well as the military and financial administration.

8. To the majority of the priests religion had become chiefly a form.
They represented the worldly party among the Jews. Since the days of the
priest-princes who ruled in Jerusalem after the return from the exile,
they had constituted the Jewish aristocracy, and held most of the wealth
of the people. It was to their interest to maintain the ritual and the
traditional customs, and they were proud of their Jewish heritage; of
genuine interest in religion, however, they had little. This secular
priestly party was called the Sadducees, probably from Zadok, the
high-priest in Solomon's time. What theology the Sadducees had was for the
most part reactionary and negative. They were opposed to the more earnest
spirit and new thought of the scribes, and naturally produced some
champions who argued for their theological position; but the mass of them
cared for other things.

9. The leaders of the popular thought, on the other hand, were chiefly
noted for their religious zeal and theological acumen. They represented
the outgrowth of that spirit which in the Maccabean time had risked all to
defend the sanctity of the temple and the right of God's people to worship
him according to his law. They were known as Pharisees, because, as the
name ("separated") indicates, they insisted on the separation of the
people of God from all the defilements and snares of the heathen life
round about them. The Pharisees constituted a fraternity devoted to the
scrupulous observance of law and tradition in all the concerns of daily
life. They were specialists in religion, and were the ideal
representatives of Judaism. Their distinguishing characteristic was
reverence for the law; their religion was the religion of a book. By
punctilious obedience of the law man might hope to gain a record of merit
which should stand to his credit and secure his reward when God should