Who were the Pharisees; Sadducees; Essences; Scribes and Zealots?
Pharisees saw them selves as engaged in Jewish Revival/Reformation undoing the corrosive effects of Hellenic cultural domination of the Jews. The forerunners of modern Rabbinical Judaism, their ethics and philosophy is almost identical to that taught by Jesus, but they required a stricter emphasis on the Holiness laws. Sadducee’s were the party of Zadok, a group of people who held that only the descendants of the High Priest Zadok could interpret the Torah. Zadokans rejected the writings of the prophets as unscriptural. Essenes were a group described by Josephus, an no-one else, who were said to be ascetic and believed that the High Priesthood would be restored to a certain “Great Teacher” who had been deposed by the Hashmonean kings. Some historians question whether Essenes even existed. Scribes were men of considerable education who worked with the Zadokans as interpreters of scripture. Zealots favored a Maccabean style revolt against the Romans. Just being a Zealot was enough to get
