Discuss how the four known Jewish sects differed.

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The Answer is The Pharisees insisted on knowing and obeying God's law to the fullest extent. This entailed specific interpretations to disambiguate the Torah and ensure total obedience, eventually known as "oral law," which established how to follow the written Law. Much of this oral law was eventually written down in the Mishnah, which later became the foundation for the Talmud. The Jewish priesthood was composed largely of Sadducees. They accepted only the Torah (i.e., the five books of Moses) as authoritative. They rejected the doctrine of the future resurrection of the dead and the existence of angels. The Essenes believed that the Jews of Jerusalem had gone astray, particularly by appointing a non-Zadokite high priest, so they segregated themselves in the wilderness and strove to live in purity. The Essenes of Qumran were probably the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The fourth Fourth Philosophy was a sect that believed in active, usually militant, resistance to Israel's foreign domination. Two well-known subsects of the Fourth Philosophy were the Zealots and the Sicarii.

Discuss How the Four Known Jewish Sects Differed