Sadducees, Pharisees and Scribes Oh My!

For Lent I had decided to read The Last Hours of Jesus by Fr. Ralph Gorman (you can find it here on Amazon).  I had read it last year - but had found it late into Lent, so did so very quickly.  It is a great book, and I highly recommend it.

The author takes the four Gospels and merge them together to get a good picture of Jesus' last hours with great background information.  This year I decided to read it again, but a little slower to get a true grasp of what what going on.  The first was his descriptions of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes.  I've heard of these groups all my life, but never took the time to really learn who they were and just why they had such a problem with Jesus.  So, as I read, I began listing the items the authored had wrote on each group, and as I did, a picture of who they were came to light.

Let's start with the Sadducees.  We really don't hear much about them until Jesus turns over the money changer's tables in the temple (which would have been the day after he rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.)  Most of the Priests were Sadducees.  They performed the rituals and sacrificial functions reserved exclusively to the priesthood.  They completely rejected the oral traditions of the Pharisees.  And they did not believe in:  the providence of God, the existence of spirits, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection, future retribution or in the Messiah.  Their main efforts were directed to providing a cushion of riches and honors against possible adversity.  All the sacrifices the people brought to the temple, went to the Priests which they kept and used for themselves.

The people looked to the Sadducees as political leaders who administered civil and criminal law.  They were the ones who represented the Jewish population with the Romans.

So, why did they have a problem with Jesus?  Well let's start with the big issue - the money changers in the temple - the priest received a cut of the profit the money changers received and Jesus throwing them out hit the Sadducees right in the pocketbook.  Jesus also taught on everything they did not believe it - the Kingdom of God, eternal life, of the judgement of God of our sins and so on.  And though they did not approve of the Pharisees teaching - they joined forces with them against Jesus for fear of what they could loose if the people began following Jesus' teaching.

Next is the Pharisees.  Pharisees were separatist - they kept themselves away from anything that might render them impure and avoid all contact with non-Pharisees because they considered them unclean and almost as low as the pagans.  They did believe in Divine providence, free will, final retribution and the existence of angels and spirits.

We can see one but issue they had with Jesus - he walked, slept and ate with sinners - the "unclean" and had no problem with it.  This is the group Jesus called hypocrites for their enforcement of the law on people -  without concern of how it effect the people.  Remember Jesus' answer on the Sabbath "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Even though they did not look highly of the Sadducees - they partnered with them to get rid of Jesus since the Sadducees administered the civil and criminal laws - they were the ones who could punish Jesus.

And last is the Scribes.  I will admit, I had no idea of who this group really was - I had always pictured them as the ones sitting by the Pharisees writing down everything they said.  But this is not true.  Scribes were the most learner-ed of the three.  Most scribes were Pharisees and trained in the knowledge of the law.  They developed extreme complex and detailed oral law (remember Sadducees rejected these laws) that theoretically, expounded and applied the Torah.  They taught/believed the Messiah was a mere man, whatever his gifts and office, his mission had nothing to do with supernatural benefits or the salvation of souls - his sole purpose, as far as they were concerned, was the delivery of Israel and the conquest of the Gentiles.  Scribes formed a closed circle with their own schools, their own disciples, their own doctrines and teaching methods.  These circles built up a "self-cult" that passed beliefs.  They demanded complete reverence and obedience from the pupils.  The author uses the example that if a student's father and teacher were both ill - the student was required to tend to the needs of their teacher before helping their father.

Jesus had not attended one of the Scribe's schools - yet he taught with such authority.  The people began calling him the Messiah - but Jesus was talking about loving your enemy. that he came to save souls from sin and at times (brace yourself) he associated with Gentiles.

The people looked to the Pharisees and Scribes for the teaching and example that would indicate what they were to believe and the way in which they were to live their lives.. 

So all together - Jesus was a threat to one big thing - POWER.  If the people began believing in what Jesus taught - the Sadducees, Pharisees and Scribes would loose their power over the people.  Jesus was basically challenging their way of living - and neither of the groups were going to have anything to do with that.  Putting Jesus to death would be their only answer - for just locking him up, his teaching could continue and would continue to be a threat to them.