Sin death and beyond
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SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN<br />
The Sadducees on the other h<strong>and</strong> rejected the Oral Law as proposed by the Pharisees. They<br />
saw the Torah as the sole source of divine authority. According to Josephus, the Sadducees<br />
believed that:<br />
• There is no fate<br />
• God does not commit evil<br />
• man has free will; “man has the free choice of good or evil”<br />
• the soul is not immortal; there is no afterlife, <strong>and</strong><br />
• there are no rewards or penalties after <strong>death</strong><br />
The Sadducees rejected the belief in resurrection of the dead, which was a central tenet<br />
believed by Pharisees <strong>and</strong> by Early Christians. The Sadducees supposedly believed in the<br />
traditional Jewish concept of Sheol for those who had died.. The Sadducees did not believe in<br />
the immortality of the soul or a heaven or hell following <strong>death</strong>.<br />
Josephus describes the Essene view of an afterlife as similar to the Greeks in that "the body is<br />
corruptible... but ...the soul is immortal." The "virtuous souls" go to a pleasant "abode <strong>beyond</strong><br />
the ocean", while the "base souls" go to a "murkey <strong>and</strong> tempestuous dungeon."<br />
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