the horns of ames

Sadducees and Pharisees - United for a cause

I got two of my books today! I've decided that I'm going to read one question every morning from R.C. Sproul's book "Now That's a Good Question" along with my other devotions and I'm going to try to read my "Church History in Plain Language" by Bruce Shelley book at night. We'll see how it goes.

I did read a great summary of why Sadduccees and Pharisees both were anxious of what Jesus was teaching. This is all quoted from the book:

"A man like Jesus presented a real danger to the Sadducees, because they held their privileged position with the support of the Roman authorities. Anyone who aroused talk of a messiah undermined the people's allegiance to the established political order and endangered the relationship the Sadducees had with the Romans. Such a man, they concluded, had to be silenced before he sparked an uprising, which the Romans would crush with characteristic brutality. If that happened, the Sadducees stood to lose their privileges.

Thus, their common fear of Jesus brought about an unusual alliance between the Sadducees and their rivals, the Pharisees. Jesus, who openly violated the Sabbath laws and questioned the vailidity of other laws, seemed to be undermining the authority of the Jewish relition. FOr their separate reasons, both parties saw this self-styled prophet from Galilee as a dangerous enemy, and together they concluded that he should be brought to trial and condemned to death."

posted by Aaron @ www.HornIT.net @ 11:30 PM