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Updated: May 4, 2025
He was not very particular where he looked for allies, and rather shrank from helping Sadducees to punish men whose crime was that they 'preached through Jesus a resurrection from the dead. Then the Jewish rulers had a very ticklish part to play. They were afraid of any popular shout which might bring down the avalanche of Roman power on them, and they were nervously anxious to keep things quiet.
In the "Wars of the Jews," bk. ii., chap, viii., Josephus gives us a fuller account. "There are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of whom are the Pharisees; of the second the Sadducees; and the third sect who pretends to a severer discipline are called Essenes.
In a few moments he was confiding himself to this man of kindly dignity, whose voice was low, who seemed to speak always from the heart, and it was wholly delightful to tell the great Essene that he was come from Galilee to attend the Feast of the Passover in his father's place, and that after having allied himself in turn to the Sadducees and the Pharisees he came to hear of the Essenes: I have come thither, hoping to find the truth here.
On the one side a mighty host, its right the Pharisees of ecclesiasticism and ritual, with their banner of authority, making void the law of God by their tradition; its left, and never far away from their opposites on the right with whom they are strangely leagued, working into each other's hands, the Sadducees denying angel and spirit, with their war-cry of unfettered freedom and scientific evidence; and in the centre, far rolling, innumerable, the dusky hosts of mere animalism, and worldliness, and self, making void the law by their sheer godlessness.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, O ye broods of vipers! who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Produce then worthy fruits of repentance: and think not to say in yourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I say unto you, that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
II. The second portion of this section is a more detailed account of John's preaching, which Matthew gives as addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees. We are not to suppose that at any time John had a congregation exclusively made up of such; nor that these words were addressed to them only.
John had turned to some religious officials, Sadducees and Pharisees, who stood watching. "You nest of snakes! Who told you to flee from God's day of judgment? It is time you repented!" "How can he talk that way to Pharisees?" said Andrew. He could tell even from where he stood that the Pharisees felt the charge was unjust. "Why should we repent?" asked one of them.
The guilt was shared by both, but the heavier part lay on the shoulders of the Sanhedrin. Mark, too, the bold proclamation of the Resurrection, the stone of offence to the Sadducees. How easy it would have been for them to silence the Apostle, if they could have pointed to the undisturbed and occupied grave! That would have finished the new sect at once.
“If the Sadducees were not in power, Jerusalem should hear of this. As it is——” Whatever resolution he may have intended to express remained unuttered. A silence fell upon his lips; his guests drew back. At the step stood the Nazarene, behind him his treasurer, Judas of Kerioth. For a second only Jesus hesitated. He stooped, undid his shoes, and moved to where Simon stood.
It shall be as thou sayest, Master; but meanwhile hold the man forward; let him not fall back upon the pillow, for it will stick there and my work will be undone. To which Joseph obeyed, himself quaking lest the Pharisees had come in search of Jesus, saying to himself: the Pharisees might be persuaded that Jesus is risen from the dead, but the Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection.
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