When the Jews returned from the Exile in Babylon, the religious situation in Israel was very fragmented. Some people had forgotten about God; others paid only lip service to religion. As usual, when there is lack of faith, there is also the emergence of fundamentalist or radical groups; this happened even in the case of Israel. The most important of these groups were called Hasidim, which means the pious ones. They participated in the war of the Maccabees against Syrian/Greek occupiers, but later detached themselves from the upheaval and became known as the Pharisees (separatists).
If we base our knowledge of the Pharisees on the Gospel, we would build up a wrong image of these people. Pharisees were pious people who sincerely wanted to love God by obeying His Law. It goes without saying that in a large movement there were radical people, or people with narrow views. In reality, most of them were people who dedicated their lives to God. In the Pharisees’ literature, we can read stronger self-criticism than what we find in the Gospel. Certainly, many Pharisees accepted Jesus as the Messiah and followed Him. Others did not join Jesus, but remained friendly with Him.
The Sadducees were a small group of families linked by belonging to the non-Levitical priesthood. At the time of Jesus, they were very few. This closely-knit group was rich – most of them had extensive land holdings in the whole of Israel, and they controlled all businesses in and around Jerusalem – and claimed to be descendants of Zadok, the High Priest appointed by Solomon (1 Kings 2: 25). They were of liberal views, did not accept the Scriptures – with the exception of the Law of Moses – and shunned later belief in the angels, the resurrection, and even the afterlife. The Sadducees cooperated with the various foreign occupiers of Israel and many adopted a Hellenistic way of life. At the time of Jesus, their indisputable chief was Annas who had been High Priest and later controlled business through his sons, all of whom became High Priests after him.
One day, Jesus told His disciples to enter Jerusalem and follow one man carrying water. That must have been a very strange order. Men did not carry water, it was women’s work! There was an exception, though. The Essenes were a group of monks who lived in Qumran, in the desert of Judah, a few km east of Jerusalem, but also in smaller communities throughout Palestine. They did not admit women in their midst, even as servants, and they used to carry water themselves. The Essenes developed a theology very similar to that which we find in the Gospel of John. They spoke of light and darkness, of water of life, and they expected the Messiah right at the time when Jesus started His ministry. The community dispersed during the Jewish revolt that would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.). Before the end of their life together, they hid many sacred scrolls in caves, sealed inside terracotta jars. They were discovered after the Second World War and they are still being translated and studied. Among these scrolls, are the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament, and various books describing the life and belief of the Essenes.
After Jesus’ death, a new sect started within Judaism: the Christians. In fact, for a long time, Christians were not distinguishable from other Jews. There is a reference to this reality in the Gospel of Matthew. The Evangelist speaks often of ‘their synagogue,’ meaning those different from ‘our’ synagogues. It was only in 84 A.D. that the High Priest Gamaliel II approved a new daily prayer composed of 18 berakoth (blessings), among them, a prayer in which there is also a curse against minim, heretics. This prayer was not written against the Christians, but it certainly regarded them as heretics. It took some more decades before the separation between Jews and Christians was completed.
