Page 168 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Student Textbook

One comical scene in the early church is when Paul stands before the Council and recognized some are
Pharisees and some Sadducees. So he cries out to the Pharisees that he was on trial for believing in the
resurrection (Acts 23:6). As he planned, a huge argument developed between the two groups. The
Pharisees wanted to protect him because he agreed with them. The Sadducees saw this as proof of his
guilt.

The Essenes
Many have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found at the caves in the Qumran. 203 It is likely that
the mystical sect that copied them was an Essene group. They were disenfranchised with the political
and religious corruption of their time and withdrew to live out the purity they believed would entice
messiah to return. Some have said John the Baptist may have been an Essene because he withdrew
from society to the wilderness and practiced a careful purity and diet regimen.

The Scribes

The scribes were learned individuals who could read and write. Their primary job was teaching the law
and settling disputes about it.

The Samaritans

The Samaritans were the descendants of the Israelites who had survived the destruction of the Northern
Kingdom. Over the years they had intermarried with those who had moved into the region. This made
them unclean and therefore despised among the Jews. They did not appreciate this ostracism, so they
built their own temple, and tried to defile the Jewish temple by spreading human bones inside it. 204

The Herodians

The Herodians are mentioned in Scripture but not much is known about them. We believe that they
likely were related to or patrons of the Herodian rulership. They were involved in the trap to discredit
Jesus. They and the Pharisees asked Jesus whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus saw the
trap and asked them something akin to “why are you carrying around pagan money?” 205 That could be
considered unclean.

The Zealots
Zealots were the political revolutionaries of Jesus’ day. They could not abide the continued rule of Rome
and sought to violently overthrow it. Barabbas is said, in Mark 15, to have been a murderer and to have
been involved in insurrection. For this reason, he is thought to have been a zealot.
Jewish Government structure under Rome:

203 Gary M. Burge, Gene L. Green, and Lynn H. Cohick, The New Testament in Antiquity (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan, 2009), 65.
204 Ibid, p. 67.
205 N.T. Wright and Michael F Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and
Theology of the First Christians. 52.

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