SADDUCEES (sAd'du - seez), ( Hcb.
tsad-doo-keem' ; Gr. Y,a38otwa7os, .sad-doo-kah'yos), (Matt. iii:7; xvi:i, 6, I1, 12; NXii:23, 34; Mark xii:18; Luke xx:27; Acts iv:f ; v:17; xxiii:6-8). One of the three sects of Jewish philosophers, of which the Pharisees and the Essenes were the others, who had reached their highest state of prosperity about the commencement of the Christian era.
(1) Cause and Principles of Sect. In every highly developed social system the elements are found to exist which led to the formation of the sect of Sadducees. But these elements were in fuller amplitude and more decided energy among the post-exilian Jews than in most ancient nations. The peculiar doctrines and practices of the Pharisees naturally begot the Sadducean system. The first embodied the principle of veneration, which looked on the past with so much regard as to become enamored of its forms as well as its substance, its ivy as well as its columns, its corruptions no less than its excellences, taking and maintaining the whole with a warm but blind and indiscriminate affection ; the second, alienated by the extrava gances of the former, were led to seize on the principle of rationalism, and hence to investigate prevalent customs, and weigh received opinions, till at length investigation begot skepticism, and skepticism issued in the positive rejection of many established notions and observances. The prin ciple of the Sadducee is thus obviously an off shoot from the rank growth of conservatism and orthodoxy. Corruption brings reform.
(2) Extremists. And as it is not possible for the same individuals, nor for the same classes of men, to perform the dissimilar acts of conserva tism and reformation, so must there be, if Phari sees, Sadducees also in society. It is for the good of men that the latter should come into being, see ing that the principle represented by the former arises, inevitably, in the actual progress of events. True wisdom, however, consists in avoiding the extremes peculiar to both, and aims to make man possessor of all the good which the past can be stow and all the good which the present can pro duce, uniting in one happy result the benign re sults of conservatism and improvement, retention of the past and progress in the present.
(3) Traditions of Pharisees Rejected. It would be easy to show how the several particulars which were peculiar to the Sadducee arose out of Pharisaic errors. As, however, we wish to give to this necessarily brief notice an historical character, we shall content ourselves with one instance—the doctrine of tradition. By an excessive veneration of the Mosaic institutions and sacred books, the Pharisees had been led to regard every thing which explained their meaning or unfolded their hidden signification. Hence the exposition of the ancients came to be received with respect equal to that with which the very words of the founders and original writers were regarded. Tradition was engrafted on the vine of Israel. But all ex position is relative to the mind of the expoSitor. Accordingly various expositions came into being. Every age, every doctor gave a new exposition. Thus a diverse and contradictory, as well as huge. mass of opinions was formed, which overlaid and hid the law of God. Then a true reverence for that law identified itself with the principle of the Sadducee, and the Pharisee was made to appear as not only the author but the patron and advo cate of corruption.
(4) Rise and Development. The time when the sect of the Sadducees came into existence, his tory does not define. From what has been ad vanced it appears that they were posterior to the Pharisees And although so soon as the Pharisaic elements began to become excessive, there existed in Judaism itself a sufficient source for Sadducee ism ; yet, as a fact, we have no doubt that Grecian philosophy lent its aid to the development of Sad duceeism. Whence we are referred for the rise of the latter to the period when the conquests and the kingdoms which ensued from the expedition of Alexander had diffused a very large portion of Grecian civilization over the soil of the East, and especially over Western Asia.