Page 32 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

A History of the Church in Africa

guides (Matthew 23:13, 16). Tenney says that “Jesus took exception to the
practice of the Pharisees rather than to their basic teaching” (93).

Sadducees. The Sadducees may have been named after the high priest
Zadok who lived at the time of David. They were a party of wealthy
priests who, because of their learning and position, became the leaders
of the Jews in exile. After the Jews returned from captivity, the Sadducees
became the prominent priests in the Temple, and they served as “real
rulers of the nation, although they did not claim for themselves the title
of king” (Tenney, 94). It appears that they viewed Jesus as a threat to
their rank and position. Paul referred to the Sadducees when he was
tried before the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:6).

The Sadducees rejected the supernatural and thus neither believed
in a resurrection nor in angels and spirits (Acts 23:8). We may correctly
refer to them as the more liberal branch of Judaism, which was prone to
compromise. With the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the disbanding of
the priesthood, they disappeared.

Essenes. The Essenes were a community of Jews that one could find
in small villages throughout Palestine. One could become a member
only by adoption or by initiation after taking an oath to keep the Law
of Moses. The historian Philo states that “the Essenes banned marriage
altogether” (quoted in Ferguson 489). Essenes spent much time studying
the Scriptures. Ferguson adds:

Whenever ten members were together, someone was to be
studying the law at all times, and the members took turns
reading and praying together night and day…the meals of the
community had a sacred character, and the proceedings were
carefully regulated. (491)

They held to a strict discipline, and if one did not follow the rules and
regulations, that person could be expelled from the community.

Their theology recognized one God who was the Creator of the universe
and all that was good. The community was organized into four groups:
priests, Levites, Israelites, and proselytes. It appears that promotion
from one group to the other was possible. Essenes may have been the

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