eagle – a pagan Roman emblem – placed atop the gateway of the Temple. He
appointed and deposed high priests at will, thus completing the protracted
process of undermining this office.
To be sure, many of the Pharisees had welcomed his reign as an alternative
to war, choosing religious tolerance over political independence. In turn,
Herod accommodated the Pharisees by not requiring them to swear an oath of
allegiance, which in any case would have been largely superfluous, given the
severity of his rule. At the same time, the relationship between the sects grew
more complex during the reign of Herod, as multiple factions emerged
within the ranks of the Pharisees, and new sects appeared.
The sources regarding the sects are decidedly biased, particularly with
respect to the Pharisees. The early Christians regarded the Pharisees as a
“brood of vipers.” The authors of rabbinic writings regarded the Pharisees as
their own forebears. The other source, the writings of Josephus Flavius, is
replete with a variety of biases. Nonetheless, it is still possible, using these
biased sources together, to form a reasonable composite picture of the sects as
they matured during the reign of Herod.
Sectarian divisions were not rigid. There were undoubtedly Jews who picked
and chose between sects. Moreover, despite differences, all Jewish sects shared
certain beliefs in common: God, the Land of Israel, a common heritage and
mythical tradition. In addition, the sects had more connection with each other
than they had with Gentiles, even alongside growing intersectarian antipathy.
The Sadducees, though originally a Jerusalem-centered, priestly upper class,
relocated along with the Jerusalem patricians to Galilee under the Hasmoneans,
becoming a more rural landed aristocracy. When their descendants eventually
returned to Jerusalem, they brought with them a more rural outlook that was
parochial, politically conservative, and often hostile to education. They
regarded the Temple service as the only legitimate form of prayer.
By contrast, the Pharisees tended to be more refined, educated, subtle, open
to innovation, moderate, and fluid. Virtually any Jew could join their ranks by
accepting their doctrines, regardless of background. At the same time, the
Pharisees maintained sharp divisions between members and non-members;
the latter they referred to as Am Ha’aretz(literally, people of the land). The
Pharisees, who had earlier introduced prayer as an alternative to sacrifice, came
to regard personal prayer as a superior form of worship, thus recalling earlier
prophetic critiques of the sacrificial cult. Pharisaic doctrine also had a key
social implication. The Pharisees were, by nature, a proselytizing sect. It was
not enough for them to be pure. Rather, they needed everyone they came into
contact with – through business or otherwise – to be pure.
Furthermore, the Pharisees were often critical of the openly Hellenistic
demeanor of the Sadducees. To be sure, the Pharisees were also influenced by
Hellenistic culture, but only indirectly. The Pharisees periodically incorpo-
rated Hellenistic concepts and rituals into Pharisaic Judaism by replacing the
essential element with a Jewish equivalent. The symposium, for example, was
36 The challenge of Hellenism