Difference between revisions of "Sadducees"

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'''Hanifism''' is a word used to describe the Messianic religion of certain Fertile Crescent Baptists (Sabians) sometimes referred to as Abrahamists or Hanafite Christians.
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Hod Shebe Malkhut
  
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===Apostatian?===
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'''ALSADIQIN''', the sect of the '''Sadducees''' - possibly from Hebrew '''Tsdoki''' צדוקי [{{IPA|sˤə.ðo.'qi}}], whence '''Zadokites''' or other variants - was founded in the 2nd century BCE, possibly as a political party, and continued to exist sometime after the 1st century only under the name of Ishmaelites. They were mainly Nabatean Ishmaelite Hagarim converted to Judaism by Alexander Jannaeus.<ref>Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79091-4.</ref> Modern Sadducees have usurped the identity of the Karaite Jews though they do not hold to the Mishnaic beliefs of the early Karaites.  
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Although they simply called themselves "believers", they are best distinguished by their perculiar use of the slur "Hanifian" (Apostatian) to refer to Abraham intending to give hope to people from Apostate backgrounds thereby sanitising the insult which was regularly applied to them as Acephali by the Christian Hierarchies which they rejected.  
 
  
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===Inscriptions, Glossolalia and Poetry===
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The Hebrew language name, Tsdoki, indicates their claim that they are the followers of the teachings of the High Priest Tsadok, often spelled Zadok (High Priest), who anointed Solomon king at the start of the Solomon's Temple. However, Rabbinic tradition suggests that they were ''not'' named after the High Priest Zadok, but rather another Zadok (who may still have been a priest), who rebelled against the teachings of Antigonus of Soko, a government official of Judea in the 3rd century BC and a predecessor of the Rabbinic tradition.
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These Baptists left plenty of rock inscriptions in Arabi Mubeen but most of their doctrine comes from a certain 7th century Persian Charismatic called Gabriel. Gabriel claimed no ability in the Lisan Arabi Mubeen. It seems the Nabis were interpreters of ecclesiastical poems for Sabi Apostles which Gabriel taught allegedly being not his own compositions but from Christ's Angel through the Spiritual gift of Glossolalia alone by the power of the Father's name.
 
  
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===The Hebrew Term Mahmad===
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While little or none of their own writings have been preserved, the Sadducees seem to have indeed been a priestly group, associated with the leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem. Possibly, Sadducees represent the aristocratic clan of the Hasmonean kohen, who replaced the previous high priestly lineage that had allowed the Syrian Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes to desecrate the Temple of Jerusalem with idolatrous sacrifices and to martyr monotheistic Jews. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the ousting of the Syrian forces, the rededication of the Temple, and the installment of the new Hasmonean priestly line. The Hasmoneans ruled as "priest-kings", claiming both titles high priest and king simultaneously, and like other aristocracies across the Hellenistic world became increasingly influenced by Hellenistic syncretism and Greek philosophies: presumably Stoicism, and apparently Epicureanism if the Talmudic tradition criticizing the anti-Torah philosophy of the "Apikorsus" אפיקורסוס (i.e., Epicurus) refers to the Hasmonean clan qua Sadducees. Like Epicureans, Sadducees rejected the existence of an afterlife, thus denied the Pharisaic doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.
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These Baptists believed the Father's name had become flesh as the Messiah Jesus Mary's Son Rasul of the Father's physical Appearance (Divine Temple) which these Baptists called Mahmad (not to be confused with the Arabian Nabi) and so were also referred to as tribes of Mahmad. The term was written Muhmd by Anonymous, Mhmt by Thomas the Presbyter, Mahmet by Sebeos, and Mehmed by John of Damascus.
 
  
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===Ecumenical relations===
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The Dead Sea Scrolls community, who are probably [[Essenes]], were led by a high priestly leadership, who are thought to be the descendents of the "legitimate" high priestly lineage, which the Hasmoneans ousted. The Dead Sea Scrolls bitterly opposed the current high priests of the Temple. Since Hasmoneans constituted a different priestly line, it was in their political interest to emphasize their family's priestly pedigree that descended from their ancestor, the high priest Zadok, who had the authority to anoint the kingship of Solomon, son of David.
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Mahmad's Baptists distinguished themselves slightly from those with whom they had a covenant who they called Musulman despite regarding them as most prone to hypocrisy and disbelief. They considered the closest in that Association (Quraysh) to be the Nestorians (who say Allah's Rasul is a partnership between the divine and its creation) but did not take them as allies nor the Judaizers (who oppose ascribing any kind of uncommon divinity to Allah's Rasul), whom they called Judases and regarded as traitors although they did accept converts from the latter. The Umayyads can be identified as the type of [[Judaizers]] known as Ha-Garim (Hagarenes).  
 
  
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Concerning the term "Muslim" which means "submission", it should be noted that in the Torah, everywhere the word "Kenite" used, it is translated to Aramaic as Salamai or Muslamai or Musalamai. Some suggest this refers to the great numbers of non-Jewish believers who came to sacrifice the Qurban Shlamim in Jerusalem together with the Jews indicating an origin as Judaizers from Herodian Times.  
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Most of what is known about the Sadducees comes from Josephus, who wrote that they were a quarrelsome group whose followers were wealthy and powerful, and that he considered them boorish in social interactions (see Josephus's [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=2529&pageno=105 Wars of the Jews, Book II, Chapter VIII, Paragraph 14]). We know something of them from discussions in the Talmud (mainly the Jerusalem), the core work of Rabbinic literature Judaism, which is based on the teachings of Pharisee Judaism.  
  
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This could explain how some of the Mishnaic entered into the Quranic materials such as for example reference to the seven Mesani meaning the Sheva Mitzvot of Noah:
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== Beliefs ==
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Surat Al-Hijr 15.87 "And We have bestowed upon thee the Sheva Mitzvot and the Grand Qur'an."
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Sadducees rejected certain beliefs of the Pharisaic interpretation of the Torah.  They rejected the Pharisaic tenet of an oral Torah, and interpreted the verses literally. In their personal lives this often meant a more stringent lifestyle, as they did away with the ability to interpret.
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Surat Az-Zumar 39.23 "Allah has revealed the most beautiful Message in the form of a Book, consistent with the Sheva Mitzvot."
 
  
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This is what the Mishnaic refers to as the religion of Noah which is confirmed in Surat Ash-Shura 42.13, "He has laid down the same religion for you as He enjoined on Noah: that which We have revealed to you and which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses and Jesus: 'Establish the religion and do not make divisions in it.' What you call the associators to follow is very hard for them. Allah chooses for Himself anyone He wills and guides to Himself those who turn to Him."
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R' Yitchak Isaac Halevi suggests that while there is evidence of a Sadducee sect from the times of Ezra, It emerged as major force only after the Hashmenite rebellion. The reason for this was not, in fact, a matter of religion. He claims that as complete rejection of Judaism would not have been tolerated under the Hasmonean rule, the Hellenists joined the Sadducees maintaining that they were rejecting not Judaism but Rabbinic law. Thus, the Sadducees were for the most part a political party not a religious sect (Dorot Ha'Rishonim).
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It should be emphasised that the religion of the Muslims was therefore Noahism not Hanifism. But the Believers and the Noahites were united for a while in their struggle to carve out an empire and then later they merged to form a new religious community.
 
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===Iyas ibn Qabisah===
 
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Mahmad's Baptists did not come into focus until an influential person, possibly (according to Mel of Sneaker's Corner) Iyas ibn Qabisa of Tayyaye being Khosrow II's Nestorian Client in AlHira over the Lakhmid, joined their movement as a Mursal being a Nabi of the Rasul (Hitveadut). This leader was married to a Nestorian called Khadijah by her cousin a Nestorian Priest called Waraqah. As leader in Al-Hira over the Lakhmid he could have been called Melkhamed. By the time Sebeos had heard of him many Arabs had already begun to promote him as their Messiah and changed his title from Melkhamed to Mohamed. But to do so they had to diminish the importance of the Christian Messiah and in doing so a new religion was born.
 
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===First Hijra 617===
 
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Long before all that would happen, the Lakhmid ruler was ousted from Al-Hira by Azadbeh's Parsigs in 617AD against whom he thus began to plot his revenge. He petitioned the King of Abyssinia for some land which he was granted around Yathrib in the Hejaz. Pretending to be the last Lakhmid he began secret infiltration along the Roman and Persian boarders with Monophysite Ansar from Yemen and joining the Heraclian revolutionaries.
 
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===Independent Hatra===
 
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George Arsas brought forward the eruption of the Saracens in rebellion because of the treachery of John the Almsgiver in 618/619. The Monophysite Ansar from Yemen established in Hatra were soon able to assert their independence.
 
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===Second Hijra 622===
 
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In the 660s, Sebeos tells us that when Heraclius captured Edessa in 622 the Jews fleeing from Edessa claimed asylum in the new Medina (Hatra) but initially failed to win any allies to their cause until Judaizing the Ishmaelies on the ideas of a learned Mahmet scholar who arrived in the New Medina later that year.
 
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===Opposition to Dyoenergism===
 
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Mahmad's Baptists did present their faith to Heraclius as the Hadiths claim but there was no leader by the name of Muhammad to be heard of according to the Byzantine version of the story. In fact, the belief presented was Monophysitsm and the presenter was called Paulic (its adherents came to be called Paulician by the Byzantines ever since). But Heraclius decided he knew better and came up with his own idea which he called Monoenergism.
 
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At first it seems no one really knew what Heraclius meant. Some Monophysites (especially modalists) accepted his terminology. Others were more cautious.
 
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===Gabriel's visit===
 
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Some time after that the monophysite-polyenergist Gabriel is said to have visited the new Medina to test his bilingual students. The accusation that the Quranic materials were being taught by just a man came to which the response was that his language was foreign while the materials were in clear devotional language. Apparently the possibility that Gabriel also spoke that language was ruled out.
 
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===Kavad II===
 
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Khosrow II was overthrown in 628 and was replaced by the rather Monophysite Byzantine Emperor Maurice's grandson Kavad II in Old Medina who appointed Heraclius regent over his son when he died.
 
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===Dhū-Qār 624===
 
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Ibn Abu Qabsah is said to have finally got his revenge against Azadbeh on the Day of Dhū-Qār in the Makah vicinity just north of Hira a few months after Badr in 624.
 
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But until his death the Lakhmid King was still just one of many Nabis of the Sabian faith who had learned Gabriel's Ecclesiastical poetry.
 
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===The Critical Years of 628-630===
 
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Understanding the chronology of what happened next is essential.
 
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It seems first that the Ghassanid Monophysite Church entered a brief union with Heraclius.
 
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But then the Nestorians were allowed to establish their own Catholicos again greatly upsetting the Monophysites. Many would have joined the Acephali in protest against the Ghassanid Patriarch at this time.
 
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Heraclius proclaimed himself "Basileus" in 629 the first Greek since the Seleucids to be Persia's King of Kings greatly upsetting the Pahlavis.
 
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The Nestorian Catholicos Ishoʿyahb II of Gala entered communion with Byzantium in 630.
 
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The Monophysite Church immediately broke communion with Heraclius and established a Maphrian of all the East to oppose the Nestorian Catholicos. This may have been to appease their congregations who were no doubt furious about being united to the Nestorians.
 
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At the same time the Pahlavis had different ideas and rejected Heraclius's regency over Kavodh's young son Ardashir whom they established on the throne instead triggering the chain of events which soon led to Arab supremacy in the region. There was nothing supernatural about it.
 
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===The Pasigs vs Pahlavi Civil War===
 
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Heraclius's responded by instigating a civil war between the Parsigs and Pahlavis while this is the time associated with the Conquest of Makah in the standard narrative, no doubt having been armed by the Pahlavis to use as infantry against the Parsigs.  
 
 
   
 
   
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Heraclius sent the Zoroastrian Shahrbaraz to kill the Monophysite Christian Child-Prince Ardashir and crucify his Christian supporters. Shahrbaraz established himself on the throne in 630 but was quickly replaced by the Monophysite Christian Borandokht who was in turn dethroned by Parsing Shapur followed by her own half-sister the Zoroastrian Azarmidokht. Azarmidokht was opposed by the Pahlavi Farrukh whom she executed then Farrukh's son Rostam who executed her and restored Borandokht to the throne in 631. But the Parsigs did not give up and had her strangled in 632.
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However there is evidence<ref>Cf., for one example of a sect that could have represented a Sadducee schism and did believe in Angels, the Afterlife, etc.:  Lawrence H. Schiffman, 'The Sadducean Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect', in <i>Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls</i>, ed. H. Shanks, New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 35-49. It is widely known that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls never recognizably refer to themselves as "Essenes"—possibly due to the fact that they wrote mainly in Hebrew and Aramaic, whereas we have the term "Essenes" from Greek—but they do refer to themselves in various places as the "Zadokites"/"Sons of Zadok", which term is apparently identical to that by which the Sadducees identified themselves. Among other arguments for a Sadducean Essene origin, Schiffman also cites interpretations of the purity regulations which closely parallel Sadducean views recorded by the spiritual heirs of the [[Pharisees]], who authored the Talmud.</ref> that there was an internal schism among those called "Sadducees" - some who rejected Angels, the Soul, and Resurrection - and some which accepted these teachings and the entirety of the Hebrew Bible.
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==632 Imam Ali==
 
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===The Alids===
 
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A truce between the Pasigs and Pahlavis was reached and Yazdegard was established on the throne in 632 as a compromise between the two parties. His daughter Shahrbonu was wed to the Lakhmid King's son in law Ali who ruled from Al-Hira after him until his assassination in 661.
 
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====Ali and al-Hanafiyyah====
 
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The curious story of Khawlah bint Ja'far.
 
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====Ali's Tome====
 
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According to our Thesis, Ali represented Hanifism as Islam had not yet been invented. According to our theory it was Abu Bakr, and Umar then Uthman who laid the ground work for the establishment of the Book of the Arabs and the Religion of the Arabs created under Abdul Malik.
 
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This theory explains how Pope Martin could have been charged with granting the Saracens their "Tome" as it would not have been vastly different from the Dyoenergists at this point who were all working together against the anti-Dyoenergism of the 7th century Byzantine Emperors.
 
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The "Tome" in question is the original Syro-Aramaic one that Ali offered to his predecessors but which they rejected in favour of the partly goat-eaten Hafsa Mushaf. Ali's is also the same version which was defended by ibn Mansur and his supporters whom Uthman had killed.
 
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Leo III refers to how Ali and Salmani Fars and Umar all contributed material to the Book of the Arabs.
 
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===Arabs rival the Pahlavi Alids===
 
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Although Ali and the Pahlavis had made their deal with the Pasigs, the Pahlavi Alids faced political opposition from the more Judaized Nestorians Arabs of Abu Bakr, Aisha, Umar, Hafsa and the Umayyads.  
 
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Abu Bakr was probably a Judaized Nestorian Ishmaelite. He took much delight in announcing in 632 "Those who follow Muhammad, know that he is dead. As for those who follow The Father, know that he is alive forever!"
 
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It was essential to undermine the idea that Jesus was God's temple if there was to be any hope of rebuilding a Shrine for the Jews on the Temple Mount.  
 
  
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Abu Bakr, as an Ishmaelite Nestorian Judaizer, sought to reverse the influence of the Sabians by executing Maslama bin Habib and subjugating the Banu Hanifa. But Ali is said to have sympathised with them taking their princess as his bride.
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In regard to criminal jurisdiction they were so rigorous that the day on which their code was abolished by the Pharisaic Sanhedrin under Simeon ben Shetah's leadership, during the reign of Salome Alexandra, was celebrated as a festival. The Sadducees are said to have insisted on the literal execution of the law of retaliation: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth", which pharisaic Judaism, and later rabbinic Judaism, rejected. On the other hand, they would not inflict the death penalty on false witnesses in a case where capital punishment had been wrongfully carried out, unless the accused had been executed solely in consequence of the testimony of such witnesses.
  
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While the Imam in Al-Hira was the dead king's son in law Ali the defacto political leader was an ex-Priest called Abu Bakr who began to make changes to Hanifism. He set about consolidating his power and killed rival Nabis such as Maslamah bin Habib who stood in his way.  
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According to the Talmud, they granted the daughter the same right of inheritance as the son in case the son was dead.(see chapter Yeish Nochalin of the Babylonain Talmud, tractate Bava Batra)
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====Abu Bakr's MusHaf====
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See however Emet L' Yaakov over there who explains that the focus of their argument was theological. The question was whether there is an "Afterlife" (see above) and thus the dead person can act as a chain on the line of inheritance as if he was alive.
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The standard narrative says that Zaid ibn Thabit was first ordered to set about collecting Quranic materials during the reign of Abu Bakr. There is no reason to believe that Abu Bakr thought that Gabriel the Persian was nothing more than a poet.
 
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====633 The Battle of Hira====
 
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When Khaled took Amgheshiya in 633, Azadbeh's army stood outside Hira before losing everything later that year.
 
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====Zionism====
 
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In the 660s, Sebeos mentions a Mahmet Torah Scholar inciting Judaized Ishmaelies to take the Holy land and how they organised their approach.
 
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====Nestorians petition Abu Bakr====
 
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The Chronicle of Seert, probably written in the ninth century, records two approaches to the Muslims from the Nestorian Church. The first by Ishoʿyahb's emissaries to Abu Bakr (632–4).
 
  
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"At times the first Arab conquests were led – in a noteworthy paradox – under a flag bearing a cross" (Alichoran, 1996: 86)
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According to the Talmud, they contended that the seven weeks from the first barley-sheaf-offering ("omer") to Shavuot (Pentecost in Christian reference) should, according to Leviticus 23:15-16, be counted from "the day after Sabbath," and, consequently, that Shavuot should always be celebrated on the first day of the week (Meg. Ta'an. i.; Men. 65a). In this they followed a literal reading of the Bible which regards the festival of the firstlings as having no direct connection with Passover, while the Pharisees, connecting the festival of the Exodus with the festival of the giving of the Law, interpreted the "morrow after the Sabbath" to signify the second day of Passover.
  
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===634 Umar===
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In regard to rituals at the Temple in Jerusalem:
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The Nestorians made a second approach this time by Ishoʿyahb himself to the caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab (634–44). ʿUmar is said to have granted the Church of the East a charter of protection.
 
  
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Some of the Saracen leaders mentioned during Umar's name are referred to by similar names such as Amr. The standard narrative is that they represent different people but it might not necessarily be the historical case.
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* They held that the daily burnt offerings were to be offered by the high priest at his own expense, whereas the Pharisees contended that they were to be furnished as a national sacrifice at the cost of the Temple treasury into which taxes were paid.
  
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====Calendar====
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* They held that the meal offering belonged to the priest's portion; whereas the Pharisees claimed it for the altar.
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According to the standard narrative, Ramadan had always coincided with the Fast of Adam and Eid ulAzhar had always coincided with Passover preparations until 632. But neglecting intercalations for the 12 Lunar Months the calendar had slipped forward two whole months against the Solar year by the time Umar came to power in 634. Umar opted to stay with 12 lunar months instead of returning to the system of intercalation used until 632.
 
  
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====634 Tayyaye d'Mhmt====
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* They insisted on an especially high degree of purity in those who officiated at the preparation of the ashes of the Red Heifer. The Pharisees, by contrast, opposed such strictness.
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In 640, Thomas the Presbyter reported that the "Tayyaye d-Mhmt" were fighting with Romans 12 miles east of Gaza in 634.
 
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====Sophronius====
 
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In his 634 Christmas Sermon, the hardcore Dyophysite Sophronius mentions that the "Godless" Saracens had taken Bethlehem and that is what you get when you don't respect Baptism.
 
  
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====634 Carthage Doctrina Yacobi====
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* They declared that the kindling of the incense in the vessel with which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement was to take place outside, so that he might be wrapped in smoke while meeting the Shekhinah within, according to Lev. xvi. 2; whereas the Pharisees, denying the high priest the claim of such supernatural vision, insisted that the incense be kindled within.
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Byzantine propaganda attempts to break down relations between Jews and the Judaized Ishmaelite Nestorians.  
 
  
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"What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?" He replied, groaning deeply: "He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword."
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* They opposed the popular festivity of the water libation and the procession preceding it on each night of the Sukkot feast.
  
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It concludes that Jews should side with Byzantine Christianity instead.
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* They opposed the Pharisaic assertion that the scrolls of the Holy Scriptures have, like any holy vessel, the power to render ritually unclean the hands that touch them.
  
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====636 Fragment====
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* They opposed the Pharisaic idea of the ''eruv'', the merging of several private precincts into one in order to admit of the carrying of food and vessels from one house to another on the Sabbath.
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"Muhmd and many people were slain"
 
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====637 Jerusalem====
 
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Sophronius the Dyophysite hands Jerusalem over to Umar.
 
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====638====
 
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Cowardly Pope Honorius dies.
 
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Sergius of Constantinople dies.
 
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Sophronius dies.
 
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Dyophysite Heraclius outlaws discussion of Dyoenergism.
 
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The Muslims are alleged to have attempted to seat the Monothelite Bishop Sergius of Jaffa as the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
 
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Umar establishes the Dyoenergist Monophysite Armenian Patriarch Abraham I as Patriarch of Jerusalem.
 
  
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====639 Egypt====
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* In dating all civil documents they used the phrase "after the high priest of the Most High," and they opposed the formula introduced by the Pharisees in divorce documents, "According to the law of Moses and Israel".
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The standard narrative says that Amr ibn al-As joined the companions of the Arabian Nabi in 629. However, historical sources say that Amr said he "had never seen such an impressive man of God as" the Coptic Pope Benjamin.
 
  
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====644 Emir Umayr====
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* Ben Sira, one of the Deuterocanonical books, is believed by many scholars to have been by a Sadducee {{Fact|date=February 2007}}. (Note, the Talmud says clearly he was rejected by the Sadducees.)
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An 874 manuscript titled Disputation of John and the Emir it is recorded that on the 9th of May 644, and the Emir Umayr ibn Sad al-As arise invited the Syria Orthodox Patriarch John III of the Sedre to explain the Byzantine faith to him. The Byzantine praised his efforts. At the Emir's request, John also had the Gospel translated from Syriac into Arabic by Arab Christians from the Banu Uqayl, Tanukh, and Tayy tribes. It is alleged that the emir had initially demanded that mentions of the name of Christ, the baptism, and the Cross be removed from the translation, but relented following John's refusal. The request to remove the title Christ indicates the Emir was influenced by Judaism.
 
  
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===644 Uthman===
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== Reliability of claims ==
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Uthman succeeds Umar.
 
  
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====Uthman's Mushaf (650s)====
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None of the writings we have about Sadducees present their own side of these controversies, and it is possible that positions attributed to "Sadducees" in later literature are meant as rhetorical foils for whatever opinion the author wishes to present, and do not in fact represent the teachings of the sect. Yet, although these texts were written long after these periods, many scholars have said that they are a fairly reliable account of history during the Second Temple era.
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According to the standard narrative, Uthman ordered all Quranic materials to be burned except for the "Quraysh" version written by Zaid ibn Thabit. He also killed the supporters of Ibn Mansur who opposed his decision.
 
  
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====Pope Martin of Gaza====
 
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It is likely that if there is any truth at all to the charge that Pope Martin granted the Saracens their Tome that it refers to the original Book of the Alids and not to Uthman's redacted Book of the Arabs. Again concerning the charge of supplying money to them. It may have been to the Alids cause to overthrown the Umayyads.
 
  
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===656 The First Fitna===
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== Origin ==
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As soon as the Caliph and Imam had secured their kingdom they began to fight each other. In 656 Muawiya succeeded Uthman and stepped up Arab opposition to the Alids Pahlavis which his predecessors had subdued.
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They were mainly Nabatean Ishmaelite Hagarim converted to Judaism by Alexander Jannaeus.<ref>Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79091-4.</ref> Having been freed by a Kohen they were all counted as his legal children. Where exactly Alexander Jannaeus got the idea for his religion is uncertain. Josephus relates that the three "sects" — the Pharisees, Essenes, and Sadducees — dated back to "very ancient times" (Ant. xviii. 1, § 2), which really only point to a time prior to John Hyrcanus (ib. xiii. 8, § 6) or the Maccabean war (ib. xiii. 5, § 9).
  
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==661 Muawiya crowned in Jerusalem==
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Among the rabbis of the second century the following legend circulated: Antigonus of Soko, successor of Simeon the Just (219–199 BCE), the last of the Men of the Great Assembly, and consequently living at the time of the influx of Hellenistic ideas, taught the maxim, "Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of a reward, but be rather like those who serve without thought of receiving a reward" (Avot 1:3); whereupon two of his disciples, Zadok and Boethusius, mistaking the high ethical purport of the maxim, arrived at the conclusion that there was no future retribution, saying, "What servant would work all day without obtaining his due reward in the evening?" Instantly they broke away from the Law and lived in great luxury, using many silver and gold vessels at their banquets; and they established schools which declared the enjoyment of this life to be the goal of man, at the same time pitying the Pharisees for their bitter privation in this world with no hope of another world to compensate them. These two schools were called, after their founders, Sadducees and Boethusians.
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===Treaty===
 
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Muawiya of Quraysh forced the Alids imamates underground and ended the civil wars for 20 years which resumed when the imamate tried to raise its head again upon Muawiya's death in 680. After killing Hussein many Quraysh repented and punished themselves.
 
  
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====Sebeos 660s====
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Christian traditions state that the Sadducees began as a Samaritan sect.
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Sebeos covers the rise of the Ishmaelies from their Judaization in 622 to the ascendancy of Muawiya.
 
  
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===2nd Imam Hassan 661-670===
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==New Testament/Greek Scriptures==
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===3rd Imam Hussein 670-680===
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The Sadducees are mentioned in the New Testament/Greek Scriptures of the Christian Bible. The Gospel of Matthew indicates that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. {{bibleref|Matthew|22:29}}, 31-32 says:
  
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==680 Yazid I==
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:<sup>29</sup> In reply Jesus said to them: “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God ... [30] ... <sup>31</sup> As regards the resurrection of the dead, did you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, <sup>32</sup> ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living.”
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About the time of Yazid I the 6th Ecumenical Council  of 680/681 approved Dyoenergism and condemned Tritheism.
 
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====The Kaysanite 4th Imam====
 
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The Kaysanites agreed with Al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi of Kufa that Ali's son Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah should succeed Hussain as the 4th Imam.
 
  
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==683 Muawiya II==
+
The Acts of the Apostles likewise indicates that Sadducees did not share the Pharisees’ belief in a resurrection; Paul starts a conflict during his trial, by claiming that his accusers were motivated by his advocacy of the doctrine of the resurrection (in an aside, Acts 23:8 asserts that “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three”).
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==684 Marwan==
 
  
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==685 Abdul Malik==
+
==Sadducees as Ishmaelites==
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===Unification===
+
Being associated closely with the Temple in Jerusalem, after the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 the Sadducees remained only as Ishmaelites. It is possible that they may have attempted to establish the Kaaba in Mecca as a substitute Temple surviving as a minority group within Judaism up until early medieval times.In the 7th century the conflict between the Ishmaelites and the Karaties and [[Edumeans]] gave rise to Islam. In refutations of Sadducean beliefs, [[Karaite Jewish]] Sages such as Ya'akov al-Qirqisani quoted one of their texts, which was called ''Sefer Zadok''. Translations into English of some of these quotes can be found in [https://www.calledoutbelievers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1937_cahn_riseOfTheKaraiteSect_text.pdf Zvi Cahn's ''"Rise of the Karaite sect"''].
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Abdul Malik was the first to attempt to unite all of the Arabs by devising a new Religion for the Arabs by incorporating many ideas even from the 6th Ecumenical Council.
 
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====Hajjaj====
 
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Abdul Malik orders Hajjaj to prepare Uthman's book for the composition of the Quran. Hajjaj encourages people to "compose the Quran the same way Gabriel did" using certain materials.
 
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====691 Nestorian Catholicos Hananisho====
 
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Catholicos, Hnanicho, encountered 'Abd-al-Malik who asked him, 'What do you think of the Arab religion?' to which the Catholicos replied: 'It is a religion established by the sword, and not a faith confirmed by divine miracles, as with the Christianity and like the old law of Moses.'  
 
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At first Abdul Malik wanted to have his tongue cut out but changed his mind instead to prohibit him from ever seeing him again.
 
  
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From Abdul Malik's originally point of view his religion was very tolerant towards the Nestorians and he expected more appreciation.
+
==Messianic Sadducees==
 +
The 634-644CE Sadducee leader of Tachkastan called [[Emir Ambrus]] adopted a Monophysite belief in Jesus as a tripartite manifestation of the Archangel Metatron and subsequently some of the Mishnah which Jesus promoted and which Emir Ambrus therefore incorporated into the Sadducee texts. His successor was a Manichean who abolished the original Sadducee texts in favour of a redacted version.
  
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It is possible the comments of the Catholicos are responsible for Abdul Malik's change in direction.
+
==See also==
 +
*[[Sefer Zadok]]
  
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====700 Abu HaShem the 5th Imam====
+
==Footnotes==
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Under their [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_Allah_ibn_Muhammad_ibn_al-Hanafiyyah 5th Imam, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah] , the Kaysanites became the Hashimite  Alevis.
 
  
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==705 Al-Walid I==
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<references/>
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==715 Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik==
 
  
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===716 Rise Of The Abbasids===
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==External links==  
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The founder of the Abbasid dynasty called Muhammad Al-Imam who took control in 716. It is possible that this is the contemporary Mehmed referred to by John of Damascus as leading the Ishmaelies. He tried to unite the Kaysanites and the Sunnis. Under Abbasid influence a new Quran using materials from the Umayyads "book of the Arabs and from the Kaysanites Ahsana al-Hadith was composed.
+
*[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=40&letter=S&search=Sadducees Jewish Encyclopedia: Sadducees]
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==750 Abbasids==
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*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13323a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Sadducees]
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The Abbasids did their best to eradicate any Umayyad legacy.
+
*[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Sadducees Encyclopedia Britannica: Sadducees]

Latest revision as of 13:22, 19 September 2022

Hod Shebe Malkhut

ALSADIQIN, the sect of the Sadducees - possibly from Hebrew Tsdoki צדוקי [sˤə.ðo.'qi], whence Zadokites or other variants - was founded in the 2nd century BCE, possibly as a political party, and continued to exist sometime after the 1st century only under the name of Ishmaelites. They were mainly Nabatean Ishmaelite Hagarim converted to Judaism by Alexander Jannaeus.[1] Modern Sadducees have usurped the identity of the Karaite Jews though they do not hold to the Mishnaic beliefs of the early Karaites.

The Hebrew language name, Tsdoki, indicates their claim that they are the followers of the teachings of the High Priest Tsadok, often spelled Zadok (High Priest), who anointed Solomon king at the start of the Solomon's Temple. However, Rabbinic tradition suggests that they were not named after the High Priest Zadok, but rather another Zadok (who may still have been a priest), who rebelled against the teachings of Antigonus of Soko, a government official of Judea in the 3rd century BC and a predecessor of the Rabbinic tradition.

While little or none of their own writings have been preserved, the Sadducees seem to have indeed been a priestly group, associated with the leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem. Possibly, Sadducees represent the aristocratic clan of the Hasmonean kohen, who replaced the previous high priestly lineage that had allowed the Syrian Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes to desecrate the Temple of Jerusalem with idolatrous sacrifices and to martyr monotheistic Jews. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the ousting of the Syrian forces, the rededication of the Temple, and the installment of the new Hasmonean priestly line. The Hasmoneans ruled as "priest-kings", claiming both titles high priest and king simultaneously, and like other aristocracies across the Hellenistic world became increasingly influenced by Hellenistic syncretism and Greek philosophies: presumably Stoicism, and apparently Epicureanism if the Talmudic tradition criticizing the anti-Torah philosophy of the "Apikorsus" אפיקורסוס (i.e., Epicurus) refers to the Hasmonean clan qua Sadducees. Like Epicureans, Sadducees rejected the existence of an afterlife, thus denied the Pharisaic doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.

The Dead Sea Scrolls community, who are probably Essenes, were led by a high priestly leadership, who are thought to be the descendents of the "legitimate" high priestly lineage, which the Hasmoneans ousted. The Dead Sea Scrolls bitterly opposed the current high priests of the Temple. Since Hasmoneans constituted a different priestly line, it was in their political interest to emphasize their family's priestly pedigree that descended from their ancestor, the high priest Zadok, who had the authority to anoint the kingship of Solomon, son of David.

Most of what is known about the Sadducees comes from Josephus, who wrote that they were a quarrelsome group whose followers were wealthy and powerful, and that he considered them boorish in social interactions (see Josephus's Wars of the Jews, Book II, Chapter VIII, Paragraph 14). We know something of them from discussions in the Talmud (mainly the Jerusalem), the core work of Rabbinic literature Judaism, which is based on the teachings of Pharisee Judaism.

Beliefs

Sadducees rejected certain beliefs of the Pharisaic interpretation of the Torah. They rejected the Pharisaic tenet of an oral Torah, and interpreted the verses literally. In their personal lives this often meant a more stringent lifestyle, as they did away with the ability to interpret.

R' Yitchak Isaac Halevi suggests that while there is evidence of a Sadducee sect from the times of Ezra, It emerged as major force only after the Hashmenite rebellion. The reason for this was not, in fact, a matter of religion. He claims that as complete rejection of Judaism would not have been tolerated under the Hasmonean rule, the Hellenists joined the Sadducees maintaining that they were rejecting not Judaism but Rabbinic law. Thus, the Sadducees were for the most part a political party not a religious sect (Dorot Ha'Rishonim).

However there is evidence[2] that there was an internal schism among those called "Sadducees" - some who rejected Angels, the Soul, and Resurrection - and some which accepted these teachings and the entirety of the Hebrew Bible.

In regard to criminal jurisdiction they were so rigorous that the day on which their code was abolished by the Pharisaic Sanhedrin under Simeon ben Shetah's leadership, during the reign of Salome Alexandra, was celebrated as a festival. The Sadducees are said to have insisted on the literal execution of the law of retaliation: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth", which pharisaic Judaism, and later rabbinic Judaism, rejected. On the other hand, they would not inflict the death penalty on false witnesses in a case where capital punishment had been wrongfully carried out, unless the accused had been executed solely in consequence of the testimony of such witnesses.

According to the Talmud, they granted the daughter the same right of inheritance as the son in case the son was dead.(see chapter Yeish Nochalin of the Babylonain Talmud, tractate Bava Batra) See however Emet L' Yaakov over there who explains that the focus of their argument was theological. The question was whether there is an "Afterlife" (see above) and thus the dead person can act as a chain on the line of inheritance as if he was alive.

According to the Talmud, they contended that the seven weeks from the first barley-sheaf-offering ("omer") to Shavuot (Pentecost in Christian reference) should, according to Leviticus 23:15-16, be counted from "the day after Sabbath," and, consequently, that Shavuot should always be celebrated on the first day of the week (Meg. Ta'an. i.; Men. 65a). In this they followed a literal reading of the Bible which regards the festival of the firstlings as having no direct connection with Passover, while the Pharisees, connecting the festival of the Exodus with the festival of the giving of the Law, interpreted the "morrow after the Sabbath" to signify the second day of Passover.

In regard to rituals at the Temple in Jerusalem:

  • They held that the daily burnt offerings were to be offered by the high priest at his own expense, whereas the Pharisees contended that they were to be furnished as a national sacrifice at the cost of the Temple treasury into which taxes were paid.
  • They held that the meal offering belonged to the priest's portion; whereas the Pharisees claimed it for the altar.
  • They insisted on an especially high degree of purity in those who officiated at the preparation of the ashes of the Red Heifer. The Pharisees, by contrast, opposed such strictness.
  • They declared that the kindling of the incense in the vessel with which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement was to take place outside, so that he might be wrapped in smoke while meeting the Shekhinah within, according to Lev. xvi. 2; whereas the Pharisees, denying the high priest the claim of such supernatural vision, insisted that the incense be kindled within.
  • They opposed the popular festivity of the water libation and the procession preceding it on each night of the Sukkot feast.
  • They opposed the Pharisaic assertion that the scrolls of the Holy Scriptures have, like any holy vessel, the power to render ritually unclean the hands that touch them.
  • They opposed the Pharisaic idea of the eruv, the merging of several private precincts into one in order to admit of the carrying of food and vessels from one house to another on the Sabbath.
  • In dating all civil documents they used the phrase "after the high priest of the Most High," and they opposed the formula introduced by the Pharisees in divorce documents, "According to the law of Moses and Israel".
  • Ben Sira, one of the Deuterocanonical books, is believed by many scholars to have been by a Sadducee [citation needed] . (Note, the Talmud says clearly he was rejected by the Sadducees.)

Reliability of claims

None of the writings we have about Sadducees present their own side of these controversies, and it is possible that positions attributed to "Sadducees" in later literature are meant as rhetorical foils for whatever opinion the author wishes to present, and do not in fact represent the teachings of the sect. Yet, although these texts were written long after these periods, many scholars have said that they are a fairly reliable account of history during the Second Temple era.


Origin

They were mainly Nabatean Ishmaelite Hagarim converted to Judaism by Alexander Jannaeus.[3] Having been freed by a Kohen they were all counted as his legal children. Where exactly Alexander Jannaeus got the idea for his religion is uncertain. Josephus relates that the three "sects" — the Pharisees, Essenes, and Sadducees — dated back to "very ancient times" (Ant. xviii. 1, § 2), which really only point to a time prior to John Hyrcanus (ib. xiii. 8, § 6) or the Maccabean war (ib. xiii. 5, § 9).

Among the rabbis of the second century the following legend circulated: Antigonus of Soko, successor of Simeon the Just (219–199 BCE), the last of the Men of the Great Assembly, and consequently living at the time of the influx of Hellenistic ideas, taught the maxim, "Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of a reward, but be rather like those who serve without thought of receiving a reward" (Avot 1:3); whereupon two of his disciples, Zadok and Boethusius, mistaking the high ethical purport of the maxim, arrived at the conclusion that there was no future retribution, saying, "What servant would work all day without obtaining his due reward in the evening?" Instantly they broke away from the Law and lived in great luxury, using many silver and gold vessels at their banquets; and they established schools which declared the enjoyment of this life to be the goal of man, at the same time pitying the Pharisees for their bitter privation in this world with no hope of another world to compensate them. These two schools were called, after their founders, Sadducees and Boethusians.

Christian traditions state that the Sadducees began as a Samaritan sect.

New Testament/Greek Scriptures

The Sadducees are mentioned in the New Testament/Greek Scriptures of the Christian Bible. The Gospel of Matthew indicates that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Template:Bibleref, 31-32 says:

29 In reply Jesus said to them: “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God ... [30] ... 31 As regards the resurrection of the dead, did you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living.”

The Acts of the Apostles likewise indicates that Sadducees did not share the Pharisees’ belief in a resurrection; Paul starts a conflict during his trial, by claiming that his accusers were motivated by his advocacy of the doctrine of the resurrection (in an aside, Acts 23:8 asserts that “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three”).

Sadducees as Ishmaelites

Being associated closely with the Temple in Jerusalem, after the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 the Sadducees remained only as Ishmaelites. It is possible that they may have attempted to establish the Kaaba in Mecca as a substitute Temple surviving as a minority group within Judaism up until early medieval times.In the 7th century the conflict between the Ishmaelites and the Karaties and Edumeans gave rise to Islam. In refutations of Sadducean beliefs, Karaite Jewish Sages such as Ya'akov al-Qirqisani quoted one of their texts, which was called Sefer Zadok. Translations into English of some of these quotes can be found in Zvi Cahn's "Rise of the Karaite sect".

Messianic Sadducees

The 634-644CE Sadducee leader of Tachkastan called Emir Ambrus adopted a Monophysite belief in Jesus as a tripartite manifestation of the Archangel Metatron and subsequently some of the Mishnah which Jesus promoted and which Emir Ambrus therefore incorporated into the Sadducee texts. His successor was a Manichean who abolished the original Sadducee texts in favour of a redacted version.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79091-4.
  2. ↑ Cf., for one example of a sect that could have represented a Sadducee schism and did believe in Angels, the Afterlife, etc.: Lawrence H. Schiffman, 'The Sadducean Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect', in Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. H. Shanks, New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 35-49. It is widely known that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls never recognizably refer to themselves as "Essenes"—possibly due to the fact that they wrote mainly in Hebrew and Aramaic, whereas we have the term "Essenes" from Greek—but they do refer to themselves in various places as the "Zadokites"/"Sons of Zadok", which term is apparently identical to that by which the Sadducees identified themselves. Among other arguments for a Sadducean Essene origin, Schiffman also cites interpretations of the purity regulations which closely parallel Sadducean views recorded by the spiritual heirs of the Pharisees, who authored the Talmud.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79091-4.

External links

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