Rome

Pompey, the Roman General, made advance in the province of Syria in 65BC. Later Pompey 

was defeated and murdered by Julius Caesar. When Julius Caesar became powerful, his 

senate members murdered him. His murderers Brutus, Cassius, Mark Anthony and Octavian 

ruled the kingdom for a short while. Then Octavian named himself as Augustus Caesar and 

became more powerful than the others. His government continued until AD 14 (Luke. 2:1). 

Then Tiberius reigned from 14 to 37, Caligula until 41, Claudius until 54 and Nero until 68. 

After a short period Vespasian became the Emperor.

Julius Caesar retained a compromising attitude towards the Jews, but the latter Emperors 

were so rude towards them, which cannot be forgotten.

By the support and assistance of Rome, Herod became the governor of Judah and Galilee. 

Later he became the King of all Jews. He was known as ‘Herod the Great’ and his regime 

continued until AD 4 and he renovated the temple of Jerusalem in a large scale, which 

pleased the Jews well. Jesus was born during the period of Augustus Caesar and Herod the 

Great (Luke. 2:1, Matt. 2:1).

Herod the Great had three sons, named as Archaeilus, Antipas and Philip. They were given 

power in different provinces. Antipas ruled until 39 AD. He left his own wife and married his 

brother’s wife Herodia (Matt. 14:1-12, Mark 6:16-27 Lk. 23:6-12). This was the Herod who 

chopped the head of John the Baptist and mocked Jesus.

Emperor Nero appointed Vespasian, a courageous, to subdue the Jews. After the death of 

Nero, Vespasian became the Emperor. He deputed his own son Titus to restrain the riot in 

Judah. The Jews hid in the temple as refugees. So Titus burned the temple and destroyed it. 

The gold used for the ornamentation of the temple was melted and flow down in to the 

foundation stones. So he ploughed the foundation stones with elephants and collected the 

melted gold. But it was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus Christ that no stone should be 

left one stone upon another (Matt. 24:2). Many Jews were slaughtered and the rest were 

dispersed all over the world. Thus Israel was extinguished from the face of the Earth as 

nation.

During these time periods there were lot of groups emerged in order to stand for Yahweh and 

to protect the identity of Israel. Pharisees and the Zealots were the important among them. 

Pharisees 

The name Pharisee is the Greek form of the Hebrew parush, and properly denotes one 

who is separated, i.e., by special practices; or "one who separated himself from Levitical

impurity and Levitically impure food." The derivation of it from parush, in the sense of 

unfolding, explaining, and the assertion that the followers of this sect were called 

Pharisees — interpreters of the Bible, in contradistinction to the Sadducees, as well as the 

more generally received notion that they were so called because they separated from the 

rest of the people, believing themselves to be more holy. Besides, to take parush as 

meaning interpreter is contrary to its grammatical form, which should be translated as the 

separation from that which was Levitically impure necessarily implied separation from 

those who were defiled by Levitically impure objects. It must be observed that the name 

Pharisees is given to them in the Mishna (Jebamoth, 4:6, etc.) by their opponents the

Sadducees, and that the names by which they were designated among themselves are 

sages, or, more modestly disciples of the sages, but more generally associates. By the term 

Pharisees, or its equivalent Claberim, i.e., associates, is therefore meant all those Jews who 

separated themselves from every kind of Levitical impurity, and united together to keep 

the Mosaic laws of purity. As it was natural that all the students of the law would, as a 

matter of course, be the first to join this association, the name Chaber, member, associate, 

or Pharisee, became synonymous with student, disciple, lawyer, scribe, while those who 

refused to unite to keep the laws were regarded as country people, common people, 

illiterates, irreligious. 

* They were very much zealous for Yahweh and for His words

* They were leaders of the society 

* They were counsellors to the people

At the beginning the people respected them highly but latter days they lost their 

reputation 

* During the time of Christ the faith and the worship of Pharisees completely became 

superficial and more ritualistic. They started to oppress the people for which Jesus had to 

condemn them. 

Zealots 

This is a separate religious group. They believed in violation and fought against the 

oppressors. This is also called as Galilean group and they refuse to pay tax to the Roman 

emperor. Judas the Galilean was the leader of this group and he was killed by the Romans 

and many of his followers also were killed. But one of his family members became the leaderfor this group. Especially his son became the leader immediate after his death. His third son 

was a great warrior who killed many roman army men. They believed that they can attain 

their freedom only through fighting and violation. 

* They were zealous for the word of the Lord

* They were very much fond of the land

* They demand identity with traditional Judaism 

* Some of the Zealots were formed into a group of assassins in order to kill the people 

The last strong hold of zealots was known as the fort Masada. 960 zealots who opposed the 

Romans had their protection in fort Masada. When the Roman army surrounded them around 

AD 73 they killed each other by stabbing. Only few remained to testify that. 

Sadducees 

The Sadducees were essentially aristocrats. They virtually dominated the higher rank of 

the priesthood, and many Sadducees who were not priests held positions of authority as lay 

elders in the Sanhedrin. Thus the difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees was 

not a simple one of priests versus laymen (many Pharisees were also priests — mostly of 

the lower ranks, but probably some even in the upper levels). Rather, the Sadducees 

derived their power from their class, while the Pharisees derived theirs from learning. 

Indeed, Josephus characterized the Sadducees as "men of the highest standing." As a result 

of their high social status the Sadducees were dominated by political interests, and in these 

areas they were rigidly conservative, it naturally being in their best interest to maintain the 

status in status affair. Maintaining the status in the state affairs necessarily involved 

collaboration with the Roman occupiers, by whom their power was delegated, and for this 

self-serving policy the masses hated the Sadducees. The Sadducees' strict policies of law 

and order, described as "heartless" or "savage" in contrast to the "leniency" of the 

Pharisees, appeased the Romans and kept the Sadducees in power. Understandably they 

found any popular movement threatening, especially if it had political overtones as in the 

frequent messianic uprisings.

The Sadducees' concern to maintain their position of power may in part explain their 

rejection of oral tradition. As priests they insisted on exercising their privilege of 

interpreting the Torah, and they accepted as binding only the laws and regulations

recorded in Scripture. Thus they did not accept as authoritative the Pharisees' oral law. In 

fact, students were even encouraged to dispute with their own Sadducean teachers about 

the interpretation of the law.

Their aristocratic status notwithstanding, Josephus de-scribed the Sadducees as lacking 

in social graces. Essentially rural landowners, they were characterized by crudity, 

coarseness, loudness, quarrelsomeness, vulgarity, and violence (cf. Matt 26:67; Acts 23:2). 

By contrast the Pharisees, as their urban merchant position required, are depicted as 

refined, urbane, harmonious, and affectionate.