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Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes
c. 150 BC – AD 70 (Josephus)· Church or tradition· Church, doctrine & the world
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
The three main Jewish groups of Jesus' day described by Josephus, who disagreed about the law, the afterlife and the Temple.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
Pharisees were popular teachers who kept the written Torah plus an 'oral law' of tradition, and believed in resurrection. Sadducees, tied to the priestly elite and the Temple, accepted only the written law and denied resurrection (Mark 12:18; Acts 23:8). Essenes lived strict communal lives, some apart in the desert. Josephus counts about 6,000 Pharisees and over 4,000 Essenes. After AD 70 the Sadducees vanished, and the Pharisees' heirs, the rabbis, shaped Judaism.
Why it matters
They form the backdrop to Jesus' debates in the Gospels, and the Pharisees' tradition became rabbinic Judaism, the basis of Judaism today.
Sources and history
Josephus (Antiquities 13 and 18; Jewish War 2), the New Testament, Philo, Pliny the Elder on the Essenes, and later rabbinic texts. Paul calls himself a Pharisee (Philippians 3:5).
Questions and debates
Many scholars think the Gospels' harsh picture of Pharisees as hypocrites was sharpened by later church and synagogue conflict; how typical it was is debated.
Connections (3)
▸Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran) are linked by many scholars to Pharisees, Sadducees and EssenesDebated by scholars
The connection
Many scholars identify the scrolls' community with the Essenes, one of the three Jewish groups Josephus describes. Its rules (shared property, ritual washing, strict purity, a solar calendar, hostility to the Jerusalem priests) match accounts of the Essenes. Some legal texts, such as 4QMMT, also side with Sadducee positions against the Pharisees.
When and where
Qumran, near the Dead Sea's northwest shore; Pliny the Elder (c. AD 77) placed the Essenes on the Dead Sea's western shore.
How do we know?
Debated. Pliny's location, Josephus' descriptions and the Community Rule fit together, but the scrolls never use the name 'Essene'.
Questions and debates
Some scholars argue Qumran was a villa, fort or pottery workshop, and that the scrolls were Jerusalem libraries hidden before the Romans arrived in AD 68.
▸Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes debated with Jesus of NazarethMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
The Gospels show Jesus disputing with Pharisees over the Sabbath, purity and divorce, and with Sadducees over resurrection (Mark 12:18–27). He sided with the Pharisees on resurrection but condemned what he saw as hypocrisy (Matthew 23). Temple priests, largely Sadducees, later took part in his arrest.
When and where
Galilee and Jerusalem, c. AD 28–30; the Pharisee Nicodemus also visits Jesus by night (John 3).
How do we know?
Recorded in all four Gospels; Josephus independently confirms the groups' beliefs. Scholars think the debates are real but sharpened by later conflict.
Questions and debates
Jesus' teaching overlaps with Pharisee teachers like Hillel, so how close he really stood to them is debated. The Essenes are never named in the New Testament.
▸Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes were succeeded by the rabbis during Church and synagogue part waysMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
The Temple's fall wiped out the Sadducees, whose power rested on the priesthood, and the Essenes disappeared. The Pharisees' tradition of Torah study and everyday practice survived and grew into rabbinic Judaism, led first from Yavneh by sages like Yohanan ben Zakkai. Rabbis and church then defined themselves partly against each other.
When and where
Yavneh (Jamnia), near Judea's coast, from about AD 70; later in Galilee, where the Mishnah, the first code of rabbinic law, was compiled about AD 200.
How do we know?
Rabbinic writings trace their teachers back to Pharisees such as Hillel and Gamaliel; Josephus describes the earlier groups. Many scholars think the Gospels' clashes with Pharisees reflect this later rivalry.
Questions and debates
The old idea of a 'Council of Jamnia' that expelled Christians and fixed the Hebrew Bible is now largely rejected. How directly rabbis descend from Pharisees is also debated.