Jewish Social and Religious Institutions
Chart 3-1
Three Main Jewish Sects
Explanation
The New Testament mentions several Jewish social institutions that can be quite con-
fusing. The charts in this section provide basic information about the main groups with
which Jesus interacted or may have had contact. Beyond the aristocratic Herodians, three
main Jewish sects were religiously active during the time of Jesus: Pharisees, Sadducees,
and Essenes. In addition, many Jews would have been unaffiliated with any of these particular
movements.
Pharisaic (separatist) Judaism is known through later rabbinic writings. Jesus clashed
with the Pharisees partly because he encountered them often in the outlying villages and
also because he shared many of their underlying religious concerns. Friction is often the
greatest between groups that are actually the closest to each other.
The Sadducees were largely hellenized Jews who controlled the temple and Sanhedrin
in Jerusalem and cooperated with the Romans.
The Essenes, who awaited the impending arrival of the apocalyptic end of the world,
occupied one neighborhood in Jerusalem and may have drawn adherents from all around
Judea. They were centered at Qumran where they copied biblical scrolls and produced
sectarian documents found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are never mentioned directly
in the New Testament. This chart compares these three main sects on a few of their most
salient points of doctrine and practice.
References
Elias J. Bickerman, The Jews in the Greek Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988).
Victor L. Ludlow, “Major Jewish Groups in the New Testament,” Ensign, January 1975, 26–29.
Frederick J. Murphy, The Religious World of Jesus (Nashville: Abingdon, 1991).
Charting the New Testament, © 2002 Welch, Hall, FARMS
Three Main Jewish Sects
PHARISEES SADDUCEES ESSENES
General in the world but in the world and neither in the world
not of the world of the world nor of the world
Law valued oral law, rejected oral law, wrote hidden law,
also accepted accepted only accepted and gave
old written law old written law interpretations to old law
Interpretation accurate, precise pragmatic, creative, adaptive
accommodating
God participates in removed from the Messiah will destroy
events of world evil of world the evil of world
Fate Fate cooperates rejected Fate, accepted Fate
in human actions emphasized agency
Society kind to each other, rude to each other, great attachment
lenient (Mt 5:46; boorish, punitive to each other
Acts 5:39) (compare Acts 5:40)
Main Locations rural villages and urban centers remote communes,
cities separate quarters
Gentiles partially accepted openly accepted mostly rejected
Property lived simply sought wealth despised wealth,
held goods in common
Pleasure shunned pleasure
Souls imperishable, good no afterlife, no bodies perishable,
souls alone go on eternal rewards souls immortal,
to another body, or punishments liberated upon death
wicked souls suffer
eternal punishment,
believed in resurrection
Charting the New Testament, © 2002 Welch, Hall, FARMS Chart -
