Hebrew sects/factions of the 1st century
The land of Judea in the 1st century BCE/CE was a very diverse land, a lot of people don’t realize just how diverse and un-united the Hebrew faith was amongst the Hebrew people. It has more of the appearance of modern religions with schisms everywhere all loosely united and using a singular term for their faith system. I am going to unpack ten of those sects or factions, some more so than others as the historical information about these groups is not always available as firsthand sources. Quite often we must use the information recorded about these groups from outside sources, which is usually being used in a way to slander them.
Non-Jerusalem temple Judaism
This movement can be said to of began in the early 6th century BCE when the Hebrew people of Judea had their temple destroyed by the Babylonians. This faction is a product of exile, and its practices were adopted by many factions of Judaism once the Jerusalem temple was destroyed again in 70 CE by the Romans.
This movement is credited with the beginnings of recording the oral traditions and stories of their forefathers into written record. This is when many if not most of the books of what we now call the Old Testament were written down to preserve them. The time in which each book of the Old Testament was recorded can be a controversial topic, as its not always agreed upon by scholars. However, there is strong evidence that even if they were written down earlier than this exile period, there were at least heavily redacted during this period.
Non-Jerusalem temple Judaism developed a system of prayer, rituals of remembrance, and adoption of Babylonian texts into the religious literature and traditions. A few of these Babylonian texts that were adopted were the book of Esther and a portion on the Epic of Gilgamesh having made an appearance in Ecclesiastes chapter 9:7-9. In the fragments of the Old Babylonian text there is advice from a tavern keeper to Gilgamesh that is later redacted in the Standard Babylonian text. In this advice the tavern keeper reminds Gilgamesh that all men are mortal so, he should go and enjoy his life rather than continuing his self-destructive journey of grieving the death of his friend Enkidu. This advises the reader to embrace life, as mortality is guaranteed for all men. Interestingly this notion of Carpe Diem in the advice from the tavern keeper strikes strong similarities in the Hebrew writings of Ecclesiastes where kingship is also being addressed, it must be noted that Ecclesiastes was written down in the satrap of Babylon where the Hebrew people had been exiled to. Ecclesiastes has a similar theme on mortality as the Epic of Gilgamesh in that life is unpredictable and that trying to control it is pointless, which is very much the feeling that is being portrayed during Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality.
The book of Esther is another book produced by this movement and is one I plan on addressing at a later date, so for this purpose I will only go as far to say that Esther is the only book in which God is not mentioned. It culminates in the instruction to celebrate the annual festival of Purim, a festival not about God in the only book not to mention God. These Hebrew people were adapting to the world in which they lived, one without the existence of the Jerusalem temple.
“ Mordecai wrote these matters down and sent letters to all the Jews who were throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, to have them observe the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the month of Adar each year as the time when the Jews gave themselves rest from their enemies—the month when their trouble was turned to happiness and their mourning to a holiday. These were to be days of banqueting, happiness, sending gifts to one another, and providing for the poor."
(Esther 9:20-22 NET)
Non-Jerusalem temple Judaism was very diverse however its main feature was the replacement of temple sacrifice with prayer and ritual remembrance, along with the adaptation of local non-Hebrew traditions and Hebraizing them. Even though some of these elements are debatable what is not is there was a group of Hebrew people who had developed a system of worship that did not include or utilize temple-based worship.
Samaritan Israelites
Samaritan Israelites are people who lived in Samaria the region between Judea and the Galilee, these people descend form the remnants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel after it was destroyed by the Neo-Assyrian empire around 720 BCE. The main difference between the Samaritan people and other Hebrew people was that of where the most holy site was. For most Hebrew people the holiest site was the temple mount in Jerusalem however for Samaritans it was on Mount Gerizim as they believe that this mount was the original holy place from when Joshua conquered Canaan.
The Samaritans had their own temple that was standing on Mount Gerizim with them having relatively friendly interactions with the Judeans to their south. This was until the Hasmonean ruler of Judea Yohanan Hurqanos in 110 BCE destroyed their temple and devastated Samaria in retaliation for the Samarians Hellenizing under the Seleucid Empire. This destruction caused by Yohanan Hurqanos was the main cause of the hatred between Samaritans and the Judeans for the millennia that followed.
Hellenistic Judaism
Hellenistic Judaism dates to the 4th century BCE when the land of Judea and Samaria was conquered by Alexander the great. In the wake of this conquest the Hellenistic influence permeated the cultures in those newly conquered lands. During this period, we start to see Hellenistic cultural and religious influences upon Judaism.
This Hellenization of Judaism gave us the Septuagint, the very first translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic into Jewish Koine Greek. This radical change paved the way for a later translation into the Aramaic of the Targums.
This Hellenization of the Hebrew people and subsequent religious adaptations led to the nationalistic movement of the Maccabean Revolts where we see Judea gaining independence from the Seleucid Empire after a series of hard-fought battles.
Jesus Judaism
Jesus Judaism, I must start by saying that this is not Christianity, which is a common misconception, that is technically a later religion the did not consider is practitioners as Hebrew people. Jesus Judaism started during the 1st Century CE with the teachings of Jesus and after his ascension to the heavenly realm then, through the work of his disciples. The Jesus movement of Judaism teaches that Jesus or known in Hebrew as Yeshua was the promised messiah from the Hebrew bible. This movement eventually gave birth to the religious movement of Christianity after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE, as the Hebrew people needed to develop a system that no longer required its use, much like the Hebrew people did during the Babylon exile. With Jesus having been the ultimate sacrifice in the religious system of Judaism the need for temple sacrifice and offering was no longer needed.
I must point out here that most sects of Judaism had had over the few hundred years before this movement their own messiahs which often caused internal conflict between these sects. In the case of the Jesus Judaism practitioners that, would be very evident in the interactions and persecution from the Pharisees.
Sadducean Judaism
The Sadducees were a sect of Judaism that is believed to of emerged during the early Hasmonean Period after the Maccabean Revolts. A Hebrew historian called Josephus wrote about this sect after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE describing them as being mainly from the upper echelons of society. The Sadducees trace their lineage back to Zadok their ancestor, who was high priest during the time of King Solomon thus, they considered themselves eligible for priestly privileges and prerogatives.
This sect had a few beliefs that distinguished them form other factions of Judaism being:
- The rejection of a pre-ordained future also known as fate; you were in control of your own life though free will as God does not determine you future.
- God does not have the ability to even think of evil let alone do evil; God is only every good
- There is no afterlife therefore no rewards or penalties upon death, therefore no resurrection
They only recognized the Torah, rejecting the rest of the Hebrew bible being the Prophets and the Writings. They also rejected the oral Torah which is what developed into the Mishnah and later the Talmud.
These beliefs saw the Sadducees being quite progressive in the adaptation of Hellenistic and Roman practices. As without a reward or punishment in the afterlife, they did what they saw as best and were not hindered by religious restrictions. Though these people were not secular they were more secular than some of their opposing factions like the Pharisees and the Essenes.
Pharisaic Judaism
The sect of Judaism of the Pharisees also emerged during the during the early Hasmonean Period after the Maccabean Revolts just like the Sadducees. However, the Pharisees were quite different from the Sadducees. As opposed to the higher echelon standings of the Sadducees, the sect of the Pharisees came predominantly from the Scribes and Sages. These Scribes and Sages, later called Rabbis, were considered by the people to be the highest experts in the interpretation and understanding of the law, with the Levites/priests being reduced to only maintaining temple ritual practices.
The Pharisees shunned the Hellenization of Judea and Hebrew people which put them in direct opposition to the Sadducees. The also traced their lineage back to Moses which then led to them adopting the doctrine of the Oral Torah, which is additional laws and information transmitted from God to Moses on Mt Sinai then orally transmitted in an unbroken line until its recording in the Mishnah 200 CE. This oral tradition was fundamental in the understanding and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible by the Pharisees.
The Pharisees are the main faction of Judaism that modern rabbinical Judaism has stemmed from, as once the Jerusalem temple was destroyed in 70 CE, they tackled the hard question of how to achieve atonement without the temple. A question that was only addressed by one other faction being the Jesus movement, both factions saw the answer and future of their religious practices in different directions with different solutions.
The Pharisees had a few core beliefs that distinguished them from other sects of Judaism being:
- Monotheism, only one God exists who you pray to three times a day.
- The wisdom of the Oral Torah was divinely given.
- They believed in free will however they also believed God has foreknowledge of mankind’s destiny.
- There is an afterlife with rewards and penalties for the life lived, also believing in resurrection.
These beliefs are obviously not compatible with the cultures that surround the province of Judea therefore, the Pharisees were opposed to the cultural influences that were seeping into the Hebrew culture from the Greek and Roman worlds.
Herodian Judaism
Very little is known about this sect and there are three main possibilities that are debated among scholars:
The first is that they were what the Essenes were called in the New Testament of the bible. This theory comes from the Hebrew Historian Josephus in his collection of books “Antiquities of the Jews” book 15 chapter 10.5, In this segment Josephus talks about Menahem the leader of the Essenes and his proximity to King Herod the great.
The second possibility is a group of people that saw Herod as the promised messiah and were politically active in trying to instill a descendant of Herod back to the throne. Along with the creation of the Kingdom of Herod much like the Pharisees wanted to bring back the Kingdom of David. This comes from Adversis Omnes Haereses 1.1 believed to written by Tertullian a Christian author from Carthage between 155-220 CE.
The third option is they were advocates of Romanizing just like Hellenistic Judaism mentioned earlier was adopting Greek influences. This theory comes about as King Herod the Great appeared as an advocate for Romanizing Judea, his palaces were decorated in Roman paining styles and architecture, along with his rebuilding and remodeling of the Jerusalem temple grounds, from a terraced mount which looked like a Mesopotamian ziggurat to a temple that looked like the temples found within the Roman Empire to the Roman gods.
Militant Judaism
This Judaic faction could be separated into many smaller ones however I will focus on the main faction under this banner, the Zealots. These Zealots in today’s world would be considered a terrorist organization. Their focus was to incite the population of Judea into rebellion against the Roman empire to expel it from the land of the Hebrew people. Ultimately, they succeed in inciting rebellion causing the spark for the first Jewish-Roman war 66-73 CE, which resulted in defeat and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. This movement is believed to of been founded by Judas of Galilee in 6 CE after Rome declared that what had formerly belonged to the Tetrarchy of Herod the Great was now a Roman Provence. This movement gave birth to a more extreme faction called the Sicarii, who would engage in political assassinations and would raid Jewish settlements if they believed their inhabitants, were Roman collaborators.
Essene/Qumran Judaism
The Essenes where a Mystic Sect of Judaism that functioned between 200 BCE – 100 CE. Their movement is believed to originate from a belief that the Jerusalem temple had been corrupted by the other sects that oversaw its function, namely the Pharisees and Sadducees. They therefore shifted their center of power and worship away from Jerusalem to Qumran in the Judea desert alongside the dead sea. There are a few writers in ancient history that write about or mention this sect however most are very biased in their anti-Essene narrative. Thankfully many of their own writings have been recovered, which are part of what is collectively called the Dead Sea Scrolls. These writings give us a window into their practices and beliefs from their own mouths.
The Essenes were predominantly comprised of priests in a very strict hierarchical composition with the descendants of the High priest Zadok at the top and laypeople at the bottom. They practiced a very strict adherence to ritual purity, along with holding a dualistic world view, good vs evil, sons of light vs sons of darkness, this becomes very apparent in one of their writings called the “war scroll”. They dedicated themselves to charity thus owning no monetary possession themselves, and they forbade the expression of anger, they also believed that they were the guardians of many divine secrets and were very mindful to keep the names of angels in much of their writings. Along with this they also followed a strict adherence of the Torah along with the belief that everything was preordained, thus resulting in a story in one of their writings where the author is explaining that if you happen to find that someone has fallen into a well, as you are walking past the well on the sabbath, a day when all work is forbidden. You must not help them as that would make you unclean in breaking the law of the Sabbath, after all their falling in the well and most likely subsequent death was God ordained in the first place.
People of the Land
The People of the Land is a term that has meant many different things over many different eras, however in the period between 200 BCE – 70 CE these people of the land were considered the uneducated population of Judea unlike the Sadducees and the Pharisees. This population was looked down upon by the upper echelons of Judea, this is mainly because these people, the working class, the laborers so to speak had usually never learnt the Torah and therefore were known for not scrupulously observing the commandments. What this means is that this population was easily influenced by the cultures that they interacted with, meaning that their form of Judaism was founded on fragments from all the cultures of the time. These people were a thorn in the side of the upper echelons of society as they had never gone into exile, and they made that known, claiming that they were the true people of the land. This was very apparent in the Galilee during this period as during the Maccabean Revolts many Jews who were still living in the remnants of the Persian empire were rescued from persecution and resettled in the Galilee displacing existing the population.
