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Their name in Hebrew was tsedduqim, a name they choose to indicate that they were followers of the teachings of the High Priest Zadok, who anointed Solomon king during the First Temple era. While little or none of their own writings have been preserved till today, they seem to have indeed been a priestly group, associated with the leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem. Some say that they were not truly descendants of the High Priest Zadok, but rather the followers of another Zadok who rebelled against his Rabbinical Teacher.

Most of what we know about the Sadducees comes from Josephus, who wrote that they were a quarrelsome group whose followers were wealthy and powerful, and that he considered them boorish in social interactions. We know something of them from discussions in the Talmud, the core work of rabbinic Judaism, which is based on the teachings of Pharisaic Judaism. However, historians find the Talmud's historical statements on many issues to be suspect.

1 Beliefs

It is claimed that the Sadducees denied the immortality of the soulThis page is about the core essence of a being. For the music genre, see soul music; for the chief city of South Korea see Seoul. The soul in several philosophical movements and many religious traditions, is the core essence of a being. In some traditions, and are discussed in this light in the New TestamentThe New Testament sometimes called the Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus Christ. The term is a translation of the Latin Novum Testamentum which translates the Greek Η &Kappa debating the matter with JesusImages of Jesus in which a halo is used to represent divinity. 6 4 BCE to c. 29 33 CE) is the central figure in Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from the Hebrew Yehošua , and Greek Chi;ριστ&sigmaf Chris, and that they denied the existence of spiritsA spirit or spiritual being is a non-corporeal entity found in many religions and belief systems throughout the world. The word has many connections to the concept of the soul, with the difference that a spirit is not necessarily linked to a human or othe or angelThis article describes supernatural creatures; for other meanings, see angel (disambiguation). Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus ( El Greco, 1575) An angel is a spiritual being which assists and serves God or the gods in many religious trs.

They rejected the rabbis' interpretation of the TorahTorah [] is a Hebrew word meaning teaching instruction or especially Law''. It primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh, i. the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. These books are Genesis Bereishit []), Exodus Shemot []), Leviticus Vayikra [], and are presented as denying that any of the Hebrew BibleHebrew Bible refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian canons. It is a bias-free term that is preferred to both Tanakh and Old Testament when discussing the text in academic writing. 3 of the Style Manual for the Society of Biblical Litera, apart from the Torah, is authoritative. As to the Torah itself, the Sadducees are presented as interpreting it literally and rigorously on subjects it directly covers, while rejecting the Rabbinic traditions that mitigate the harsher penalties or aim at preventing unintentional rule-breaking.

However there is evidence that there was an internal schism among those called "Saducees" - some which rejected Angels, the Soul, and Resurrection - and some which accepted these teachings and the entirety of the Hebrew Bible.

In regards to the following records of the Talmud, one must keep in mind that the histories regarding the Saduccees were written by a people who defeated them, and may contain many inaccuracies.

According to the Talmud, in regard to criminal jurisdiction they were so rigorous that the day on which their code was abolished by the Pharisaic Sanhedrin under Simeon ben Shetah's leadership, during the reign of Salome Alexandra, was celebrated as a festival. The Sadducees are said to have insisted on the literal execution of the law of retaliation: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth", which pharisaic Judaism, and later rabbinic Judaism, rejected. On the other hand, they would not inflict the death penalty on false witnesses in a case where capital punishment had been wrongfully carried out, unless the accused had been executed solely in consequence of the testimony of such witnesses.

According to the Talmud, they granted the daughter the same right of inheritance as the son's daughter in case the son was dead.

According to the Talmud, they contended that the seven weeks from the first barley-sheaf-offering ("omer") to Pentecost (The Feast of Weeks, ShavuotShavuot ( Hebrew ), ("[seven] weeks") (pronounced: shah-voo-OH-t) is one of the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals; it is a major Jewish holiday; it is also known as the Feast of Weeks. Greek-speaking Jews gave it the name Pentecost since it occurs fifty) should, according to Lev. 23:15-16, be counted from "the day after Sabbath," and, consequently, that Pentecost should always be celebrated on the first day of the week (Meg. Ta'an. i.; Men. 65a). In this they followed the old Biblical view which regards the festival of the firstlings as having no connection with Passover, while the Pharisees, connecting the festival of the Exodus with the festival of the giving of the Law, interpreted the "morrow after the Sabbath" to signify the second day of Passover.

In regards to rituals at the Temple in Jerusalem:

• They held that the daily burnt offerings were to be offered by the high priest at his own expense, whereas the Pharisees contended that they were to be furnished as a national sacrifice at the cost of the Temple treasury into which taxes were paid.

• They held that the meal offering belonged to the priest's portion; whereas the Pharisees claimed it for the altar.

• They insisted on an especially high degree of purity in those who officiated at the preparation of the ashes of the Red Heifer. The Pharisees, on the contrary, opposed such strictness.

• They declared that the kindling of the incense in the vessel with which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement was to take place outside, so that he might be wrapped in smoke while meeting the Shekhinah within, according to Lev. xvi. 2; whereas the Pharisees, denying the high priest the claim of such super-natural vision, insisted that the incense be kindled within.

• They opposed the popular festivity of the water libation and the procession preceding the same on each night of the Sukkot feast.

• They opposed the Pharisaic assertion that the scrolls of the Holy Scriptures have, like any holy vessel, the power to render ritually unclean (taboo) the hands that touch them.

• They opposed the Pharisaic idea of the eruv, the merging of several private precincts into one in order to admit of the carrying of food and vessels from one house to another on the Sabbath.

• In dating all civil documents they used the phrase "after the high priest of the Most High," and they opposed the formula introduced by the Pharisees in divorce documents," According to the law of Moses and Israel".

• The Apocryphal book of Sirach is believed by many scholars to be written by a Saducee.