Bible Figure
Sadducees
The Sadducees were a Jewish group prominent in the Jerusalem priestly and aristocratic establishment during the New Testament period. The New Testament particularly associates them with denial of the resurrection and with leadership connected to the Temple.
Biography
The Gospels and Acts present Sadducees alongside other Jewish groups but distinguish them especially by doctrine and social location. They rejected the resurrection, and Acts also contrasts them with Pharisees concerning angels and spirits. Members of the high-priestly establishment were associated with Sadducean interests, and Acts depicts Sadducean leaders opposing the apostles' proclamation of Jesus' resurrection. Jesus confronted Sadducees who attempted to challenge belief in resurrection with a hypothetical marriage case and answered from the Torah that God is God of the living. The group disappeared from history after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 as the social and institutional world that sustained it collapsed.
Biblical Significance
The Sadducees help explain both the religious diversity of first-century Judaism and the intense controversy created by the Christian proclamation of resurrection. Their Temple-centered position also provides important background for the opposition faced by Jesus and the apostles in Jerusalem.