Four Sects Essay

This message of morality is accompanied by one emphasizing faith in the Jesus/Lord unit, a value that had always been present in Judaism but never to the degree that Jesus requires. This address the loss of spirituality that resulted from the Pharisees’ emphasis on tradition as the basis of society. Jesus repeatedly criticizes the Pharisees as “hypocrites” (Cousland 1747) that just go through the motions of prayer and giving alms to be seen by others as pious (NOAB Matt 6:1-5). Instead, the people are told to do these things in secret (NOAB Matt 6:3-6). The good that comes from faith and the disaster that comes from the lack of it are the driving messages behind most of the parables (NOAB Matt 13:1-53). In addition, many of the sick and dead that Jesus heals are revived because of their faith or that of others close to them (NOAB Matt 8:5-13, NOAB Matt 9:20-22, NOAB Matt 9:27-29).

The major groups of the religious Jewish authority that are present in The Shadow of the Galilean are the members of the Sadducidic and Pharisidic movements. The movement that best illustrates how Theissen illuminates the actions and sayings of Jesus are the Pharisees. Theissen helps show that the characterization of the Pharisees in the Gospels is shallow, and that they were not as condemnatory or unified as the Bible presents them.

they would be blessed if they followed God, but punished if they strayed from him. Nehemiah

Chapter 11-12 A sadducee was mostly a priest or aristocrat that was apart of the Palestinian sect. A pharisee was apart of a Jewish sect that had beliefs in oral traditions, afterlife and believing in the coming of the messiah. There is almost always problems and tension between Jesus and the religious leaders.

In Chapter 2 of Encountering the New Testament the author talks about a few of the different practices that unified the Jews as well the different religious groups that had different beliefs. Judaism was unified in the beliefs that they had been chosen by God, they were waiting for the messiah to come, they respect the synagogues, they shared the same laws and traditions of elder. Although these beliefs were unifying there were seperate religious groups and leaders that held different beliefs. Probably the most well known group of religious leaders were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a small group of religious leaders that believed in God, and the coming messiah. Although many of the Pharisees did live good lives many of them were

group of people who were disliked even Quakers and Jews who did not share the same God were

During the time of Jesus, Josephus claimed “there were five sects of Jews at the time of Jesus: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots and Sicarii” (How Jews lived in Jesus time). These groups had their own way of interpreting the scriptures to fit their lives in present and in future.

At this point the Jews believed a messiah would restore their unity and take away the Roman state of oppression. Among the different sects, each one had a different messianic expectation or none at all, the aristocratic Sadducees held no messianic expectations because they worried that a messianic claimant would instigate friction with the Romans, therefor ridding the Sadducees of their lifestyle. The Essenes predicted the coming of two messiahs, a priestly messiah and a Davidic King messiah. Many of the leaders that appeared as messianic claimants came forth with numerous and creative solutions to free the Jewish people from their social, political, and religious suffering. While some of these leaders revolted for an immediate change, others rebelled just to fulfill their given or claimed messianic role.

They believed that those who were not perfect and did not follow rules should be rooted out of the community. Since the ideal system of a community was to be a perfect society, anyone who did not pursue this was considered to be a sinner. And if one were thought to be a sinner, then he or she would

Jesus of Nazareth was seen as threat to the Roman Empire. They believed he would cause uproar since he proclaimed he was the son of God. With this title, Jesus would of had more power than the Roman Empire itself. Proclaiming this also made him a threat to the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The Jews believed that a Messiah would be sent to rescue them and deliver peace in harmony in Israel. Unfortunately, they did not believe Jesus was it. With both groups, they mistreated and ridicule Jesus and crucified him.

The Sadducees were the wealthy members of Judea who welcomed the secular world into their heart and rejected any ideas that were not written down and resisted any form of change (Regev, 2006). Pharisees were the middle class members of Judean society that believed in good and evil and rejected those who did not meet their standards of behavior. The Zealots were the politically radical group that stood up to the Romans and attempted to overthrow the regime, but was not able to do so. Essenes rejected the views of all other groups and concentrated on living a spiritually purified life full of contemplation within a religious community.

Thirdly, there are the Essenes. The Essenes were “a monastic group reported to have lived in the Dead Sea area” In the book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim, the Essenes are described as “strict Jews, yet separatists, and, alike in doctrine, worship, and practice, outside the Jewish body ecclesiastic.” These Jewish outsiders kept to themselves, were not mentioned in the New Testament, and “their numbers amounted to only about 4,000.” The Essenes came about out from denial of the ways of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Essenes believed the other two sects had “corrupted the city and the Temple.” This corruption took form in avarice, poor practice, and hierarchal obsession. This pollution of practice morphed the

That division between the Jews and Samaritans is what made this group of people so important in the New Testament and called for better treatment of both groups.

Lasor (1996, p.398-399) during the second temple period Jewish lived not only in Judah but in the Disapora, or dispersion: Babylon, Egypt, and quite likely other place. The Pharisee was strongly committed to the daily application and observance of the law. This means they only accepted the tradition of the law which made it applicable and possible. They also believed in oral as well as written law; immortality of the soul.

The sect-church cycle is when people start separating and splintering off from an existing church, when the church in people’s eyes gets too involved in secular issues. The people separating themselves will distance themselves from the worldly corruption, and in time build their own sect. As time progresses the sect will grow enough followers and become a church.