Matthew 16:6-12; Yeshua said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” … 11 How is it that you don’t perceive that I didn’t speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.
Sadducee, member of a Jewish priestly sect that flourished for about two centuries before the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 ce. Not much is known of the Sadducees’ origin and early history, but their name may be derived from that of Zadok, who was high priest in the time of Kings David and Solomon. Ezekiel later selected this family as worthy of being entrusted with control of the Temple, and Zadokites formed the Temple hierarchy down to the 2nd century bce.
The Sadducees were the party of high priests, aristocratic families, and merchants—the wealthier elements of the population. They came under the influence of Hellenism, tended to have good relations with the Roman rulers of Palestine, and generally represented the conservative view within Judaism. While their rivals, the Pharisees, claimed the authority of piety and learning, the Sadducees claimed that of birth and social and economic position. During the long period of the two parties’ struggle—which lasted until the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem in 70 ce—the Sadducees dominated the Temple and its priesthood.
The Sadducees and Pharisees were in constant conflict with each other, not only over numerous details of ritual and the Law but most importantly over the content and extent of God’s revelation to the Jewish people. The Sadducees refused to go beyond the written Torah (first five books of the Bible) and thus, unlike the Pharisees, denied the immortality of the soul, bodily resurrection after death, and—according to the Acts of the Apostles (23:8), the fifth book of the New Testament—the existence of angelic spirits. For the Sadducees, the Oral Law—i.e., the vast body of postbiblical Jewish legal traditions—meant next to nothing. By contrast, the Pharisees revered the Torah but further claimed that oral tradition was part and parcel of Mosaic Law. Because of their strict adherence to the Written Law, the Sadducees acted severely in cases involving the death penalty, and they interpreted literally the Mosaic principle of lex talionis (“an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”).
Though the Sadducees were conservative in religious matters, their wealth, their haughty bearing, and their willingness to compromise with the Roman rulers aroused the hatred of the common people. As defenders of the status quo, the Sadducees viewed the ministry of Jesus with considerable alarm and apparently played some role in his trial and death. Their lives and political authority were so intimately bound up with Temple worship that after Roman legions destroyed the Temple, the Sadducees ceased to exist as a group, and mention of them quickly disappeared from history.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Pharisee”. Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sadducee. Accessed 17 May 2025
John Hyrcanus served as both high priest and ruler of Judea. Initially aligned with the Pharisees, he distanced himself from them following an incident where a Pharisee named Eleazar questioned his legitimacy as high priest, suggesting his mother had been a captive and thus casting doubt on his priestly lineage. Offended by this accusation, Hyrcanus shifted his allegiance to the Sadducees, who supported his dual role as both king and high priest .
This event marked a significant point in the growing divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees emphasized adherence to both the Written and Oral Torah and were influential among the common people. In contrast, the Sadducees were associated with the priestly aristocracy, accepted only the Written Torah, and held significant political power, especially within the Temple hierarchy .
The tension between these groups intensified during the reign of Hyrcanus’s son, Alexander Jannaeus, who openly supported the Sadducees. His actions, including the persecution of Pharisees, led to civil unrest. However, upon his death, his widow, Salome Alexandra, who was sympathetic to the Pharisees, restored their influence, allowing them to dominate the Sanhedrin and religious education .
2 Maccabees 4:1-26
[1] The previously mentioned Simon, who had informed about the money against his own country, slandered Onias, saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus and had been the real cause of the misfortune. [2] He dared to designate as a plotter against the government the man who was the benefactor of the city, the protector of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws. [3] When his hatred progressed to such a degree that even murders were committed by one of Simon’s approved agents, [4] Onias recognized that the rivalry was serious and that Apollonius, the son of Menestheus and governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was intensifying the malice of Simon. [5] So he betook himself to the king, not accusing his fellow citizens but having in view the welfare, both public and private, of all the people. [6] For he saw that without the king’s attention public affairs could not again reach a peaceful settlement, and that Simon would not stop his folly. [7] When Seleucus died and Antiochus who was called Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption, [8] promising the king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of silver and, from another source of revenue, eighty talents. [9] In addition to this he promised to pay one hundred and fifty more if permission were given to establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enrol the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch. [10] When the king assented and Jason came to office, he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life. [11] He set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews, secured through John the father of Eupolemus, who went on the mission to establish friendship and alliance with the Romans; and he destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law. [12] For with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat. [13] There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no high priest, [14] that the priests were no longer intent upon their service at the altar. Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to take part in the unlawful proceedings in the wrestling arena after the call to the discus, [15] disdaining the honors prized by their fathers and putting the highest value upon Greek forms of prestige. [16] For this reason heavy disaster overtook them, and those whose ways of living they admired and wished to imitate completely became their enemies and punished them. [17] For it is no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws — a fact which later events will make clear. [18] When the quadrennial games were being held at Tyre and the king was present, [19] the vile Jason sent envoys, chosen as being Antiochian citizens from Jerusalem, to carry three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. Those who carried the money, however, thought best not to use it for sacrifice, because that was inappropriate, but to expend it for another purpose. [20] So this money was intended by the sender for the sacrifice to Hercules, but by the decision of its carriers it was applied to the construction of triremes. [21] When Apollonius the son of Menestheus was sent to Egypt for the coronation of Philometor as king, Antiochus learned that Philometor had become hostile to his government, and he took measures for his own security. Therefore upon arriving at Joppa he proceeded to Jerusalem. [22] He was welcomed magnificently by Jason and the city, and ushered in with a blaze of torches and with shouts. Then he marched into Phoenicia. [23] After a period of three years Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the previously mentioned Simon, to carry the money to the king and to complete the records of essential business. [24] But he, when presented to the king, extolled him with an air of authority, and secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver. [25] After receiving the king’s orders he returned, possessing no qualification for the high priesthood, but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage wild beast. [26] So Jason, who after supplanting his own brother was supplanted by another man, was driven as a fugitive into the land of Ammon.
2 Maccabees 11:1-3
[1] Very soon after this, Lysias, the king’s guardian and kinsman, who was in charge of the government, being vexed at what had happened, [2] gathered about eighty thousand men and all his cavalry and came against the Jews. He intended to make the city a home for Greeks, [3] and to levy tribute on the temple as he did on the sacred places of the other nations, and to put up the high priesthood for sale every year.
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