SADDUCEES. – Members of a political-religious Jewish party in the time of Christ. The name Sadducees seems to derive from the proper name Sadoc ([v.]; Heb. Sadhoq), which the Septuagint renders as Sadoduk (ten times). By adopting this title, the Sadducees seem to have claimed descent from the high priest Sadoc; according to others, from a namesake leader of a party.
According to St. Epiphanius (Haer., 14: PG 41, 240) and St. Jerome (In Mt., 3, 23: PL 26, 163), the name would derive from the Hebrew saddiq, “righteous.” In rabbinic writings the Sadducees (saddiqim) are sometimes called Boethosei, from Boethos ([v.]), the founder of a priestly family. Although Flavius Josephus attributes very ancient origins to the Sadducees, Pharisees ([v.]), and Essenes ([v.]) (Ant. Jud., XVIII, 1, 2), and although the sons of Sadoc (Sadoduk) are already mentioned in Ezek. 40:46; 44:15; 48:11 as priests in the new Temple (cf. Ecclus. 51:12), the Sadducees enter history as a party or sect only in the time of the Maccabees ([v.]), in contrast to the Pharisees, and disappear with the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Among the causes that may have favored the rise and development of the party, some list the love for Hellenism (J. Klausner), opposition to the Pharisaic usurpation of the religious magisterium proper to the priests (J. Bonsirven), and intolerance of Pharisaic political dominance in the time of John Hyrcanus (M.-J. Lagrange).
Few in number but powerful, especially in the political sphere as they constituted the wealthy priestly aristocracy of the nation, the Sadducees favored the Hasmoneans John Hyrcanus (135–104 B.C., after he joined their sect), Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 B.C.), and Aristobulus II (67–63 B.C.). In the time of Christ and the Apostles, they occupied the highest positions among the “high priests” of the Sanhedrin.
The doctrine of the Sadducees stands out in contrast to that of the Pharisees. However, no writings of the Sadducees survive from which their doctrine can be directly ascertained. The Sadducees accepted only the Holy Scriptures (according to some, only the Pentateuch), rejecting the traditions of the fathers accepted by the Pharisees. They admitted “neither resurrection (cf. Mark 12:28; Luke 20:27), nor angels, nor spirits” (Acts 23:8) apart from God. According to Flavius Josephus, they also denied “the survival of the soul, as well as punishment and rewards in Hades” (Bell. Jud., II, 8, 14). Even from the “case” of the woman who had successively married seven husbands, submitted to Jesus by the Sadducees (Matt. 22:29–33 and parallels), it appears that they denied not only the resurrection of the body but also the immortality of the soul. While the Essenes were fatalists and the Pharisees steered a middle course in reconciling divine action with human freedom, the Sadducees “deny fate in its entirety and exclude the idea that God does or looks upon anything evil” (Flavius Josephus, ibid., II, 8, 14). In criminal law, the Sadducees, who rigidly applied Mosaic Law, were more severe than the Pharisees, especially in inflicting the law of retaliation (Flavius Josephus, Ant. Jud., XIII, 10, 6). In liturgy, the Sadducees diverged from the Pharisees in many points, including the day on which the first sheaf was to be offered in the Temple. According to Lev. 23:11 and the Sadducees, this was to be the first day of the week (Sunday) following the Sabbath of Passover week, whereas the Pharisees understood that Sabbath to be the same as the Jewish Passover day (15 Nisan) and offered the sheaf on 16 Nisan, whatever day of the week it might be. This difference also affected the date of Pentecost ([v.]), to be celebrated fifty days after the presentation of the sheaf: for the Sadducees this always fell on the first day of the week, whereas for the Pharisees it could fall on any day between the 5th and 7th of Nisan. These calendar differences sometimes led different parties to alter by a day the beginning of lunar months (especially of Nisan); it seems that for this reason the accusers of Jesus (Sadducees) had not yet eaten the Passover lamb, which Jesus and the Pharisees had already consumed the previous evening (cf. John 18:28). Other liturgical differences concerned the rites to be performed at the feast of the waving of the sheaf, the hour of the immolation of the Passover lamb, which according to Ex. 12:6 and the Sadducees had to be “between the two evenings,” i.e., after sunset during twilight, whereas the Pharisees anticipated it to the ninth hour (about 3 p.m.).
John the Baptist stigmatized both Pharisees and Sadducees as “a brood of vipers” (Matt. 3:7). The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31) presents the type of the Sadducees. Enemies of one another, Pharisees and Sadducees vied in putting captious questions to Jesus (Matt. 16:1, and cf. 23:29–33) and agreed in desiring His death. What the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles recount about the trials of Jesus and the Apostles (Peter, John, Paul) and of the deacon Stephen before the Sanhedrin pertains especially to the Sadducees, who held the highest offices in II.
The so-called “Siddhōqite document” does not pertain to the Sadducees but to a faction of Pharisees.