Transcript Important religious and political people

JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF
JESUS
Key religious –political groups and persons
Sanhedrin
“Assembly” or “senate”
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An organization of 70 Jewish elders, scribes, priests, sadducees, pharisees who governed the
Jewish people
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Decided court cases, decided religious doctrine and settled religious disputes; made laws
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Headed by a president, could be the high priest
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Recognized and co-opted by the Romans
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A Sadducee before the Ark
“aristocracy” among the priests
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Caretakers and overseers of the temple
in Jerusalem
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Believed that only the Torah was valid
for Jews to follow.
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Did not believe in interpretations of the
law by the pharisees
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Did not believe in resurrection after
death
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Colluded with the Romans and did not
always act in the best interest of the
Jewish people
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Pharisee
“set
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apart” “pure”
Experts on scripture

Open to new books of scripture as valid for Jews
to follow
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Made commentaries on Jewish law called the
“oral Torah” – later became the Mishnah

Emphasized following the Law and loving the Law
vs. the importance of temple sacrifice
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Wanted to help people know and love the law
and not see it as a burden
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The Essenes
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Had serious, and sometimes violent,
disagreements with both the
Pharisees and the Sadducees.
They considered the Pharisees to be
too lax in their traditions.
they thought the Sadducees were
corrupt leaders who misunderstood
or simply disobeyed God’s laws for
running the temple cult.
Were looked upon as practicing a
“mystery cult” by most Jews
 Moved to the wilderness
 To separate themselves
completely to God
 To keep their faith pure and
apart from the corruption of
the world
Scribes
Among the few who could read and
write

They became necessary during the
Babylonian exile

that’s when the stories of the
Patriarchs, the Exodus and all of the Torah
were begun to be written down

They knew the Torah extremely well and
interpreted the Law for the Sanhedrin
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They were also known as teachers,
rabbis, and often overlapped with the
Pharisees
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Tax Collectors
Collected two types of taxes:
•for
Rome
•for
the Jewish authorities, the
Sanhedrin
For Rome, they collected taxes on commerce,
produce, land , travel, etc.
Jews had been paying the Greeks prior to
that
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The Romans hired Jews to do their “dirty
work”
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For the Sanhedrin, there was a Temple tax,
among other taxes
Zealots – died at Masada
after Romans attacked
A group of rebels against Rome who took the
Maccabees as their inspiration.
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If the Maccabees could overthrow the Greek
oppressor, the zealots believed that they could
do the same with the Romans.
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Plotted a rebellion during Jesus’ life and in 66
CE, after Jesus’ death, openly rebelled vs. Rome
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The rebels were decimated by the Romans and
in 70 CE the Romans also destroyed the temple
of Jerusalem
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The mountain, Masada, is the Zealots’ “Last
stand” after they escaped from Jerusalem.

(there was a final revolt in 135 but Rome won
that battle as well)
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