tion of Greek ways. The contrast should not be pictured as absolute, since
Hellenistic influence, such as the spread of the Greek language, was multi-
faceted and in part religiously neutral. But 2 Maccabees describes a situa-
tion in which a group of Jews, led by the usurping high priest Jason and
with the approval of the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV (175-164b.c.e.),
introduced into Jerusalem the central institutions of Greek education and
citizenship—agymnasium and an ephebate. 1 Maccabees 1:11 presents the
perspective embraced by such people in these words: “In those days certain
renegades(paranomoi)came out from Israel and misled many, saying, ‘Let
us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles around us, for since we sepa-
rated from them many disasters have come upon us.” The author adds that
not only was the gymnasium built in Jerusalem but these people “removed
the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined
with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil” (v. 15). Later, when the
worship of a different god was set up in the Jerusalem Temple, not all Jews
were opposed to the innovation although some, under Hasmonean leader-
ship, violently fought it.
In the context of the early Hasmonean period, specifically in his ac-
count of the reign of Jonathan as high priest and leader, Josephus (Ant.
13.171-73) reports that there were three sects or schools of thought
(haireseis)among the Jews and lists them as the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
and the Essenes. Josephus mentions members of these groups in various
places in his narratives and devotes a couple of sections to describing
them, especially inJ.W.2.119-66 (see alsoAnt.18.11-22). The information
from Josephus regarding these groups can be supplemented from the Dead
Sea Scrolls and from the New Testament. Rabbinic literature, too, refers to
Pharisees and Sadducees.
About the Pharisees Josephus reports that they were known for their
skill and accuracy in interpreting the Law of Moses (J.W.2.162), and to this
he adds that “the Pharisees had passed on to the people certain regulations
handed down by former generations and not recorded in the Laws of Mo-
ses” (Ant.13.297 [trans. R. Marcus]). This appears to be the oral Torah
known from other sources, a tradition of commentary and interpretation
that allowed the Pharisees to apply the ancient law to changed circum-
stances. Josephus, who mentions this Pharisaic trait while describing dis-
agreements between Pharisees and Sadducees at the time of John Hyrcanus
(134-104b.c.e.), says that these regulations of the Pharisees were not ac-
cepted by the Sadducees, who insisted “that only those regulations should
be considered valid which were written down (in Scripture), and that those80james c. vanderkamEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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