The Pharisees were the most democratic party in Judaism. While for their own members they insisted upon a most rigorous ceremonial regime, they allowed the common people to ally themselves with them as associates. In their acceptance of the popular hopes and in their endeavor to adapt Israel's law to the life of the nation and thus establish a basis for the realization of Israel's hopes they appealed to the masses and exerted over them a powerful influence. Josephus asserts that so great was the influence of the Pharisees with the people that the Sadducees, in order to carry through their policies, were obliged, nominally, at least, to adopt the platform of their rivals. The Pharisees were also zealous in teaching the people and thus kept in close touch with the masses. They, therefore, stood as the true representatives of Judaism. Their principles have survived and are still the foundations of orthodox Judaism.
III. Character and Beliefs of the Sadducees. The Sadducees were few in numbers compared with the Pharisees. They represented, on the one side, the old priestly aristocracy, and on the other the new nobility that rallied about the Maccabean leaders. They depended for their authority upon their wealth, their inherited prestige, and the support of the throne. They were in reality a political rather than a religious party. In politics they were progressives and opportunists. Any policy that promised to further their individual or class interests was acceptable to them. As is usually the case with parties that represent wealth and hereditary power, they were conservatives in belief. They stood squarely on the earlier scriptures of their race and had no sympathy with the later Pharisaic interpretations and doctrines. Whether or not, as Josephus asserts, they entirely rejected fate, that is, the providential direction of human affairs, is not clear. Probably in this belief they did not depart from the earlier teachings of priests and prophets. Their selfish and often unscrupulous acts suggest a basis for Josephus's claim, even though allowance must be made for his hostile attitude toward them. While they were conservatives in theory, the Sadducees were of all classes in Judaism most open to Greek and heathen influence, for foreign alliances and Hellenic culture offered opportunities for advancement and power.
IV. Character and Beliefs of the Essenes. Less important but even more interesting are the Essenes. They were a sect, or monastic order, rather than a political or religious party. Josephus, who asserts that for a time he was associated with them, has given a full account of their peculiar customs. They evidently represented a strong reaction against the prevailing corruption and a return to the simple life. Their spirit of humility, fraternity, and practical charity are in marked contrast to the aims of the Sadducees and the later Maccabean rulers. In their beliefs they were idealists. Their invocation of the sun, their extreme emphasis on ceremonial cleanliness, their tendency toward celibacy, and their distinction between soul and body, all suggest the indirect if not the direct influence of the Pythagorean type of philosophy. If the Essenes represented simply an extreme type of Pharisaism, the peculiar form of its development was undoubtedly due to the Greek atmosphere amidst which it flourished. The Essenes do not appear to have had any direct influence in the politics of their day. They were a current apart from the main stream of Judaism, and yet they could not fail to exert an indirect influence. Many of their ideals and doctrines were closely similar to the teachings of John the Baptist and Jesus. Yet there is a fundamental difference between Essenism and primitive Christianity, for one sought to attain perfection apart from life and the other in closest contact with the currents of human thought and activity. While according to Josephus the party of the Essenes at one time numbered four thousand, like all ascetic movements it soon disappeared or else was deflected into that greater stream of monasticism which rose in the early Christian centuries.
Section CXV. THE LIFE AND FAITH OF THE JEWS OF THE DISPERSION
[Sidenote: Jos. Ant. XII, 3:1a] The Jews obtained honor from the kings of Asia when they became their auxiliaries; for Seleucus Nicator made them citizens of those cities which he built in Asia and in lower Syria, and in Antioch, the metropolis, and gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and the Greeks who were its inhabitants.
[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, VII, 3:3a] For the Jewish race is widely dispersed among the inhabitants of all the world; and especially was it intermingled with the population of Syria, because of the nearness of that country. Above all, in Antioch, because of the size of the city, it had great numbers. There the kings who followed Antiochus gave the Jews a place where they might live in the most undisturbed security; for although Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, laid waste Jerusalem and plundered the temple, the kings who succeeded him restored all the gifts of brass that had been made to the Jews of Antioch, and dedicated them to their synagogue.
[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, VII, 3:3b] The succeeding kings also treated them in the same way, so that they became very numerous, and adorned their temple with ornaments and at great expense with those things which had been given them. They also continued to attract a great many of the Greeks to their services, making them in a sense part of themselves.
[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, VII, 10:2d-3e] Now Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high priests, fled from Antiochus [Epiphanes] the king of Syria, when he made war with the Jews, and came to Alexandria. And after Ptolemy [Philometor] received him very kindly on account of his hatred to Antiochus, Onias assured him that if he would comply with his proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his assistance. Now when the king agreed to do whatever he was able, Onias desired him to give him permission to build a temple somewhere in Egypt and to worship God according to the customs of his own nation. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals and gave them a place about twenty miles distant from Memphis. That province was called the province of Heliopolis. There Onias built a fortress and a temple like that at Jerusalem except that it resembled a tower. He built it of large stones to the height of sixty cubits, but he made the structure of the altar an imitation of that in his own country. In like manner also he adorned it with gifts, excepting that he did not make a candlestick but had a single lamp hammered out of a beaten piece of gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and which he hung by a chain of gold. The entire temple was surrounded by a wall of burnt brick, although it had a gateway of stone. The king also gave him a large territory for a revenue in money, that both the priests might have plentiful provision for themselves, and that God might have abundance of those things which were necessary for his worship.
[Sidenote: Jos. Ant. XIII, 10:4] Now in the days of John Hyrcanus, not only did the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea enjoy prosperity but also those who were at Alexandria in Egypt and Cyprus. For Cleopatra the queen was at variance with her son Ptolemy, who is called Lathyrus, and appointed as her generals Chelcias and Ananias, the son of that Onias who built the temple in the province of Heliopolis similar to that of Jerusalem. Cleopatra intrusted these men with her army and did nothing without their advice. Strabo of Cappadocia also attests that only those who were called Onias's party, being Jews, continued faithful to Cleopatra because their countrymen, Chelcias and Ananias, were in highest favor with the queen.
[Sidenote: Wisd. of Sol. 6:12-16]
Wisdom is brilliant and fades not away,
And she is easily seen by those who love her,
And found by those who seek her.
She anticipates those who desire her, making herself first known.
He who eagerly seeks her shall have no toil,
For he shall find her sitting at his gates.
For thinking upon her brings perfect wisdom,
And he who lies awake for her sake shall quickly be free from care.
For she herself goes about seeking those who are worthy of her,
And in their paths she graciously appears to them,
And in every purpose she meets them.