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| Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes |
Sanhedrin: Before the time of Jesus Christ and after, "The Sanhedrin", was,the name for the highest Jewish tribunal. A kind of Jewish Supreme Court, whose members responsibility
was to interpret civil and religious laws.
Consisting of 71 members, in Jerusalem. Also for the lower tribunals, of 23 members, of which Jerusalem had two. This word is derived from sun, "together," and hedra, "seat."
The Pharisees:
Pharisees they are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their main distinguishing characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah or Written Law. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied. They believed in an afterlife. This oral tradition was codified and written down roughly three centuries later in what is known as the Talmud.
Sadducees:
The Sadducee's: The Sadducee's rejected the idea of the Oral Law and insisted on a literal interpretation of the Written Law; consequently, they did not believe in an afterlife, since it is not mentioned in the Torah. The main focus of Sadducee life was rituals associated with the Temple.
Essenes: The Dead Sea Sect
The Essenes, this sect of Jewish men believed the others had corrupted the city and the Temple. They moved out of Jerusalem and lived a monastic life in the desert, adopting strict dietary laws and a commitment to celibacy.
The Essenes are particularly interesting to scholars because they are believed to be an offshoot of the group that lived in Qumran, near the Dead Sea. In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled into a cave containing various ancient artifacts and jars containing manuscripts describing the beliefs of the sect and events of the time.
The most important documents, often only parchment fragments that had to be meticulously restored, were the earliest known copies of the Old Testament. The similarity of the substance of the material found in the scrolls to that in the modern scriptures has confirmed the authenticity of the Bible used today.
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Posted by airsjc on 2009-05-01 09:43:10 | Rating: | Views: 28
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