Good resource explaining the different political and religious factions in 1st century Israel?

[chuckd]

As the subject says, I'm looking for a good resource explaining the different political and religious factions in 1st century Israel.

Pharisees
Herodians
Sadducees
Chief priests
Scribes
elders of the people
Sanhedrin

It could be a simple chart showing who they were, their standing in society, unique beliefs, who got along with who, etc.

Obviously in the end they all conspired to put an end to Jesus, but how different from each other were they to make their conspiracy even more profound?

 

[davejonescue]

A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ - 5 vols
By: Emil Schurer

This classic work includes extensive essays on the Roman political system and its leaders, the political and religious parties of Judaism, messianic movements, and pertinent Greek and Jewish literature—including the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha—from the centuries before and after Christ. This five-volume hardcover set is the original edition of Schürer’s landmark work, including the original index. The set consists of two Divisions, as follows:
First Division, Volume I
First Division, Volume II
Second Division, Volume I
Second Division, Volume II
Second Division, Volume III

You can find all 5 volumes free on archive, Google, E-Sword, theWord, or $33 Logos. CBD also sells a complete in print in HC for $50.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

Hello, Chuck,

You might find Alfred Edersheim's The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol 1, to be of help. The first section, The Jewish World in the Days of Christ, may contain the sort of info you are seeking. It's in the public domain, and so easily accessible. Here's one option: https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/alfred-edersheim.shtml . I don't yet have my own library in my possession (in storage pending my having an apartment to put it in), so I can't do better than this at the moment.

 

[Phil D.]

This is a pretty good summary - Jewish Religious Groups

 

[No Other Name]

Thank you for this useful thread.

Recently, I was sitting at a table with pastors in my denomination from other churches and one said he is doing a teaching on the Sermon on the Mount about how Jesus created a new law by upending the old one!

As if the Pharisees were faithful stewards of the Mosaic covenant and Jesus was revealing the new covenant and ultimately chiding them for not accepting it.

I am unsure what one would classify his covenant theology?

But good thread and excellent question.

 

[Polanus1561]

• Title: Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times
• Author: Paul Barnett

The pathway to understanding the New Testament leads through the vibrant landscape of the first-century Greco-Roman world. The New Testament is rooted in the concrete historical events of that world.
In Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity, Paul Barnett not only places the New Testament within that world of Caesars and Herods, proconsuls and Pharisees, Sadducees and revolutionaries, but argues that the mainspring and driving force of early Christian history is the historical Jesus. We can’t understand the rise of Christianity apart from this Jesus, the messiah of Israel and the spiritual and intellectual impact he had on his immediate followers and those who succeeded them.
From his intimate acquaintance with the sources, the evidence and the problems of New Testament history, Barnett offers fresh insights. His telling of the story skillfully avoids the encumbrance of extraneous details and side journeys. From the birth of Jesus to the founding of the messianic community, from the rise of Paul’s mission to the Gentiles to the writing of the Gospels, Barnett offers a comprehensive account of the movement that would change the face of world history.