome
Claimed to be a Pharisee
Sadducees - how many times are they mentioned? What does the term mean? Characteristics
Mentioned 15 times in the NT
Means to be righteous, sometimes used as an adjective the righteous ones
A wealthy, privileged priestly sect
Sadducees - reception, what did they do? In the Sanhedrin
Did not have the popular support that the Pharisees had
The temple worship and administration were conducted by them
Most Lilly occupied the majority of the seats in the Sanhedrin
Sadducees - as elitists
They wanted to maintain the priestly caste, willing to incorporate Hellenism int their lives which the Pharisees opposed
The Hellenists were Greeks with a whole culture of influence on them
The Sadducees rejected the idea of oral law and insisted on literal interpretation of the written law
Sadducees - with respect to the soul
They did not believe in the after life since it is not written in the Torah
Sadducees - origins
Claimed to come from zadok, a priest under David’s reign and a high priests under Solomon
Another zadok, a disciple of antigonus of Socho taught obedience to God should be without expectation of future reward
Origin is uncertain, but not before the captivity. History shows them existing in the Maccabean period
Ecclesiasticus shares give thanks unto him that chose the sons of zadok to be priests
They sympathized with the policy of Antiochus Epiphanes IV
Ceased to exist after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD
Sadducees - believes
They held only the written law and rejected the traditions
Church fathers such as Origen and Jerome believed that they only affirmed the Pentateuch as canonical but Josephus and Talmud does not support this
Most likely had Pentateuch as primary and Prophets and Writings secondary
Did not believed in the resurrection of the dead, personal immortality, and reward or punishment in the future
Did not affirm the resurrection of the dead
But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: that souls die with their bodies
They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishment and rewards in hades
Do not believe in the existence of angel and spirit
Believe that man has the free will choice of good and evil
Sadducees in the NT
Resented his action with the temple cleansing
Attempted to get Christ is trouble with the Roman authorities
Questioned his teaching on the resurrection
Most likely feared political ruin through messianic movement
Sadducees very active against the infant church after Pentecost
We cannot say that no saducee ever believed but Scripture does not affirm one
Sadducees - focus, when did they disappear? What did they deny? What happens when you die?
The main focus of Sadducee life was ritual associated with the temple
They disappear around AD 70 after the destruction of the temple. None of their writing survived
They denied the existence of a spiritual world made up of angels and demons and such.
When you died you existence was finished
The Sanhedrin council
Pharisees and Sadducees served in the great Sanhedrin, a kind of Jewish Supreme Court made up of 71 members whose responsibility was to interpret civil and religious law
It was made up more of Sadducees that Pharisees but the masses were more loyal to the Pharisees and thus made it hard on the Sadducees to do as they pleased.
Sadducees wanted to get along with Rome
Essenes - the Dead Sea sect
They emerged out of disgust with the other two
They believed the other two sects had corrupted the city and the temple
They moved out of Jerusalem and lived a monk like life in the desert
They had a strict dietary law and a life of celibacy
Lived the Dead Sea - 1947 they found scrolls in a cave near it
Zealots - how did Josephus refer to them? When did they begin?
Josephus called this the fourth philosophy
He dated their beginning to 6 AD with their focus being more of a tax revolt
Possible earlier existence going back to Maccabaeus
Religious freedom fighters
Murder and mayhem were part of their MO
Simon the zealot (an apostle)
Confused with the diacritics
Anti-Rome, assassination, Barabbas
Herodians - who did they follow? Where were they mostly? What was they position with respect to the Romans? Who did they joined to trick Jesus?
Followers of the Herodian dynasty more under Herod antipas
Mostly in Galilee
Pro-roman
They and the Pharisees joined to try to try Jesus
