Connected with the movement of revolt were mostly the ‘freedom-fighters’, though there were many reasons that got others also involved in the strong opposition. The party of the Zealots didn’t yet exist in Jesus’ days but the elements were present.

The Zealots were what we would call the "resistance", not as a well-organized group, but because they were often seen in action. Their fierce belief in the first commandment ‘You shall have no other lords besides God’, made them fight for their freedom, and can explain their motivation for the mass suicide at Massada in 74 CE. Revolts were not only directed against the Roman occupation, but there were internal factors that divided the Jewish nation and caused rebellion, f.ex.

- After the victory of the Macchabees, a Hasmonean regime was formed and many Jews were deeply suspicious of that new dynasty.

- Also Herod’s disregard for many Jewish conventions caused consistent opposition.

These signs of rebellious resistance most often took place at the times of festivals, when Jews were gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate their God-given status as free people. There is also a pattern that shows such movements were often led by messianic or quasi-messianic figures, and the repression of the revolts usually happened by means of crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. This sheds a light on the mood of that period.

Sadducees - were the priestly aristocracy, ‘they were the ruling, upper class’ JBC 17. Their Hebrew name (tsaddiqim) means the “righteous ones”, and may be descriptive, or it may be derived from the name Zadok, from whom the Zadokite high priesthood got its name. [HBD]

- On one hand the Sadducees adapted to the political realities of Palestine, since they were greatly hellenized - on other hand they were more rigid and conservative in religious matters: only the written Pentateuch or Torah was for them the basis of Jewish religious life, objecting to any oral tradition. They also rejected theological developments, reason why they clashed with Jesus about the resurrection (which they considered a theological development cf Mk 12).

Essenes were a group of believers who withdrew from society because of their belief that a life of holiness within the society, - as it existed at that time, - was impossible. The Scrolls of Qumran have given us a excellent insight in many of the details of their way of living. Their separation was probably also a reaction to the appointments of high priests, whom they considered illegitimate, since these high priests were not Zadokites.

Pharisees - Josephus remains one of the most important sources of information about the Pharisees. Many of the details that follow are based on his input. There is no record of Pharisees before the Macchabean revolt. They seemed to have emerged between 165 and 140 BCE.

During the Hasmonean period, there was a struggle for secularization that greatly influenced Judaism of that time. The Pharisees enter this struggle of secularization with a compromise that would prevent the loss of essential Jewish soul.

The Pharisees were a lay movement of scholars. The name ‘Pharisees’ comes from the Hebrew word perishim, Aramaic perishayya, which means ‘the ones who are separated’ - probably ‘those set aside’, because they keep all the laws of ritual purity. For the Pharisees the oral Torah has the same normative force as the written Torah, and in fact, sometimes supersedes the written Torah. They believed ‘the oral law had been revealed to Moses at Sinai together with the written law, and Pharisees were the rightful teachers

and interpreters of that oral law’.

The Oral Torah is a guide to the everyday actions of the religious Jews, setting down in detail the requirements of the Sabbath, the ritual laws of purity, strict dietary laws, and regulations for tithing. No doubt these regulations were detailed and demanding, but the discerning wisdom of the Oral Torah is missed, if we overlook the reason why the directives were given.

The Pharisees attempted to relocate the center of Jewish religious life from the Temple to the family by making the dietary and cleanliness rules of the Temple become rules of the home as well. Those who are antagonistic toward the Pharisaic movement often see only the laws, but do not recognize that the sanctification of the home and family is the underlying motive.

The regulations were originally not intended to supplant the Temple altogether, but to sanctify the family and home life by making "it" a Temple as well (this is noble in itself).

One of the reasons that Judaism was immediately able to continue after 70 - when its central symbol, the Temple-in-Jerusalem, had been destroyed -, can be attributed to the fact that the sanctuary of family and home was already established by the Pharisees as a sacred space.

The Pharisees were realistic about the Jewish history of domination by others and the cultural pressure upon Jews to compromise their religious and cultural identity. Toward the occupying powers it was their philosophy: Exercise your political control however you must, and we will cooperate, so long as you allow us to have our power over the inner life of Israel.

Halakhah is an interesting Hebrew concept that tells us something about the relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Jewish word ‘Torah’ is often translated by the English word ‘Law,’ a translation that is not entirely correct. Torah has more to do with ‘a guide for living’, and it includes multiple prescriptions. Therefore what we call the 10 ‘commandments’ should rather be seen as ‘guidelines’]

As in any tradition, practices that make immediate good sense in the beginning, but they often get shrouded in a tradition that does not allow you access to the ‘why’, the original reason or inspiration of those practices. Directives are often clear when they are given, but become less meaningful over time. Frequently such lack of clarity is replaced by explanations as: ‘it came from God,’ or ‘that's simply the way it has been done’. This happens in family life too. Not infrequently that is what occurs in Oral Tradition, as well as to the Pharasaic law or ‘halakhah’.              

Neusner remarks on the Jewish meaning of the word: Halakhah is normally translated as ‘law’, for the halakhah is full of normative ‘rules’ about what one must do, and refrain from doing in every situation of life and at every moment of the day. But halakhah derives from the root halakh, which means ‘go’, and a better translation would be ‘way’. The halakhah is ‘the way’: the way man lives his life; the way man shapes his daily routine into a pattern of sanctity; the way man follows the revelation of the Torah and attains redemption. For the Jewish tradition, this ‘way’ is absolutely central.

In this context, we must recall that the earliest known name for the Christian movement was ‘ the Way ’. Several texts of Acts (100/125) testify to that. Paul persecuted those ‘of the Way’

9:25 When Paul preached Jesus Christ in the synagogue, some of those who disagreed attacked ‘the Way’

19:9 The presence of ‘the Way’ in Ephesus caused riots

19:23 When Paul defended himself before Felix, he says that he preaches ‘the Way’ [the Jewish ‘halakah’ as Jesus had understood it], even though some people considered ‘the Way’ just another sect [within Judaism] 24:14

24:22 And Luke added that Felix himself was well informed about ‘the Way’.

Inasmuch as Paul himself was a Pharisee, - as were some of the early followers of Jesus -, I think we should not rule out some genetic connection between the Jesus’ ‘Way’ and the Halakhah ‘Way’.                           

ZADOK was a priest whose descendants served in the high-priesthood for most of the First and Second Temple period. Zadok supported Solomon (1 Kings 1:8,32) and anointed him king Solomon (1 Kings 1:39-45) and became his sole priest. His family controlled the Jerusalem priesthood from the time of Solomon (ca. 965BCE) until the Exile (586).

Ezekiel (40:46; 43:19: 44:15: and 48:11) specifies that in the rebuilt Temple only Zadokite priests could minister. This line continued to serve in the high-priesthood until 171 B.C. when it passed first to the Hellenizers and then to the Hasmonean house.

The sect of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Essenes), probably founded in the aftermath of the Hasmonean takeover of the high-priesthood, repeatedly emphasizes the sole legitimacy of the Zadokite priests who were the early leaders and probably the founders of the sect.