Prominent Jewish Sects in the First Century
The Pharisees
The Sadducees
The Essenes
The Herodians
The Zealots
The Pharisees were a group of Jewish people that we hear about often in the New Testament. Jesus and the disciples fiercely debated with them on multiple occasions. They began after the success of the Maccabean revolt. The Pharisees strove to interpret the Law correctly while at the same time spreading their opinions and traditions. They used the Torah (the five books of Moses, the first ones in the Old Testament) as canon as well as oral tradition. They believed, unlike the Sadducees, that the Law was given for all of Israel. This meant that anyone who was able to interpret the Torah should be allowed to.
The Sadducees were the second largest of the Jewish sects. Its members were often wealthy and aristocratic men who were in positions of power in both Jewish government and religion. Like all the other Jewish sects have their roots in the 400 year long intertestamental period. Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees did not respect the authority of majority of Old Testament scripture. They did not adhere to the oral traditions nor did they view the writings of the prophets as authoritative. To a Sadducee the only Scriptures that were authoritative where those penned by Moses, i.e. the Torah. Their extreme conservatism led them into conflict with Jesus on various occasions in the New Testament. They rejected all things supernatural, including the resurrection, angels and spirits (Acts 23:8), and they even went so far as to reject the very notion of an afterlife (Luke 20:27-40).
The essenes were a sect of judaism, just as the commonly known Pharisees and Sadducees, however, there is very little biblical reference to this particular sect. The essenes rejected the practices of the other sects, and in fact left jerusalem and moved out in the desert to practice a life of asceticism (the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial) and build their own community. It was later discovered in the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Qumran valley was this civilization inhabited by the Essenes. Other than the Qumran references, the essenes are mentioned by Josephus briefly in his account of the jewish wars, and by Philo. In the New Testament scriptures, the most likely candidate to be associated with this sect was John the Baptizer.
The Herodians were Jews who aligned themselves with Herod the Great and his sons when they came to power. Though not a group defined by theological characteristics, they were united in their determination to support the Herodian family.
The Zealots were committed to working toward Jewish independence from Roman rule. To achieve their ends, these individuals would resort to violence. One of Jesus' disciples was a member of this group: Simon "the Zealot" (Luke 6:15).