Judaism periodically developed tributaries. Sometimes these tributaries “dried up” and sometimes they flourished (and flourishes to this day), The Pharisee thrust flourished, leaving the Sadducee camp to ultimately wither.

The Pharisees, with Hillel to be their iconic standard–bearer, were less authoritarian and more humanistic on the ideological spectrum than the competing Sadducees.

The Pharisees were more into the “spirit of the law” than the technical dictates of the law. The so–called “Oral Law” – Rabbinic Law – Talmudic Law—is redacted from the so–called “Written Law” (of the Five Books of Moses). Of course, the “Oral Law” was ultimately written down—after it was debated – orally.

The Pharisees will eventually become essentially synonymous with Judaism post–Hillel, blossoming contemporaneously with the times of Jesus (who was himself a Pharisee).

Christianity, somewhat will incorrectly try to position all of Jewry as synonymous with the somewhat less humanistic Sadducees. (Humanistic) Jesus was Pharisee—in the spirit of (humanistic) Hillel. Their respective humanistic ideologies are one, and the same.

The destruction of Temple II c. 70 CE, along with the destruction of the central Jewish authority and the subsequent ignominies unleashed by the Christianized Roman Empire post–Constantine, hundred of years later, will give the development of the Talmud—a Pharisee centerpiece—more centrality and importance.

130 BCE: HASMONEAN LEGACY

The legacy of Judah the Maccabee—“Judas