Who were the Sadducees and Pharisees?
“Be careful,” Jesus said to them (the disciples).
“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:6
Jesus spoke against two groups of people primarily mentioned together in Matthew 16. They were two religious parties that had great influence before and after the life of Christ. Both were members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jewish people. However, there were distinguishable differences between the two groups though they were both against the salvation message of Jesus.
The Pharisees were a bit legalistic and claimed to strictly follow the Law of Moses and also Jewish tradition (Matthew 15:2). Their name in Hebrew means “separated ones”, and they lived that way too. They believed they were the only ones with the proper authority from God to interpret the law. In other words, they thought they were most favored and anointed by God to lead the masses.
The Sadducees were smaller in number than the Pharisees, but actually had more members on the Sanhedrin than the Pharisees. They belonged to the priestly line and were usually wealthy and politically minded. They rejected anything past the first five books of today’s Bible (the Pentateuch) and the oral traditions too. They did not believe in resurrection, angels or spirits. With no hope for an afterlife, this was what made them “sad, you see” (Get it? I heard my dad make this joke a few times).
Put both of these groups in the Sanhedrin and fireworks ensued. (See Acts 23 for an example of how it got so heated during a theological debate, they nearly killed each other and Paul.) Yet, both the Sadducees and Pharisees had a common enemy in Jesus and the early believers like Paul, Peter, and John. They refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and that He came to fulfill the law, not abolish it (Matthew 5:17).
Today, the word “Pharisee” is often used in Christian circles to label someone as a hypocrite or self-righteous person. This is mainly because Jesus blasted them and the teachers of law with seven different hypocritical practices in Matthew 23. Perhaps because the Sadducees are not directly mentioned in this chapter is why their name is not mentioned as much today. Before we go judging these two groups, however, we need to realize our own hypocrisy in certain areas of our walk with the Lord.
Here is the verse that summarizes what most in these two groups never accepted:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
