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00:00What's up, brothers?
00:29Welcome back to our Synoptic Gospels course at our online Bible School.
00:36We have seen some of the groups that Jesus encountered during his public ministry in Galilee and Judea.
00:44However, there are groups that are misunderstood in the New Testament.
00:48These are precisely the groups we are going to study in this class.
00:53The scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees.
00:56Brothers, were the scribes a religious group who knew the Jewish scriptures very well?
01:03and that they were associated with the high priests of the Jewish people?
01:08Were the Sadducees a religious group or a political group that had a lot of influence on the life of the Jewish people?
01:16And finally, were the Pharisees a powerful group in Jesus' time?
01:25Did they really participate in the trial and condemnation of Jesus?
01:28Are the Pharisees mentioned in the Gospels the same Pharisees that Jesus met and argued with?
01:37around the years 28 and 30 of our current era?
01:42First of all, it must be clarified that in ancient times what we consider today did not exist.
01:47values of a democratic and pluralistic society, such as the separation of church and state,
01:56a personal faith or a private religion,
01:59nor the possibility that an individual could profess a faith different from that of the group to which he belonged.
02:06On the contrary, faith and religion are inseparable from individual, family, and social life.
02:16and every religious manifestation is celebrated socially by all members of a group, people or state.
02:24In other words, religion and politics were perfectly intertwined in ancient societies.
02:32The first question we must ask ourselves is this.
02:38How do the different groups that Jesus comes into contact with during his public ministry come into being or emerge?
02:47In addition to the historical data we saw in previous classes,
02:51We must consider the necessity that the ruling classes had to carry out
02:57in their administrative, legal, political, military, governmental responsibilities and the education of their people.
03:08Certainly, they were not able to carry out all their functions without the help of suitable people.
03:15The rulers required support from people such as soldiers, teachers, family educators,
03:25religious officials, entertainment artists, and highly skilled artisans.
03:33That's where we can place the scribes and Pharisees,
03:37but not to the Sadducees, who belonged precisely to the ruling class.
03:42If we view these groups as auxiliary forces of the upper classes,
03:49Perhaps we can think of them as something like a middle class.
03:54However, we have a caveat to that view.
03:58In modern societies, the middle class has independent power through voting,
04:06Democracy, freedom, and the possibility of elections in many areas.
04:14But in ancient times, these auxiliary groups were entirely dependent on their patrons.
04:21and they lacked any kind of power, which resided solely in the hands of the high officials.
04:28In large cities, kings, governors, and military authorities rule.
04:35But the Jewish people had a special order,
04:41since in their daily lives they were under the authority of the high priest,
04:46of the chief priests and their council of elders, which we call the Sanhedrin.
04:52And in small Jewish towns, this authority rests with the most prominent families in the area.
04:59Jewish mentality and piety demanded that their authorities have a deep knowledge
05:08of religious traditions and the laws of the Torah.
05:14Now, before we delve into the groups that interest us,
05:20We need to be very clear about some aspects.
05:23First of all, we must not forget that although trades, organized groups,
05:29or social entities, retain their name, function, or real aspects,
05:36They can vary over time, and some of these changes can be very large.
05:42That is why we had clarified that the Pharisees in the Gospels of Matthew and John
05:47These are not the same Pharisees with whom Jesus debated during his public ministry.
05:53Secondly, we must know that the Jews held in high esteem those who invited them.
06:02to remain faithful to religious traditions and the faith of their parents.
06:07This attitude of promotion or positive influence turned these people or groups into leaders.
06:16Therefore, the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees can be placed in this group category.
06:24of people who invited Jews to live their faith in fidelity to the covenant
06:31that the God of Israel made a covenant with them through Moses.
06:34The Pharisees, to a greater extent, and the Sadducees, to a lesser extent, strove to gain favor
06:44among the members of their communities and fought to have more influence than other groups
06:50about ordinary Jews, who did not lean towards a specific view of their religious faith.
06:56But taking this aspect into account, we must see Jesus as a prophet who seeks to have
07:05influence among the Jews of his time, and that search for influence is what causes
07:11his constant disputes and quarrels with the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees.
07:18This is not a power struggle, nor was it a fight to the death.
07:24It was simply about gaining followers who would adhere to one's own points of view.
07:31And if we take into account that Jesus, like John the Baptist, thought that he was soon going to
07:36to end the world as they knew it, explains the urgency of both of them to announce their
07:43message.
07:44And Jesus' urgency is even greater when we consider that he dedicated himself to bringing his message to the different
07:51towns and villages, including Galilee and Judea.
07:57Thirdly, it is important to distinguish between city life and village life,
08:04hamlets and small villages where Jesus carries out his ministry and performs his miracles
08:11and exorcisms.
08:13The city is where the rulers and their closest assistants live.
08:18For their part, ordinary people—peasants, laborers, day laborers, and fishermen, among others—
08:27They live in small villages that we cannot call cities.
08:33In Judea we have the city of Jerusalem, where the religious power of the Jewish people is centered.
08:41Furthermore, the capital of the Roman prefect was located far away, in the city of Caesarea Maritima,
08:49a place that Jesus never reached.
08:52Meanwhile, in Galilee, the land of Jesus, we have two cities that were consecutively
08:58the capitals of Herod Antipas, Sepphoris and Tiberias or Tiberiades, cities that Jesus also did not visit.
09:06Jesus visited Sepphoris during his public ministry. It is thought that Jesus visited Sepphoris during his youth.
09:14even beside Joseph, her earthly father. When Antipas rebuilt it to convert it
09:21in its first capital, a process that involved the hiring of many materials workers
09:27such as metal, stone, wood, and other similar materials that Jesus supposedly handled. On the contrary,
09:36Jesus could never visit Tiberias because, as we have already said, Antipas built it
09:42on an old cemetery, which represented a grave affront to the Jews.
09:49Now, why are cities important in the study if Jesus apparently did not visit them?
09:57none during his public ministry? The answer is simple, because the cities
10:03They arose from a need for the ruling classes and their auxiliary groups, since in the cities,
10:11As is still the case today, the authorities and rulers were present and it was carried out in them
10:19carry out everything related to politics, administration, the military, justice,
10:25Religious life and education. It was in the cities where these groups were able to flourish.
10:33Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees. It was very rare for villages to have a group of scribes.
10:42or Pharisees who would train or educate the people. Moreover, it is extremely difficult for towns
10:48small and poor people could have access to a Torah scroll or a teacher specializing in the
10:55Jewish holy scriptures, or that they had a building exclusively for community meetings.
11:03As we had already learned, the word synagogue always meant the assembly that meets with
11:11civil motives, and which soon combined civil motives with religious motives.
11:18Therefore, it is likely that the same people who led the Jewish community at a social level,
11:26legal or political, they religiously lead it during community meetings on Saturday.
11:33Taking these details into account, let's move on to studying the groups with which it appears
11:41Jesus had more arguments, or rather, disagreements with those with whom Jesus had certain disagreements.
11:48We begin with the scribes.
11:51It is necessary to clarify some important points about the scribes of the gospels.
11:561. They are not a religious group, but a profession.
12:022. They are not a party dedicated to studying the law of Moses in a professional and in-depth manner.
12:093. They are not experts in religious, moral, or legal matters.
12:164. Nor did they share a seat with the leaders of the Jewish Sanhedrin.
12:21But why do we make these claims?
12:25Firstly, because the scribe plays an essential role in ancient societies,
12:31writing and copying official or important documents.
12:36His work was very varied.
12:39We know that they kept records about taxes.
12:45They were counting the military personnel.
12:50They controlled and wrote the annals of the different governments.
12:55They transcribed or prepared the sacred texts of the temples.
12:59And finally, some of them could create literary works for the entertainment or education of the more cultured people.
13:09Secondly, because not every scribe was a man versed in the Torah,
13:15Nor was every man versed in Mosaic law a scribe.
13:19In the ancient world, few people could read a long text, and even fewer could write it.
13:29This is because acquiring the ability to write a long document takes too much time and costs a lot of money.
13:37Thank you!
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