Are there any secular accounts of the Sadduccees?
Upvote:6
I'm not sure what you mean by "secular" - as opposed to the New Testament gospels? There is an abundance of material in the writings of Josephus: specifically in Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews, both of which were originally written in Greek. He speaks of their philosophical beliefs and the actions of various individual Sadducees, although he writes from a very clearly pro-Pharisaic perspective.
Aside from Josephus, and the references to Sadducees that exist in early rabbinic literature, there is nothing. Note that Lawrence Schiffman has argued that the sectarian literature found in Qumran represents the halakhic (legal) viewpoint of the Sadducees, but this is very much a minority opinion.
In amongst all of the extant references to the Samaritans, there is zero indication that they were ever subject to "persecution". The opinion of Maimonides, written down over a millennium after the Sadducees had effectively ceased to exist, is entirely irrelevant. (And cannot be used to extrapolate to his opinions regarding contemporary sects like the Karaites, who modelled themselves on what little was known of the Sadducees.)
There is no academic consensus as regards what happened to the Sadducees either - but then, there is also no academic consensus as regards who the Pharisees were and what happened to them. Likely, in both instances, they coalesced into what became rabbinic Judaism: the Sadducees were likely every bit as preoccupied with Torah-based legislation as were their various opponents.
For more information (albeit on the Pharisees in particular), see Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton (eds.), In Quest of the Historical Pharisees.
Postscript: It is wrong to assume that the Pharisees represented a "newer" group, and is also wrong to suppose that the Sadducees were "tied to" the temple. The Sadducees were a priestly group, but not all Sadducees officiated in the Temple and not all priests were Sadducees. Note also that the temple compound included the high court (Sanhedrin), which was not entirely Sadducean either.
More post
- 📝 What was the first regular airline service to pass low over urban areas?
- 📝 Did the Roman Empire have penal colonies?
- 📝 Caesar's comments on Celts(?)
- 📝 Was the United States meant to be a confederation of states?
- 📝 Can anyone find "War Department General Order No. 207, 3 July 1863" in which "prisoner conduct after capture" was mentioned?
- 📝 What is the significance of "Flappers" in American history?
- 📝 What were the alleged crimes that Conradin, King of Sicily and Jerusalem, was accused of?
- 📝 Has any generation generally agreed that the next generation was better?
- 📝 Which mountain collapsed in France in 1820/21?
- 📝 Karl Marx's usage of "Moor"
- 📝 How was Napoleon considered as a ruler?
- 📝 What did Moritz Ormai forge and what happened to him?
- 📝 Did WW1 produce a "Baby Boom" like demographic effect in USA or elsewhere?
- 📝 Is it known if Caracalla had any other lovers or possible bastard children?
- 📝 What was the population of late Pre-Islamic Arabia and the population of Arabic speakers before Islam?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 Jodhaa Bai as Emperor Akbar's wife?
- 📝 Churchill's words about war escaping - any reference in his biography or memoir?
- 📝 When was unleaded gasoline introduced in California?
- 📝 What are the figures in the "Goodbye Donald Trump" video
- 📝 Did the Nazis identify as being Fascists? How exactly did they view themselves?
- 📝 Why did it have to be Clausewitz who wrote the best book on war, namely On War?
- 📝 Why was the C-pennant chosen as the flag of ships from Allied-occupied Germany?
- 📝 Where in a city would a cathedral be built?
- 📝 How do we know that prostitutes were very common/popular in Corinth around Jesus' time?
- 📝 When did soldiers begin wearing ballooned pants?
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How did NATO handle the military coups and juntas in Greece, Turkey and Portugal?
- 📝 Were there any successful revolutions that didn't end in a totalitarian regime?
- 📝 Creating a "focused research question" for a history paper, unsure how to create a question that inspires debate
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Are there any secular accounts of the Sadduccees?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of German junior enlisted soldiers surviving the siege of Stalingrad and subsequent captivity?
- 📝 Are there any accounts written by torturers on their actions?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?
- 📝 Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Are there Indian accounts of the Battle of the Hydaspes Rivers?
- 📝 Are there any historical sources that support the claim that ancient high-speed archers held multiple arrows in their hand?
- 📝 Are there any ideas as to what the English landscape was like before the arrival of the Angles?
- 📝 Are there any remaining existant texts that describe the styles and techniques of Medieval European swordsmanship?
- 📝 Are there any exemplars of the 'trope of the exiled poet' prior to CE 8?
- 📝 Are there any independent historical records of ancient Persia allowing freedom of worship for the Jews?
- 📝 Are there any other "Delphic Temple"-like sites in the world?
- 📝 Why are there shields present on the sides of Henry VIII ships, did they serve any function or was it pure decoration?
- 📝 Are there any good sources on the history of the name for Kazakhstan?
- 📝 Are there any records of ancient people looking for the misdirect in a prophecy?
- 📝 Are there any antisemitic caricatures from France during the interwar period?
- 📝 Are there any archeological finds or primary source drawings of the Chinese "blade shaped" bamboo-copter or rotary fans?
- 📝 Are there any ancient sources clearly testifying a frozen Tiber river in the year 398, 396, 271, and 177 BCE?
- 📝 Are there any historical accounts of Aisha (the wife of Muhammad) giving public speeches?
- 📝 Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?
- 📝 Are there any examples of people being able to predict the consequences of communication revolutions?
- 📝 Are there any battles that have been extensively studied across the world?
- 📝 Are there any surviving maps from the Delhi Sultanate?
- 📝 Are there any Ancient Greek texts showing concern for the fate of their slaves?
- 📝 Are there any Midas portraits from the ancient era?
- 📝 Are there any books solely about the Umayyad Invasion of Gaul?