SADDUCEES, one of the three Jewish sects. The current tradition, which was first published by Rabbi Nathan in the 2d century, is that the Sadducees derived their name from a certain Zadok, a dis ciple of Antigonus of Soko (200-170 B. The Zadok from whom they derive their name was the priest who declared in favor of Solomon when the High Priest Abiathar adhered to Adonijah (I Kings i. 32-45). His descendants had a subse quent pre-eminence (Ezek. xl. 46, xliii. 19, xliv. 15, xlviii. 11). Not that the Sadducees became a party so early, or that Zadok was their founder; but that some of them may have been his descen dants, and all admired his fidelity to the theocratic government, even when the head of the priesthood had gone astray. It was their desire to be equally faithful. All the Jews admitted that the Mosaic law was given at Sinai by Jehovah Him self. Most of the people, with the con currence and support of the Pharisees, believed that an oral law of Moses had similarly come from God. The Sadducees rejected this view, and would accept nothing beyond the written word. They were the Protestants of the older economy. Certain consequences followed. In the Mosaic law there is no reference to a state of rewards and punishments in a future world. When Jesus proves the resurrection from the Pentateuch, He does so by an inference, there being no direct passage which He can quote (Matt.
xxii. 31, 32). The Sadducees therefore denied the resurrection from the dead (verse 23). The doctrine of a future
world is taught in some passages of the Old Testament, especially in Dan. xii. 2, 3, etc., which should have modified their belief. That it did not do so can be ex plained only by supposing that they at tributed a higher inspiration to the Mo saic law than to other parts of the Old Testament. Epiphanius (Hceres., xiv.) and some other of the fathers assert that the Sadducees rejected all the Old Testa ment but the Pentateuch. Probably, how ever, these writers confounded the Sad ducees with the Samaritans. In Acts xxiii. 8, it is stated that they say that "there is neither angel nor spirit." How they could ignore all the angelic ap pearances in the Pentateuch (Gen. xvi. 7, 11, xix. 1, etc.) is hard to understand. Perhaps they may have believed that, though angelic appearances once took place, they had now ceased. It is sur prising that a sect with these views should, at least at one time, have almost monopolized the highest places in the priesthood; yet such was the case, at least temporarily (Acts iv. 1-6). But, with all their sacred office and worldly tank, they could have had no hold on the common people. It is probable that, when Christianity spread—even among its Jew ish opponents—a belief in the resurrec tion, the Sadducees must have still further lost ground; but they ultimately revived, and still exist, under the name of KARA ITES (q. v.).