Palestinian Jews
Although the Romans had political control over the Jewish people, they tolerated the beliefs and practices of their subjects. Palestinian Jews during the first century believed in monotheism, were guided by the Torah, and lived in strict accordance with the Law of Moses. Among the many sects of Jews, several groups were important during Jesus' lifetime: the Pharisees and Sadducees had prominence, but the Essenes and the Zealots were important for their views and contributions (the former were ascetics and the latter were militants).
The Pharisees
The Pharisees believed that God met Moses on Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments along with numerous laws and knowledge of how to apply them. These laws first passed from one generation to the next through oral tradition and later were written into the Talmud. The Pharisees also believed in a just God who punishes wickedness and rewards goodness in the afterlife. They also believed in a messiah who one day would establish a kingdom of peace on earth.
The Sadducees
The Sadducees, the elitist Jewish group at the time of Jesus, were interested in literal interpretation of the written law found in the Torah and in maintaining the priestly caste and its power to oversee and control temple rituals. Belief in an afterlife was out of the question, since the Torah contained no such idea. Together with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, who descended from the Levi tribe and Zadok family, accounted for the seventy-one Jews making up the Sanhedrin, the highest religious and civil court in Jerusalem.
What is the Apocrypha?
In Judeo-Christian references, the Apocrypha usually refers to a collection of fourteen texts, considered to be outside the canon but included in the Septuagint (the oldest Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures or the Old Testament) and the Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible from Greek). However, the meaning is broad enough to include religious texts of unknown or dubious authorship.
The Essenes found offensive the beliefs and practices of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and left Jerusalem for the desert. These “Children of Light,” as they called themselves, may have been a branch of a sect living in the Qumran settlement near the Dead Sea, now famous as the location where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The Essenes practiced a rigorous form of asceticism and were vegetarians.
The Zealots
The Zealots were an armed group of revolutionary Jews who advocated the overthrow (violently, if necessary) of the Roman occupiers of Palestine during the first century.
