Do pharisees and saducees still exist in modern judaism?

I am curious about this class of Priesthood because Christ taught to follow their Doctrines but not to do as some of them do. I’m guessing he was referring to the ones who were not walking the talk.

I was wondering if they have evolved and exist today in different forms of Judaism or died out. :hmmm:

Are their Doctrines alive today?

Any books you would suggest to read?

Thank you. :slight_smile:

No, all three major branches of modern Judaism stem from the Pharisees. The Karaites, however, seems to share some parallels with the Sadducees. The Jewish Encyclopedia is available online.

I’m not sure if they are still around in Judiasm, but pharisees (without the Capital P) seem to be alive and well in Christianity. I see them very often on this very website; those who foresake the charity of our faith and demand a staunch legalistic approach. Sometimes I wish they would spend more trying to learn basic scripture than practicing canon law without a license!:smiley:

I think you meant to say “yes, all three major branches of modern Judaism stem from the Pharisees.”

So yes, there are still Pharisees.

Modern Rabbinical Judaism in its major 3 formats is an outgrowth of the the thought of the Pharisees due to the events at Yavneh.

As the Sadducees represented a more aristocratic elite version of the Jewish faith at the time of Christ and thereafter, much of their own thoughts have been consigned to history.

Sadducees didn’t make it past 70 AD. Pharisees still exist in some form which deserves historical details on movement and development which I am not able to provide.

This sounds like a very uncharitable non sequitur.

Legalist Christians are everywhere, and some of those groups follow beliefs similar to those of the Pharisees. I think anything in Jesus’ time still applies today. A lot of people will read the warnings in the Book of Revelation and think," John’s vision only applied to the churches that were around back then." The truth is, I think there are still churches around that struggle with the problems the early churches did. Mankind has not improved, we just have different names for what used to be an issue. We’ve claimed to improve and gotten too smart to fall in the same traps as them, but those traps are still there.

Yes they do! Since they lost their power when Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins, and provided salvation for those who believe, the Pharisees have been active in driving a wedge between believers and Christ.

Whether they call themselves Illuminati, Freemasons, Bilderbergs, Zionists, Committee of 300, Jesuits, etc., their sole goal has been a diabolically inspired quest to destroy Christianity and create a New World Order.

Unfortunately they are winning!

The Sadducees died out not long after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem…
…The Pharisees lasted much longer but without a temple they were pretty much done as well.

i’m rather surprised that Meltzerboy hasn’t come to comment on this thread.

This would seem right up his line of expertise.

:)The Saducees died out in the first century AD, The Pharisees never completly disappered because they are the ancesters of modern Judaism.

Thank you for all the responses. I’m still confused with the different responses , I think I’ll head down to the local synagogue and ask a Rabbi. cheers :slight_smile:

You mean beliefs like angels and resurrection?

We need to make a very sharp distinction between the pejorative, metaphorical way Christians have come to use the word “Pharisee” and the original, historical use of the word. Modern Jews are in continuity with the “Pharisees” in this latter sense, and that’s what the OP seems to be asking about, not the cliched moralizing that Christians like to engage in using the word “Pharisee.”


I’m not interested in term Pharisees that is being used in an insulting way to describe legalism. After all, Christ said to follow their Teachings but not to do as they do, as in not walking the talk.

I am interested in the actual Priesthood and their role in Judaism and their Doctrines.

Pharisees did not dominate the priesthood. They were important primarily as rabbis–teachers of the Torah. After the destruction of the Temple, Pharisee rabbis continued to teach and practice the Torah, resulting in what we now know as the religion of Judaism.

Anything by Jacob Neusner is good on the origins of rabbinic Judaism.
For the basic beliefs and practices of Judaism today the two volumes “To Be a Jew” and “To Pray as a Jew” seem pretty good.

If you want an online resource, this website appears to be pretty reliable from what I can tell.

There’s been a lot of scholarship in recent decades on the relationship between Christianity and Pharisee Judaism. E. P. Sanders is perhaps the single most significant scholar in this area.

Thanks Contarini. Will checkout those books website. cheers :thumbsup:
