HOME ARTICLES BIBLES LINKS the HERETIC

The Sadducees, The Pharisees, The Essenes, The Nazarenes, The Scribes, The Zealots and The Peasants.

~ Excerpt from: The Nazarene by Rav Sha'ul.
~ scriptures are from the Hebraic Roots Bible.

What we never learn in our churches is the history of the political parties and the roles they played, which are:
The Sadducees, The Pharisees, The Essenes, The Nazarenes, The Scribes, The Zealots and The Peasants.

What happened to the Nazarene's?
Where did they go and why did they disappear from history?

In order to understand the writing of The Yahushaic Covenant, we must have a basic understanding of the political parties that existed at that time and what ultimately became of the Nazarene Sect. We have no concept of what a Nazarene is because the Christian Church in its pagan establishments and false teachers of Ba’al do nothing to inform us of the atmosphere in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.

The Real Players… there was not a Christian among them!
In the first century, at the time Yahusha lived and died (as the early Nazarene's began to emerge as the largest sect in Jerusalem, dwarfing the other sects), the people of Israel fell into one of the following categories. We must understand these sects if we are to have any understanding of what was going on in the Yahushaic Covenant.

The Sadducees
These were the priests who served in the Temple who viewed themselves as elite and a higher class. They tried to hold on to the power they once had over the government under the Mosaic Law. They rejected deliverance from their oppressors (Rome) by Divine intervention and rejected the idea of a Messiah who would deliver them. They felt that as priests in the Temple they themselves would lead humanity and restore Jerusalem to prominence through their moral authority and the purity of Jewish faith. They also rejected the idea of a bodily Resurrection.

The Pharisees.
These were the Sages that controlled the synagogues throughout the country and identified with the people. They were a very close fraternity of teachers and preachers and were very zealous for the preservation of The Torah and were known as “Teachers of The Law”. Today they would be considered to be Doctorates in the Law or Lawyers if you will. They were thought of as reformers as they studied The Law and then applied The Law to everyday life in a very practical way leading to additions to The Law known as Takkanots. They were the “core” of Judaism as they controlled the synagogue system in Israel. They were very exact in their religious lives and were known as exaggerated in their tithe paying, very ostentatious in their prayers (which means they put on huge displays when they prayed to impress and attract attention to themselves). The Pharisees were looking forward to the coming Messiah ben David who would liberate Israel from her oppressors and establish a Glorious age of peace among all men. They believed in the Resurrection and the redemption of mankind.

The Essenes
This group was a very mysterious and secretive group that withdrew from the synagogues and The Temple into the wilderness. There “mission” was to look for, find, and protect The Messiah when he arrived. They knew the prophecies in Daniel and were waiting on the arrival of the Messiah. They split from the rest of the sects about 150 years before Yahusha was born when the other sects began working with Rome in the rule and security of Judea. They viewed the Sadducees as imposters and not true heirs to the Priesthood. The High Priest must come from the line of Zadok, as prescribed in The Torah.

They setup a separate Temple Service outside Jerusalem in “the wilderness” for the true line of Zadok Priests after Herod had the last true Zadok High Priest killed, whose name was Yahusha III the High Priest, who oversaw the rebuilding of the Second Temple. John the Immerser was the grandson and heir to Yahusha III, and was sent to the Temple in the wilderness of the Essenes for training. The people in Israel knew that the High Priest in Herod’s Temple was not the legit High Priest. Herod simply appointed him after Herod killed Yahuah’s appointed, Zadok Priest Yahusha III. That is why they went into the wilderness to hear the true High Priest John teach and perform Temple service, such as Mikveh, in the Jordan River. The Essenes documented their beliefs in The Dead Sea Scrolls and spoke of The Great Notsri (or The Great Nazarene) who would be the great Teacher of Righteousness that would set “the way” straight (or the Branch). That is why the teachings of John, and then Yahusha, were called “The Way”.

The Nazarenes
were followers of the High Priest John the Immerser, the Fulfillment of the coming Elijah, who was prophesied to
be the greatest Prophet of all (confirmed by Yahusha who said there was no one greater than John) and the true Teacher of Righteousness. John was prophesied to be the mentor of the Messiah Yahusha by John’s father, the Priest Zechariah.

Zechariah’s Prophecy
Luk 1:67-80 And his father Zachariah was filled of the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
Blessed be YAHWEH, the Elohim of Israel, because He visited and worked salvation for His people.
And He raised up a Horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; even as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets from the age before:
That He would save us from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, Luk 1:72 to execute mercy with our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that we would be delivered from the hand of our enemies. And we might serve before Him without fear.
In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the face of YAHWEH to prepare His way, to give a knowledge of salvation (Yahshua) to His people by the removing of their sins, through the tender heart of mercy of our Elohim, in which the Dayspring from on high will visit us, to appear to those sitting in darkness and in shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace.
And the child grew, and became strong in spirit. And he was in the wilderness until the day of his showing to Israel.

Judaism tells us Moses was the greatest Prophet of all, Christianity tells us Yahusha was the greatest Prophet of all. John is intentionally left out of the conversation and the truth hidden. Yahusha, however, claimed John was the greatest Prophet of all.

Yahuah spoke through John the great Prophet, giving John the revelations that Yahusha would later teach as fundamental to his ministry. It was John that originally taught the revelations of baptism for remission of sin, the physical to Spiritual meaning of Passover (communion), the role of Satan, the role of Angels in the Heavenly Hierarchy, the war in the heavenlies, progressive revelation of Covenants, end time eschatology, and the value of communal living and of course, it was John who announced Yahusha as The Passover Lamb, anointed him as High Priest, and told the Nazarene's that Yahusha was Messiah ben Joseph. The Nazarene's where named after The Branch as they became known as keepers and preservers of the written Torah and protectors of The Messiah and Prophets. The majority of Essenes were converted to Nazarene's, followers of Yahusha… either by John the Immerser or later by Rav Sha’ul, John the Revelator, and Peter. The Nazarene's quickly grew to the largest sect of them all in the first century.

The Scribes
were basically the attorneys of their day. They were the glue that held the Jewish society together and bridged the gap between all the sects. You could say the Sadducees were a sect, the Pharisees were a fraternity, and the scribes were the professional class of their day. There were scribes found among all sects. They served the function of the Supreme Court today. They reviewed every new Takkanoh or human command of the Sadducees and Pharisees to ensure it was in line with the written Torah of Yahuah. Their job was to keep every aspect of Jewish life in line with the Ancient writings given to Moses from Yahuah. Yahusha said this concerning the scribes:

Mat 13:52 And He said to them, Because of this, every scribe schooled to the kingdom of Heaven is like a man, a Master of a house, who puts forth out of his treasure new and old.

In other words, the scribes had the responsibility of determining if a Takkanoh (human command) was “new” or if it in fact, conformed to the written Torah of “old”. If it was “new” it was to be rejected. So, the scribes were a very important part of the Kingdom.

The Zealots
These were your freedom fighters to the Jews and terrorist to the Romans. They were extremely anti-Gentile and believed that Israel had been contaminated by them. They took up the sword literally to defend The Torah. They came to the forefront when the son of Herod the Great was defeated in 6 AD and Rome gained control of Israel and Jerusalem. We know at least two of Yahusha’s disciples, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the Sicarii, were taken from this sect and it is suggested that all the disciples were chosen from among the Zealot movement. That may be why Peter’s first reaction, when Yahusha was arrested, was to lop off the ear of one of the guards!

The Sicarii
These were the Special Forces or assassins of the Zealot Party. They were ultra-conservative right wing. Where the Zealots fought Rome on a national level, the Sicarii were mercenaries and personal assassins who sought out and eliminated the Hellenized Jewish traitors who sympathized with Rome. There is even evidence that Judas “Iscariot” was Judas the Sicarii. That is why he was called upon by Yahusha to carry out the covert mission of betrayal.

The Peasants
Most those living in Judea at that time were simply peasants. The poor working class who spread themselves among all various other sects according to who they thought best sympathized with their needs.

So, these were the players on the religious/political scene in the first century. These sects (accept the peasants) only commanded about a few thousand each, except the Zealots, who numbered in the few hundreds, and then the Sicarii whose numbers were extremely small. Until Yahusha came and died, the Sect of the Nazarenes ‘out grew them all in numbers’, eventually, numbering in the tens of thousands representing a threat to those who controlled The Temple (the Sadducees) and those who controlled the Synagogues (the Pharisees) and eventually, to the cults in Rome we know today as Christians.

Return to top

HOME ARTICLES BIBLES LINKS the HERETIC