Communal Identities

The limited evidence for Jews in the Second Temple period suggests that Jews at this time adopted practices that connected them with other Jews throughout the Greco-Roman world. Jews and Greeks alike considered these practices, which included the observance of dietary laws, circumcision, and the Sabbath, to be the primary markers of Jewish identity. By the end of the first century CE, most Jews were living in communities whose cultural and religious life included the synagogue. It was there that Jews regularly gathered to read their scriptures and where the reading and interpreting of these sacred materials was the primary expression of religious devotion. The synagogue became the main site of communal gathering and scriptural recitation well before it was established as a place of communal prayer. (For more on the development of the synagogue, see THE SYNAGOGUE.)

And yet, by the first century CE, certain groups of Judeans had distinguished themselves politically or ideologically from other Jews. Josephus names three of these groups—Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes—and describes each of them as representing a different philosophical school of thought. In some passages, Josephus refers to these groups as haireses, a word that is often translated today as “sects.” However, the modern connotation of “sect”—the implication that a group is closed off from outside society and centered on a messianic figure who has promised them salvation—does not apply to all these schools of thought. An alternative translation of haireses as “parties” hints at the social and political roles that these groups might have played.

In addition to the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, this section includes material about the Boethusians, likely a subgroup of Sadducees; the Therapeutae, an Essene-like group located primarily in Egypt; and the early followers of Jesus, Jews who were likely considered sectarians both by other Jews and by Romans. (A complete “parting of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity would occur gradually.) The Essenes and early Christians, arguably among the smaller of the groups discussed here, are covered at length because of the wealth of material about them available from the Dead Sea Scrolls and from the New Testament, respectively.