Meaning of SADDUCEES

(lat. “Sadducaei”; gr. “Saddoukaioi”).
Jewish party opposed to the Pharisees (Ant. 113:10, 6).

The Sadducees were relatively few in number, but they were highly educated people and for the most part were rich, influential and held high public offices (Ant. 18:1, 4).

Judging by etymology, this name derives from the proper name Sadoc, often written Saddouk in Gr. According to the rabbis, the party came from a man named Zadok, who lived around 300 BC, and who would have been its founder.

However, as it is evident that members of the highest priestly aristocracy were part of this party, its origin is generally thought to be traced back to another Zadok (2 Sam. 8:17), high priest in the time of David.

The high priesthood was held by the descendants of Zadok until the turbulent time of the Maccabees (see QUMRÁN [MANUSCRIPTS OF], VI, Historical outline of Qumranism). Their descendants and partisans were called Sadokites.

It seems that they divided into two branches, the radical one, which would lead to Qumranism (see previous ref.), and the accommodative one, from which the Sadducees emerged.

Contrary to the Pharisees, who gave great importance to the tradition of the ancients, and the Qumranites, who isolated themselves and had their own development, more exacerbated than the Pharisees, the Sadducees limited themselves to the writings of the Torah, the Law of Moses.

For them, only the written Law was decisive (Ant. 13:10, 6), but they claimed the right to interpret it in their own way (Ant. 18:1, 4). They held fast to the letter of the Scriptures, even with the result of great rigor in the exercise of justice (Ant. 20:9, 1).

Opposed to the Pharisees, the Sadducees denied:
(A) the resurrection and retribution in the hereafter, affirming that the soul dies with the body (Mt. 22:23-33; Acts 23:8; Ant. 18:1, 4; Wars 2:8, 14).

(B) The existence of angels and demons (Acts 23:8).

(C) Predestination, to which they opposed free will. They taught that we suffer the direct consequences of our actions, good or bad, and that apart from this God is not concerned with our behavior (Ant. 13:5, 9; Wars 2:8,14).

Their denial of immortality and resurrection was based, according to them, on the fact that the Law of Moses does not contain explicit texts about these doctrines.

The Sadducees did not take into account the belief of the patriarchs in the afterlife or in the abode of the dead (see SEOL). However, this belief contained the germ of later biblical revelations about the resurrection of the body and the coming judgment.

Indeed, it is indisputable that the patriarchs believed in the survival of the soul. By denying the existence of angels and demons, the Sadducees were reacting against the complex angeleology of Judaism of their time, full of fanciful conceptions; However, they swung to the other extreme, denying the clear teaching of the Law (Ex. 3:2; 14:19).

At first, this sect probably taught that God confers punishments and rewards on earth, according to the behavior of men. But if it is true that they claimed, as Josephus affirms, that God is uninterested in our behavior, they openly confronted the Law of Moses, which they said they wanted to follow (Gen. 3:17; 4:7; 6:5-7 ).

There is no doubt that they began by denying what was not expressly revealed in the letter of Scripture. Later, influenced by Hellenistic conceptions, they ended up adopting the philosophy of Aristotle, discarding any doctrine that could not be demonstrated rationally.

Origin and development of the party of the Sadducees.

On this point, Schürer's reconstruction follows: The priestly house of Zadok was at the head of Judaism in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, under Persian and Greek domination.

This priestly aristocracy relied more on political management than on its religious functions, possibly giving in to historical conditions. In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the high priest's family leaned toward the pagan world.

In the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC), many priests threw themselves into the arms of Hellenism (2 Mac. 4:14-16); The high priests Jason, Menelaus and Alcimus were supporters of Greek culture.

Under the Maccabees, the people declared themselves resolutely in favor of the religion of Israel and against the uses and customs of paganism. When the Maccabees acceded to the high priesthood, the supporters of the house of Zadok divided into two camps.

The purists closed themselves in on themselves (see QUMRAN [MANUSCRIPTS OF], VI, Historical outline of Qumranism), while the followers of the Hellenizing tendencies of the late Sadokites gave themselves to politics and increasingly neglected customs and traditions. of the ancients, in order to cultivate Greek culture.

John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus and Alexander Jannaeus (135-78 BC) favored the Sadducees. Under the rule of the Romans and Herod, politics depended largely on the Sadducees; the high priests of this period belonged to this party (Acts 5:17; Ant. 20:9, 1).

Both Sadducees and Pharisees came to John the Baptist in the desert. The prophet called them a “brood of vipers” (Mt. 3:7). They joined together to demand a sign from heaven from Jesus (Mt. 16:1-4).

The Lord warned his disciples against both parties (Mt. 16: 6-12). The Sadducees tried to put him on the spot with an insidious question about the resurrection, but He refuted his arguments, and they did not know what to answer (Mt. 22:23-33).

They joined the priests and the chief of the Temple guard in pursuing Peter and John (Acts 4:1-22). The apostle Paul appeared before the Sanhedrin, made up of Sadducees and Pharisees, and used their differences over the resurrection to save his life (Acts 23:6-10).