Articles
Pharisees and Sadducees
Pharisees and Sadducees:
Anthony Prosceno Jr.
Matthew 16:6 [NASB 1995] And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Pharisees
The Pharisees of the 1st Century followed the oral traditions (Mishnah) as well as the scriptures and believed in the supernatural. They also believed in an afterlife and that they would see God after they died. However, they were stuck in their ways of thinking and ultimately had a small view of God and elevated their judgments and traditions over the Word of God. The Pharisees believed that they were religiously superior to others and that God was certainly impressed with their holiness. The Pharisees also interpreted every interaction with Jesus as a challenge to their honor. They were consumed by pride.
Modern Pharisees are intolerant of ambiguity. They cannot tolerate gray areas or undecided areas in life and specifically with the Word of God. Everything must be clear, cut and dried. There is not a “what if” question that they cannot answer. They accuse others of being dishonest and cannot see the inconsistencies of their own doctrines and beliefs. Pharisees are rigid in their thought process, who don't like disagreement, who don't like discussing unfamiliar ideas, who don't like negotiating, who have stereotyped attitudes toward all groups outside of their own.
Sadducees
The Sadducees were philosophical gurus who reached and represented the aristocratic Israelite upper class. They were the dominant party in Judaism, controlling the Temple and the Sanhedrin. The Sadducees often agreed with the decisions of Rome and were more concerned with politics than faith. Because of their strong relationship with Rome, they received military and police support from them. The Sadducees refused to go beyond the written Torah (first 5 books) and therefore rejected doctrines that were not in the Law, including the resurrection, the existence of angels, and the immortality of the soul.
The Sadducees thought they had the logical upper hand against Jesus, when in Matthew 22, they thought they created the perfect scenario to discredit the possibility of resurrection. Yet Jesus solved their “riddle” by first saying in Matthew 22:29 “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
Modern Sadducees are intolerant of anything in the Scriptures that they do not understand. They are ruled by emotions, and veil themselves with Christian terminology and practices and yet deny what the Scriptures say and deny the power of God. They demand to understand the why and how behind every teaching, or they simply reject it. They will try to prove their points with human logic, philosophies, and riddles, rather than wrestle with what the Bible says. Theirs is the wrong kind of skepticism; there's no real, honest search for answers on the pages of Scripture. Instead, they ask challenging questions and scoff at those who take the Bible at face value.
