Sadducees

Sadducees, Jewish sect active in Judea, Palestine, during the 1st century B.C. and active until the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, A.D. 70. The sect, associated with priests and the upper class, claimed the Old Testament alone as the source of Jewish law. With their dismissal of Jewish Oral Law they dismissed the beliefs in immortality, resurrection, and angelic beings, beliefs all held by the opposing Pharisee sect.

See also: Sanhedrin.