For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
By clicking on the link, you can listen to the 6th lesson in our series, 1st Century Judaism: Many Flavors of Messiah. The podcast is 20 minutes in length.
Sectarian groups of the 1st century
- Pharisee – Torah (written and oral)
- Sadducees – Temple
- Essenes – Land (Qumran and library of Dead Sea Scrolls)
- Zealots – Kingship (Sicarii -- extreme measures)
- Herodians – Regime (Mark 3:6)
- Scribes – Text (Shammai & Hillel; Mark 12:34)
- Samaritans – Sectarian past (see 2 Kings 17; John 4)
- Christians – Messiah (Christ)
Later Judaism
- Remnant of Jews joined the Christian movement (Romans 9-11).
- Escalating antipathy, esp. after 70 AD. Anti-Christian curses.
- Did not deny Christian miracles, but rejected Jesus’ divinity.
- Expected a political Messiah (John 6:15).
- Heirs of Pharisees (rabbinic Judaism) codify oral law in Mishnah, c.200 AD.
Modern Judaism
- Descendants of the Pharisees
- Three main divisions
- Orthodox (right)
- Conservative (center)
- Reform (left)
- Mystics (kabala)
- Charismatics (chasidim)
Conclusion
- Divisions into sects -- each with its own take on the Messiah -- was not just a Jewish phenomenon of the first century.
- As we shall see, division will come round again in the course of church history, and perhaps nowhere more so than in our generation – about 20 lessons from now.
- This violates God's ideal that his people remain one (John 17:22-23).
Next section: Christ in the Gospels. Next podcast: Mark: Lord Caesar or Lord Jesus?
