Guide
Legal Tension between Pharisees and Sadducees
1st Century BCE–1st Century CE
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By Carol Bakhos
While Josephus describes the differences between the various first-century CE Jewish sects in theological terms, rabbinic sources indicate that there were sectarian disputes over legal matters as well. One of these sources, m. Yadayim 4:5–8, enumerates several specific points of law on which Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed. In other texts, the rabbis themselves express disagreement with Sadducean interpretation of halakhah.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Pharisees and Sadducees Debate Halakhah
5. The Aramaic sections in Ezra and Daniel defile the hands. An Aramaic section written in Hebrew, or a Hebrew section written in Aramaic, or [Hebrew written in] Hebrew script does not defile the…
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Purification at Sunset
The elders of Israel used to go first by foot to the Mount of Olives, where there was a place of immersion. The priest that was to burn the cow was [deliberately] made unclean on account of the…
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Pharisees and Ritual Purity
The garments of an ‘am ha’arets [a common person] possess midras-impurity for Pharisees.
The garments of Pharisees possess midras-impurity for those who eat terumah [gifts for…
Primary Source
Sadducee Rejection of the Law of Eruv
1. One who lives in a courtyard with a non-Jew or with one who does not acknowledge the [principle of] eruv, that [person] restricts him [from making use of the eruv]—the words of R. Meir. R. Eliezer…
Primary Source
Punishment of False Witnesses
Perjuring witnesses are not to be put to death until [after] the end of the trial. Because the Sadducees say: [Perjurers were put to death] only after the accused had [actually] been executed, as it…
Primary Source
Marriage to Sadducean Women
The daughters of the Sadducees, so long as they are accustomed to walking in the paths of their fathers, are to be regarded as Samaritan women [i.e., as nonpracticing Jews]. If they left those paths…