What are the differences between the Sadducees and Pharisees?
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What are the differences between the Sadducees and Pharisees? What is a Sadducee? What is a Pharisee? What were the important differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees?
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- What are the differences between the Sadducees and the Pharisees? We're going to answer that question.
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- The Gospels often refer to the Sadducees and Pharisees as Jesus was in almost constant conflict with them.
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- The Sadducees and Pharisees comprised the ruling class of Jews in Israel. There are some similarities between the two groups, but there are important differences between them as well.
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- The Pharisees and Sadducees were both religious sects within Judaism during the time of Christ.
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- Both groups honored Moses and the law, and they both had a measure of political power. The Sanhedrin, the 70 -member
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- Supreme Court of ancient Israel, had members from both the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
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- The differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees are known to us through a couple of passages of Scripture and through the extant writings of the
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- Pharisees. Religiously, the Sadducees were more conservative in one doctrinal area. They insisted on a literal interpretation of the text of Scripture.
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- The Pharisees, on the other hand, gave oral tradition, equal authority to the written word of God.
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- If the Sadducees couldn't find a command in the Tanakh, they dismissed it as man -made. Given the
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- Pharisees' and Sadducees' differing view of Scripture, it's no surprise that they argued over certain doctrines.
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- The Sadducees rejected a belief in the resurrection of the dead, but the Pharisees did believe in the resurrection.
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- The Sadducees denied the afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death, but the Pharisees believed in an afterlife and in an appropriate reward and punishment for individuals.
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- The Sadducees rejected the idea of an unseen spiritual world, but the Pharisees taught the existence of angels and demons in a spiritual realm.
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- The Apostle Paul shrewdly used the theological differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees to escape their clutches.
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- Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem and was making his defense before the Sanhedrin. Knowing that some of the court were
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- Sadducees and the others Pharisees, Paul called out, "'My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees.
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- I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.'" Paul's mention of the resurrection precipitated a dispute between the
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- Pharisees and Sadducees, dividing the assembly and causing a great uproar. The Roman commander who watched the proceedings sent troops into the melee to rescue
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- Paul from their violence. Socially, the Sadducees were more elitist and aristocratic than Pharisees.
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- Sadducees tended to be wealthy and to hold more powerful positions. The chief priests and high priests were
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- Sadducees, and they held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin. The Pharisees were more representative of the common working people and had the respect of the masses.
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- The Sadducees' place of power was in the temple in Jerusalem, and the Pharisees controlled the synagogues.
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- The Sadducees were friendlier with Rome and more accommodating to the Roman laws than the Pharisees were.
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- The Pharisees often resisted Hellenization, but the Sadducees welcomed it. Jesus had more run -ins with the
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- Pharisees than with the Sadducees. You ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition.
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- Because the Sadducees were often more concerned with politics than religion, they ignored Jesus until they began to fear he might bring unwanted
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- Roman attention and upset the status quo. It was at that point that the Sadducees and Pharisees set aside their differences, united, and conspired to put
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- Christ to death. The Sadducees as a group ceased to exist after the destruction of Jerusalem, but the
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- Pharisees' legacy lived on. In fact, the Pharisees were responsible for the compilation of the
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- Mishnah, an important document with reference to the continuation of Judaism beyond the destruction of the temple.
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- In this way, the Pharisees laid the groundwork for modern -day Rabbinic Judaism. That answers the question, what are the differences between the
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- Sadducees and the Pharisees? Research this question further on our website, GotQuestions .org.