GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:18
Sadduceeism
In a recent presentation of The Beverly Hillbillies, banker Milburn Drysdale built a down-home cabin in the backyard of the Clampetts’ mansion as a birthday present for Granny. When she removed her blindfold in the cabin, surrounded by all the back-home familiarities—fireplace, wooden table, and coal oil lamp—she declared that she was in heaven.
With a little stretch of the imagination (well, maybe more than a little), there’s a similarity between Granny’s mistake about heaven and St. Mark’s account of the mistake of the Sadducees, or at least this delegation that challenged Jesus. “And some Sadducees, who said there is no resurrection, came to him and questioned him, saying,…” (Mark 12-18)
Historians point out that there were three Jewish parties in the New Testament era: Pharisees, Essenes, and Sadducees. The Sadducees were not a large party, but they were the aristocratic and wealthy leaders holding most of the priestly offices. Wishing to retain their comforts and privileges, they collaborated with the Roman government. They differed from the other two parties in that they accepted only the written scriptures, focusing on the Pentateuch and rejecting the mass of the oral law and tradition, along with the rules and regulations that were dear to the Pharisees. Furthermore, they did not believe in immortality, spirits, or angels.
The Sadducees heard Jesus teach and saw him as a threat, so they sought to discredit his teaching by questioning him. The position of the Sadducees was settled long before they approached Jesus, for they reasoned backward from a fixed conclusion.
Not everyone who approached Jesus, as represented by the Sadducees, came with an open mind and an open heart. The Sadducees held religious positions, they wore religious clothes, they knew the religious language; and, most of the time, they behaved religiously, but their hearts and minds were secular. True then, and sadly, true now.
Previous
Next
Directory