One of the primary enemies of Jesus' ministry and the ministry of the apostles in Acts, and a group Jesus condemned somewhat harshly are the Sadduccees. He calls them vipers in fact.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7 (King James Version)
One of the main sources of criticism of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and of His Apostles in the book of Acts were the Sadduccees.
Nelson Bible Dictionary writes:
SADDUCEES -- members of a Jewish faction that opposed Jesus during His ministry. Known for their denial of the bodily resurrection, the Sadducees came from the leading families of the nation-the priests, merchants, and aristocrats. The high priests and the most powerful members of the priesthood were mainly Sadducees (Acts 5:17).
Some scholars believe the name Sadducees came from Zadok, the high priest in the days of David (2 Sam 15:24) and Solomon (1 Kings 1:34-45). Many of the wealthy lay people were also Sadducees. This may be the reason why the Sadducees gave the impression of wanting to preserve things as they were. They enjoyed privileged positions in society and managed to get along well under Roman rule. Any movement that might upset order and authority was bound to appear dangerous in their eyes.
The Sadducees rejected "the tradition of the elders," that body of oral and written commentary which interpreted the law of Moses. This automatically placed them in direct conflict with another Jewish group, the PHARISEES, who had made the traditions surrounding the Law almost as important as the Law itself.
John the Baptist condemned the Sadducees.(Matthew 3:7)
Jesus warned us to beware of their doctrine or "leaven", their way of looking at things. Keep in mind there are a limited number of things Jesus says to beware of, and the Sadducees ideas make the list. (Matthew 16:6)
So here we have a religious group that denies the existence of the spiritual realm, of angels, and of the literal resurrection. It seems to me that a great many moralists who attempt to reduce Jesus, His teachings, and Christianity to a mere hypothetical and humanist moral code are, in fact, Sadducean in their outlook.
Moreover, looking past overt theistic religion, it seems that many materialists and rationalists could rightly be considered somewhat similar to Sadducean doctrine.
Imo then, Jesus takes a very dim and harsh view of many that advance ideas that the spiritual realm is a myth, and of those that overly rely on reason over revelation and who downplay the supernatural, revelatory and mystical aspects of Christ. In short, the whole Rationalist approach is condemned by Jesus, to a certain extent, imo.
(Note: some of this includes phat's suggestions for an editted version.)
This message has been edited by randman, 01-04-2006 08:57 AM
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