Worship and the nations

Religious Sects and Political Factions

Blackwood’s Comprehensive Aids to the Study of the Bible · Vol. I, p. 63

During Our Lord's Ministry.

§Religious Sects, their Founders and Tenets.

After the spirit of prophecy ceased, and there were no inspired persons to settle disputes in religious matters among the Jews, different opinions soon sprung up and divided them into various sects and parties. The chief of these were the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. These sects are generally believed to have arisen after the Babylonish captivity, and they differed in the following particulars. The Zaddikim gave themselves to the study of the Scriptures; the Chasidim studied how to add to the Scriptures. The former professed a desire to conform to the law; the latter would be above the law, voluntarily adding to what the law required. These persons speedily fell into two sects, with broadly marked distinctions.

§I. The Pharisees

Probably derived their name from the Hebrew word perushim, in Syriac pherishai, which signifies persons who are separated from others. They assumed this name because they claimed a more than ordinary sanctity (Acts xxvi. 5). Josephus tells us that they boasted that they were the favorites of heaven, and they held that God was in strict justice bound to bless and make them partakers of the terrestrial kingdom of the Messiah, and to crown them with eternal happiness. Pharisaism rose gradually, but it was consolidated as a sect at least two hundred years before the Advent.

The great body of the populace were attracted to the sect because of their outward sanctity, their zeal and their assumption of superiority. In doctrine they held a mixture of fatalism and liberty. They believed in angels, in the existence of human spirits, in immortality and in a species of resurrection of the good, or rather in a transmigration similar to the system of Pythagoras. Above all they were noted for the manner in which they placed the traditions of the elders not only on a level with the law of God, but often above it, and thus by their explanations and refinements they made the commandment of God of none effect (Matt. xv. 6). They affected great austerity and external mortification, but there was an ostentation, self-conceit and hypocrisy in all that they did. They made long prayers and gave alms "to be seen of men." They were scrupulous in observing fasts and ordinances, washing of hands, cups and vessels, while they neglected "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith" (Matt. xxiii. 23; Luke xviii. 11, 12). They affected a peculiar dress—long robes, deep fringes and broad phylacteries—and yet they sought the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be honored in the market places, thus showing their pride, selfishness and arrogance, even while they professed themselves to be engaged in the service of Jehovah. Hence the terrible denunciations and warnings of our Lord (Matt. xxiii.; Mark xii.; Luke xi.), in which he exposes their character and prepares them for the judgment that awaited them.

§II. The Sadducees

Appear to have derived their name from Sadock, a pupil of Antigonus Sochœus, president of the great Sanhedrim, about two hundred and sixty years before Christ. He enjoined his pupils to serve God from pure love, and not from fear nor from hope of reward. Sadock, misunderstanding or perverting his master's tenets, taught that there was no future state of rewards and punishments, and the Sadducees held that "there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit" (Matt. xxii. 23; Acts xxiii. 8), and that the soul perishes with the body. They rejected all traditions, professing to receive only the letter of Scripture, and mainly accepting the books of Moses. They denied a superintending providence, holding that man had an absolute liberty to shape his life as he pleased, and that prosperity or adversity was entirely in his own hands, being simply the result of his wisdom or his folly. In numbers the Sadducees were inconsiderable, but the opulent and the elevated classes were often found in their ranks, and all who simply expected to find happiness or even existence in this life.

§III. The Essenes

Probably derived their name from a Syriac word which signifies to heal or cure, not because they studied medicine, but because they gave heed to the diseases of the soul. They appear to have been divided into two parties, one of them being called by Philo practical Essenes. They engaged in husbandry and mechanical arts. Both classes were abstemious in their food, living on coarse fare and drinking water only. Their houses were mean, and so also was their raiment, which they never changed till worn out. They eschewed all ornaments and neatness in dress. They lived in societies, and had all their goods in common. Avoiding extravagance, they were moral in outward character and rigid in their observance of the Sabbath. They believed in the immortality of the soul—rejecting a resurrection—the existence of angels, a future state of rewards and punishments, and that all things followed by an eternal fatality or chain of necessary causes.

It is not known when this sect arose. Paul is held to refer to them (Col. ii. 18, 21, 23) where he speaks of "a voluntary humility," and "neglecting of the body." They had some peculiar views respecting angelic beings, and they were noted for their custom of swearing all who entered into their fellowship, to "keep and observe the books of the sect and the names of the angels with care." The dogmas also to which Paul adverts in his words "touch not, taste not, handle not," are such as the Essenes held. They would not taste any pleasant food, but lived on coarse bread, drank nothing but water, and many of them would not eat until after sunset, while if they were touched by any not of their own sect, they would wash as if they had been polluted.

§Political Factions, their Founders and Objects.

§I. The Samaritans

Were the descendants of the heathen colonists settled in Israel at the time of the captivity. Originally they were heathen, but gradually they became acquainted with the system of the Jews. When Nehemiah attempted a reformation of the Church, a priest, Manasseh, fled to Samaria, and his father-in-law, Sanballat, the governor, erected a temple, in which he ministered. To this temple disorderly Jews who would not be reformed continued to go, and thus, while the priests in Jerusalem were annoyed, the population was augmented in Samaria who professed the true God. Idolatry was therefore largely abandoned, and the descendants of that mixed population held tenaciously to the services of their Samaritan temple. The enmity never died out which was caused by the refusal of the Jews to allow the heathen colonists to aid in reconstructing the temple at Jerusalem, and this feeling was intensified by the fact that when the Jews were in peace and safety their favor was sought by the Samaritans, but when the savage assaults of Antiochus Epiphanes threatened the destruction of the nation, their northern neighbors were ready to renounce their faith, and to disavow all their desired alliances, even going so far as to offer to dedicate their temple on Mount Gerizim to Jupiter Olympius. Hence, it was the highest term of reproach among the Jews, to call a person a Samaritan (John viii. 48), and so great was their animosity that they would neither ask nor receive favors from each other (John iv. 9).

Around the site of their ruined temple a wretched handful still continues to rally, where they observe a peculiar form of sacrifice. At Nablous they have a synagogue, and they boast of having an ancient manuscript copy of the Pentateuch three thousand five hundred years old.

§II. The Herodians

Were distinguished from the other Jews, by concurring in the scheme of Herod to submit himself and his dominions to the Romans. They apprehended that the Roman power would be irresistible, and that a wise if not a selfish policy was to cultivate the favor of the Roman emperors. They joined in the policy of Herod in erecting temples with images for idolatrous worship, in building theatres and instituting pagan games, and in all these they were opposed to the Pharisees, who held it was unlawful to pay taxes to the Roman emperor. In doctrine they are believed to have been Sadducean, for that which by one Evangelist is called the leaven of Herod (Mark viii. 15) is by another (Matt. xvi. 6) styled "the leaven of the Sadducees."

§III. The Galileans or Gaulonites

Were a faction headed by Judas the Galilean, or Gaulonite, against the Roman power, when Augustus levied a tax on Judea and reduced it to the form of a Roman province. He proclaimed that tribute was due to God alone, and therefore should not be paid to the Romans, that religious liberty should be asserted, and that the divine laws were to be defended by force of arms. This party was soon suppressed, and it is probable that a reference is made to it, in the allusion to those whom Pilate slew, and whose blood had been mingled with their sacrifices.

§IV. The Zealots,

Of whom so much mention is made in the account of the Jewish wars by Josephus, were probably in league with the Galileans, and Lamy holds that the Just Men, whom the Pharisees and Herodians sent to entangle our Lord in his conversation (Matt. xxii. 15, 16; Mark xii. 13, 14; Luke xx. 20), were members of this political party.

§V. The Sicarii,

Rendered murderers in Acts xxi. 38, were really a band of assassins who derived their name from their using poniards like the Roman Sicæ. These they concealed in their garments, and, like the Indian thugs, they used them in secret, to slay their victims. They appear to have been under the lead of an Egyptian impostor.