Israelites, Pharisees & Sadducees In The 21st Century Church

IV. Sadducees
The Sadducees (/ˈsædjəˌsiːz/; Hebrew: צְדּוקִ‏ ים Ṣĕdûqîm) were a sect or group
of Jews that were active in Judea during the Second Temple period, starting from the
second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The Sadducees
are often compared to other contemporaneous sects, including the Pharisees and
the Essenes.
The sect was identified by Josephus with the upper social and economic echelon of
Judean society. As a whole, the sect fulfilled various political, social, and religious roles,
including maintaining the Temple. Their sect is believed to have become extinct some
time after the destruction of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, but it has been
speculated that the later Karaites may have had some roots in—or connections with—
Sadducaic views.
Etymology
According to Abraham Geiger, the Sadducaic sect of Judaism drew their name
from Zadok, the first High Priest of ancient Israel to serve in the First Temple, with the
leaders of the sect proposed as the Kohanim (priests, the "sons of Zadok", descendants
of Eleazar, son of Aaron).
In any event, the name Zadok, being related to the root צָדַ‏ ק ṣāḏaq (to be right,
just), could be indicative of their aristocratic status in society in the initial period of their
existence.
Furthermore, Flavius Josephus mentions in Antiquities of the Jews that in the time of
Boethus: "…one Judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, who taking
with him Sadduc, a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt…". Paul L.
Maier notes, "It seems not improbable to me that this Sadduc, the Pharisee, was the
very same man of whom the rabbis speak, as the unhappy but undesigning occasion of
the impiety or infidelity of the Sadduccees; nor perhaps had the men this name of the
Sadduccees till this very time, though they were a distinct sect long before." The
similarity of Sadduc to the Zadok above, varying largely in transliteration, lends
credence to that account. The contextual inclusion of Boethus and Sadduc implies they
were most likely contemporaries.
The Second Temple Period
History
The Second Temple Period is the period in ancient Israel between the construction of
the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 516 BCE and its destruction by the Romans in 70
CE.
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