Groups of Jesus' day

NOTES FROM THE BEMA PODCAST · EPISODES 74–81
Between Malachi and Matthew nobody kept quiet. Hellenism put a single question to Israel — and Israel gave five answers. Into their argument steps Jesus.

Bema podcast — Marty Solomon & Brent Billings

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)

The “silent years” that were not silent

A new kind of Judaism comes back from exile: no kings, but with a synagogue, a school and teachers. Then Alexander the Great arrives with his euangelion — the “good news” of Hellenism: education, athletics, entertainment, healthcare. Not bad things — but they carry a worldview: the human being at the centre; do what you want, take what you need. Four centuries under foreign empires decide who will be standing around Jesus in the Gospels.

332 BC

Alexander the Great — Hellenism arrives in the land

198 BC

after the Ptolemies the Seleucids rule

167 BC

Antiochus IV desecrates the temple → the Maccabean revolt, Hanukkah

142 BC

the Hasmoneans rule — and become Hellenised themselves; the devout (hasidim) head north

63 BC

Pompey in Jerusalem — Rome arrives

37–4 BC

Herod the Great — an Idumean “king of the Jews” by Rome's favour; the temple rebuilt

AD 6

the Roman census → the revolt of Judas the Galilean; the Zealot movement is born

AD 70

war with Rome — the temple falls; of the five groups only one survives

One question, five answers

The question was: How do you stay faithful to God in a world taken over by Hellenism — and then by Rome?

Jerusalem · the temple elite

wealth and power tied to the temple and to Herod

Hasidim — the “devout” from the revolt

they head north to Galilee and split into two branches

The priests who walked away

“God has abandoned this system”

Herodians

embracing the culture

“We'll get into bed with Rome. We love it.” (BEMA)

Sadducees

a profitable partnership

“We cooperate — and line our pockets.” (BEMA)

Pharisees

resistance through obedience

“Wrong question — leave Rome to God. Our job is to obey.” (BEMA)

Zealots

resistance by the sword

“Freedom has to be won. God helps those who draw the sword.” (BEMA)

Essenes

withdrawal into the desert

“Get out of here. Rome? What Rome?” (BEMA)

← embracing Hellenism resistance and withdrawal →

The five answers up close

Who they were, where they lived, what they believed — and how they meet Jesus.

Pharisees · perushim, “the separated ones”

BEMA 80

The zeal of the Zealots turned towards obedience: “Once we finally are the people of the covenant, God will set us free.”

Who: a lay movement of devotion descended from the hasidim; teachers of the people, at home in the synagogue.
Where: Galilee — the “triangle” of Chorazin · Bethsaida · Capernaum; exactly where Jesus does most of his work.
Believed: the whole Tanakh + the oral tradition (“a fence around the Torah”); resurrection, angels, judgment.
That is why they are so hard on “sinners and tax collectors”: in their eyes every disobedient person is delaying redemption.
With Jesus: theologically the closest to him — and therefore the ones who wrestle with him most. He reproaches them for pride and a lack of compassion (Matt 11:21 · Matt 23), not for their faithfulness. Nicodemus, Gamaliel and Paul are all Pharisees.
After AD 70: the only ones to survive — rabbinic Judaism grows out of the Pharisees.

“You give a tenth of mint, dill and cumin, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Law: justice, mercy and faithfulness.”

Matt 23:23 — Jesus to the Pharisees

Zealots and Sicarii · kanaim, “the zealous ones”

BEMA 79

The second branch of the hasidim: “the myth of redemptive violence” — freedom is won with the sword, and we have the zeal for it.

Who: a resistance movement; their models: Phinehas with the spear (Num 25) and the Maccabean fighters.
Where: Galilee; Judas the Galilean leads the revolt against the census (AD 6) — “God alone is King, and Caesar gets no tax either”.
The Sicarii (“dagger men”, after the sica dagger): assassinations of collaborators right in the middle of the crowd.
With Jesus: Simon the Zealot among the Twelve (Luke 6:15); the crowd asks for Barabbas instead of Jesus; “all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt 26:52).
The end: they led the country into war with Rome (66–70) — the temple falls; the last stand at Masada (73/74).

“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight.”

John 18:36 — Jesus before Pilate

Sadducees · tsadokim, after the priest Zadok

BEMA 76

A priestly aristocracy: Hellenistic comfort and the running of the temple. A deal can be made with any power.

Who: the high-priestly families and the wealthy elite; they control the Sanhedrin and the temple economy.
Where: Jerusalem — the palaces of the upper city, the temple courts.
Believed: the written Torah only; no resurrection, no angels, no last judgment (Acts 23:8) — blessing is here and now.
Under the Hasmoneans and under Herod alike, the high priesthood was a political office that could be bought — which is why the devout despised them.
With Jesus: they try to trap him with a question about the resurrection (Mark 12:18–27); the cleansing of the temple hit their business → the main drivers of his trial.
After AD 70: without the temple they had no purpose left — they disappeared.

“You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Mark 12:24, 27 — Jesus to the Sadducees

Herodians · the party of the house of Herod

BEMA 77

For them Hellenism is not a threat but an opportunity — loyalty to Rome in exchange for luxury.

Who: a political party around the Herodian dynasty; the “sister group” of the Sadducees (BEMA) — more court than theology.
Where: the courts and the new cities — Tiberias, Caesarea, Sepphoris.
Herod the Great: an Idumean, fabulously rich (the Nabatean spice trade — BEMA 75), who rebuilt the temple; “king of the Jews” by Rome's favour, paranoid and cruel.
His sons in the Gospels: Antipas (“that fox” — Luke 13:32) executed John the Baptist and put Jesus on trial (Luke 23).
With Jesus: they conspire with the Pharisees to destroy him (Mark 3:6); together they set the trap about the tax to Caesar (Mark 12:13).

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.”

Mark 12:17 — the answer to their trap

Essenes · “the sons of light”, the sons of Zadok

BEMA 78

Who: priests who walked away from the corrupt temple system — “God has left it”; judging by the graves, women and families too.
Where: communities in the desert by the Dead Sea — Qumran.
Life: shared property, a daily mikveh (ritual washing), their own calendar, copying the Text — their library = the Dead Sea Scrolls (found in 1947).

They expected the age to end soon: the sons of light against the sons of darkness; out in the desert they “prepare the way of the LORD” (Isa 40:3).
With Jesus: they never appear directly in the New Testament; the closest figure to them is John the Baptist — the desert, immersion, the same verse from Isaiah.
BEMA 81: total devotion to the path — but isolation: they had no way of reaching the world they had run from.

“A voice cries: Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness!”

Isa 40:3 — the motto of the desert community and of John the Baptist

Who else is standing in the story

The temple, the Text and the people on the margins — the figures you meet on every page of the Gospels.

The priesthood and the Sanhedrin

BEMA 76

24 priestly divisions serve in the temple in shifts (cf. Luke 1:8 — Zechariah); above them the high-priestly aristocracy: Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas.
The Sanhedrin: 71 members — chief priests, elders and scribes; the nation's supreme court, chaired by the high priest.
A Sadducean majority, a Pharisaic minority (Gamaliel — Acts 5, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea).
The temple economy: money changing and the sale of sacrifices — Jesus quotes Jeremiah: “a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17).
The night-time interrogation of Jesus and his handover to Pilate; later, though, “a large number of priests came to faith” (Acts 6:7).

“It is better for you that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish.”

John 11:50 — Caiaphas the high priest

Scribes · soferim

BEMA 74 · 80

A profession, not a party: copyists of scrolls, lawyers and interpreters of the Text — going back to Ezra, “a skilled scribe” (Ezra 7:6, 10).
Mostly of the Pharisaic school, but they also served the Sadducean elite in the Sanhedrin.
They drew up contracts, settled disputes according to halakhah, and taught in the synagogues.
They taught by quoting the tradition — which is why the crowds are amazed that Jesus teaches “as one who has authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22).
Their arguments with Jesus: the Sabbath, purity, the forgiveness of sins (“he is blaspheming!” — Mark 2:7) — but there is closeness between them too.

“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Mark 12:34 — Jesus to a wise scribe

Samaritans

BEMA 257

The inhabitants of the former northern Israel: after Samaria fell (722 BC), a mixture of Israelites and resettled peoples (2 Kings 17).
Faith: only the five books of Moses (the Samaritan Pentateuch); the holy mountain is Gerizim, not Jerusalem; they are waiting for a prophet-restorer (Taheb) according to Deut 18:15.
Mutual hatred: the Hasmoneans destroyed the temple on Gerizim (128 BC); “Samaritan” is an insult (John 8:48); pilgrims prefer to walk around Samaria.
With Jesus: he goes through Samaria and talks with the woman at the well (John 4); the good Samaritan (Luke 10); the healed man who says thank you (Luke 17); the gospel for Samaria (Acts 8).

“The hour is coming when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:23 — Jesus to the Samaritan woman

Am ha-aretz — “the people of the land”

BEMA 74

Farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, shepherds — the vast majority of the nation.
They could neither keep all the purity rules nor study — and the elite despised them: “This crowd that knows nothing of the Law — they are accursed!” (John 7:49)
With Jesus: these are exactly the people he calls as disciples — fishermen and a tax collector; the crowds are glad to listen to him (Mark 12:37).

The educational ladder (BEMA 74)

1 · Beth sefer (about ages 5–10) — the whole Torah by heart; then most go home to learn a trade

2 · Beth talmud (about 10–14) — only the best; the whole Tanakh

3 · Beth midrash — a handful of the best ask a rabbi: “may I follow you?” — to take his yoke upon themselves

Jesus turns the order around: to the fishermen who “didn't make the cut” he himself says, “Follow me.” (Mark 1:17)

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Matt 9:36

A mirror for us

Every group is good at something — and every group pays a price for it. BEMA 81 invites us to ask: which answer am I living?

Sadducees + Herodians

+ right inside the culture, able to shape it

− willing to compromise for their own comfort

Essenes

+ total devotion: knowing the path and walking it

− isolation — they don't know the world they are meant to love

Zealots

+ zeal — “we need Zealots” (BEMA)

− under pressure that passion reaches for the wrong tool

Pharisees

+ passionate faithfulness to God's commandments

− loss of empathy; they make themselves God's gatekeepers

“We are cultural Herodians and religious Pharisees — we consume every comfort our culture offers, and in our religion we lack compassion.”

Marty Solomon on the church today, BEMA 81

And Jesus?

He took neither the Zealots' sword, nor the Sadducees' compromise, nor the Herodians' luxury, nor the Essenes' escape, nor the Pharisees' gatekeeping. In the middle of their argument he announces a sixth way — his own euangelion:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15

Sources

Bema podcast (Marty Solomon, Brent Billings) — episodes 74 synagogue · 75 Hellenism · 76 Sadducees · 77 Herodians · 78 Essenes · 79 Zealots · 80 Pharisees · 81 association · Samaritans: 257

Bible quotations loosely based on Czech translations · bemadiscipleship.com