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What the Bible says about Sadducees
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Judaism began after the reforms of Ezra. Ezra was a priest—a contemporary of Nehemiah—in the fifth century BC. Sometime after Ezra, the sect of the Pharisees arose. At first, they were lay members who rose in opposition to the Temple priests. No scholar has ever been able to determine what issue caused the Pharisees to band together as a group. They may have felt that the priests had too much power and authority, and were taking advantage of people, abusing them. The Sadducees were the priestly class combined with the wealthy.

Nevertheless, became the sect of the Pharisees began to arise. By the time of Christ, the Pharisees had begun attracting the scribes as well. They are frequently linked together. The scribes and the Pharisees often confronted Jesus together. The Pharisees were the stricter half of this duo, and despite this, they were more popular with the people. They were also generally less accurate in their interpretation of Scripture.

By the time of Christ, both parties of the Sadducees and the Pharisees had evolved into political parties with overtones of religious conviction, which varied considerably. They were vying for power in the community and of course confronting each another over what we might consider minor points of law.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Five)

Related Topics: Judaism | Pharisees | Sadducees


 

Matthew 3:7-10

Notice that his scathing attack is against both the Pharisees and Sadducees: The Pharisees had public power because they tended to be successful people in private life. In spite of this, they also had the admiration of the people. The Sadducees were largely from the priesthood and thus controlled the Temple. Consequently, they pretty much controlled the religious life of the people. Yet, because they also tended to be wealthy but haughty in disposition, the feelings of the people were prejudiced against them.

John courageously confronts the establishment's leadership. His was an unpopular message of judgment aimed directly at the powerful, and they did not take kindly to what he said. "And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him" (Luke 7:29-30).

Matthew 21:32 confirms John's rejection when Jesus speaks to the chief priests and elders at the Temple: "For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him." The powerful knew John was speaking about them, so in disdainful anger, they rejected him, while the publicans and harlots accepted his teaching.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Elijah and John the Baptist

Matthew 4:4

It is essential that we look at the Old Testament as a Christian book that was purposely written with the Christian in mind.

It is easy for us to think of the Old Testament as the book of Judaism, and that Christianity's roots are in Judaism. In fact, this idea is readily accepted in the "Christian world," but it is not true—not true in the least, except that there are some shared beliefs. If it were true, its modern corollary would be that Christianity's roots are also in paganism, because some of the concepts that pagans have are also shared with Christianity. That, incidentally, is what one large church has claimed in its writings about the holy days—that they actually derive from paganism.

The truth is that Judaism is a corruption of the religion God gave to Moses. It, too, was syncretic: part pagan, part truth, bound together by their own reasoning. In many places, Jesus corrected and railed against the Sadducees, the scribes, and the Pharisees. He said directly that they had rejected God's commandments in order to keep their own traditions. God's commandments are in the Old Testament; the Jews' traditions are not, and they are what the Jews lived by. Therefore, how can we say that Judaism came out of the Old Testament? God called the people out of Judaism to bring them into Christianity, just as today God is calling people out of a syncretic Christianity in order to bring them into true, biblical Christianity.

If Judaism really were God's religion, why did He not fix it from within? The period between the Testaments—between Malachi and Matthew—covered roughly 400 years in which a great deal took place. The record of Judaism during that time, particularly the history of the high priests, is much like that of the Papacy during the Middle Ages.

True Christianity's roots are in the truth of God—not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New. Judaism, though, rejects the New Testament, claiming the Old Testament as their book exclusively, and that perception is very strong to all. This world's Christianity claims the New Testament as its exclusive domain and virtually—and practically—ignores the Old Testament.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Sixteen)

Acts 2:1

When did Jesus keep the Feast of Pentecost? Through Jesus' birth, boyhood, young adult years, manhood, ministry, and death, who set the date for Pentecost for the Jews? History tells us that it was those responsible for the Temple—the Sadducees. How did the Sadducees count Pentecost? History tells us that they kept a Sunday Pentecost and arrived at it by counting fifty days beginning with the Sabbath occurring within the Feast of Unleavened Bread [see Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services (Updated Edition), 1994, pp. 203-204. Realize, however, that Edersheim, a convert to Christianity from Pharisaism, supports a Sivan 6 Pentecost.]. It is important to note that at that time it was the Sadducees, not the Pharisees, who consistently observed a Sunday Pentecost.

Why is this information important? True Christians follow the example of Jesus Christ (I John 2:6; Matthew 10:38). When it comes to Pentecost, what was Jesus' example?

The New Testament shows us that Jesus and His disciples followed the practice of the Jews by keeping the same holy days on the same days, including Pentecost (Acts 2). The Jews followed the instruction of those God allowed to be in charge at that time—the Sadducees.

Pat Higgins
Which Sabbath Begins the Count?

2 Peter 2:1

Alarming as II Peter 2:1-3 is, Peter does not define heresy, but he does tell what one heresy is and will be. He also does not tell us here what the source of heresy is either.

Heresy is the translation of the Greek hairesis—meaning literally "choice" or "selection"—which has an interesting secular as well as biblical history. Until its biblical use, it had no evil connotation. Even in the Bible, it is mostly used to refer to a party or a philosophy with which a person had chosen to identify or ally himself. Thus, hairesis is frequently translated "sect." In Acts, Luke applies it to the Sadducees (Acts 5:17) and the Pharisees (Acts 15:5; 26:5). Outsiders also used hairesis in Acts 24:5, 14 and Acts 28:22 to identify the Christian church.

However, when Paul and Peter's writings began circulating, hairesis meant a destructive element within the church that creates division through consciously formed opinions and ideas in disagreement with the orthodox teachings of the apostles. Paul condemns it in Galatians 5:20 as one of "the works of the flesh." Sometimes it is translated "factions" or "party spirit," but regardless of its translation, Paul says that people who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God (verse 21)!

In the ordinary course of secular life, heresy was of little consequence; one person's opinion or choice about most things in life is just as good as another's. A person can be given any number of alternatives, any one of which he may be perfectly free to believe. However, in Christianity we are dealing with revelation, with God-given truth, with absolutes. When God's truth comes to men, we either have to accept or reject it. Thus, a heretic is a man who believes what he wishes to believe instead of accepting the truth of God that he ought to believe.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Damnable Heresies


Find more Bible verses about Sadducees:
Sadducees {Nave's}
 




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