... Jews lived outside Palestine and the Palestine Jews were under Roman rule. The Temple in Jerusalem became a central national symbol to Jewish people. Under these circumstances the Torah and Temple became the basic religious symbols for the Jewish identity. The two (most) well known sects within Judaism in the time of Jesus were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two groups' beliefs were based on the Torah but their interpretations were different. Sadducees In the Jewish society the Sadducees were an aristocratic party made up of the priests and the Levits plus the rich landowners. They accepted the law of Moses literally but they did not accept the idea of oral tradition, furthermore, they rejected anything which was outside the Torah. According to Heater (1966:54), "the Sadducees, who formed the larger part of the priesthood of Temple, appear to have been theologically conservative." Because of this conservative point of view ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now