Article November 7, 1970 Issue

Signs of the Times

Tom Boomershine

Katallagete

Tom Boomershine
in Katallagete—Be Reconciled
Nashville, Tennessee

The Sadducees were a priestly group closely allied to the upper class. . . . Sadducean attitudes toward the lower classes ran from paternalism to disdain. The language in which they were trained was highly sophisticated; their communities were so isolated within the wealthy sections of the major urban area, Jerusalem, that they were largely able to ignore the needs of the poor. . . .

The Pharisees drew students from the middle class, though very rarely from the poor. . . . However, they oriented their movement toward the lower classes far more than the Sadducees. . . . The Pharisees as a movement were extremely concerned about cultic purity and the observance of the Law; they were men who were "separated." Thus, although their basic patterns of social relationship were quite different from those of the Sadducees, they were . . . unwilling to associate with those who did not observe the dietary laws . . ., those who collected taxes for the Romans, or those who were openly criminals. The result was an inevitable aloofness on the part of the Pharisaic groups from "the people of the land." . . .

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