The name Sadducee is believed to have originated from 3 possibilities: (1) Those of Zadok. They claim descent from Zadok, a high priest during the time of King David. (2) The righteous ones, based on the Hebrew word for righteous. (3) Judges or controllers, from the Greek word syndikoi.
Very little has survived from the Sadducees. The only record of them is found in the New Testament, plus some writings from the Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, and a few scattered rabbinic texts.
The first reference to them in The Bible is by John The Baptist, a highly righteous man of God. When a group of Sadducees and Pharisees came out to John where he was baptizing by the Jordan, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham." (Matthew 3:7-9 RSV).
John, and later Jesus Christ Himself, did not think very highly of the Sadducees. Why? Because by that time the Sadducees had become proud, self-righteous, Hypocrites. The Lord said to have nothing to do with them, or their teachings (Matthew 16:11-12).
Other known facts about the Sadducees:
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