the importance of interpreting it so as to meet the many questions that rose in public and private life.  To this great and practically endless task much of their time was devoted.  They thus recognized the fact that Israel’s law was still in process of development.  To their later interpretations of the law they attributed great authority.  One of their maxims was:  “It is a worse offence to teach things contrary to the ordinances of the scribes than to teach things contrary to the written law.”  Naturally their attempt to anticipate by definite regulations each individual problem led them to absurd extremes and in time obscured the real intent of the older laws, but the spirit which actuated it was progressive.  They also did not hesitate to accept the growing popular belief in angels and spirits.  Like the earlier prophets, they recognized the presence of Jehovah directing the life of the nation and of the individual.  They accepted the new-born belief in the immortality of the individual, clinging, however, to the hope of a bodily resurrection.  They also held to the popular messianic hopes which became more and more prominent during the Maccabean and Roman periods.

The Pharisees were the most democratic party in Judaism.  While for their own members they insisted upon a most rigorous ceremonial regime, they allowed the common people to ally themselves with them as associates.  In their acceptance of the popular hopes and in their endeavor to adapt Israel’s law to the life of the nation and thus establish a basis for the realization of Israel’s hopes they appealed to the masses and exerted over them a powerful influence.  Josephus asserts that so great was the influence of the Pharisees with the people that the Sadducees, in order to carry through their policies, were obliged, nominally, at least, to adopt the platform of their rivals.  The Pharisees were also zealous in teaching the people and thus kept in close touch with the masses.  They, therefore, stood as the true representatives of Judaism.  Their principles have survived and are still the foundations of orthodox Judaism.

III.  Character and Beliefs of the Sadducees.  The Sadducees were few in numbers compared with the Pharisees.  They represented, on the one side, the old priestly aristocracy, and on the other the new nobility that rallied about the Maccabean leaders.  They depended for their authority upon their wealth, their inherited prestige, and the support of the throne.  They were in reality a political rather than a religious party.  In politics they were progressives and opportunists.  Any policy that promised to further their individual or class interests was acceptable to them.  As is usually the case with parties that represent wealth and hereditary power, they were conservatives in belief.  They stood squarely on the earlier scriptures of their race and had no sympathy with the later Pharisaic interpretations and doctrines.  Whether or not, as Josephus asserts,