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Is JUDAISM the Religion of Moses? 49

"They [the Sadducees] saw in the traditions of the elders an excess of legal strictness which
they refused to have imposed upon them, while the advanced religious views [of the Phari-
sees] were, on the one hand SUPERFLUOUS TO THEIR WORLDLY-MINDEDNESS,
and on the other, inadmissible by their higher culture and enlightenment" (Schurer, The
Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, sec. ii, vol. ii, p. 41).

The Sadducees simply did not want to be burdened with more religious laws. They thought
the Laws of Scripture were certainly enough, without adding more! And, in fact, sometimes, if the
Scripture did not teach what they wanted, they would even disallow it.

"The Sadducees, with the easy indifference of men of the world, finding that THERE WAS
QUITE ENOUGH IN THE LAW FOR THEM TO OBEY, denied that there was anything
obligatory outside the Books of Moses (Renan, History of the People of Israel, vol. 5, pp.
41, 42).

With their rejection of the traditions of the elders and their acceptance of only the Scripture,
it is not to be supposed that they were interested in getting the people back to the religion of Moses
or in bringing the people to a proper reverence for the Scripture. They were willing to accept just
what they had to, in order to retain THEIR political positions among the rich and wealthy of Jerusa-
lem (Antiquities of the Jews, xviii, 10, 6).

"Their whole doctrinal position GAVE THEM LIBERTY TO FOLLOW THEIR DESIRES
FOR POLITICAL POWER AND WORLDLY SATISFACTION. Hence they had a
DEEPER INTEREST IN SUSTAINING THE POWER OF THE REIGNING PRINCE
[whether Jewish or Roman] THAN IN MAINTAINING THE OBSERVANCES OF
MOSES" (Riggs, A History of the Jewish People, p. 111).

While on the surface it may have seemed like the Sadducees were a little closer to the truth,
because they maintained that the Scripture was sufficient Law to have, yet the fact is, they were just
as far away from the truth -- even farther! While the Sadducees blamed the Pharisees for not adher-
ing to Scripture for their doctrines, they themselves were rejecting doctrine after doctrine of plain
Scripture. They were no more following the complete directions of the Scriptures than were the
Pharisees.

Sadducees Reject Other Scripture Teaching!

Throughout the Scriptures we are distinctly shown by prophecies and by examples that God
at certain times intervenes in the affairs of individuals and of nations. There are multitudes of
prophecies which show that God is very soon going to personally intervene in the affairs of man-
kind. See, for example, the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

But the Sadducees believed not a word of this! They believed that God did not direct the
mind of man in any form or manner -- all things that happened were he result of man's own doing,
God never intervened!

The Berean Voice March-April 2003