Sadducee

General

• The Sadducees were associated with the party of the high priest of the era, and seem to have had a majority of the Sanhedrin, if not all (Gamaliel is a Pharisee member).
• The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, whereas the Pharisees did. In Acts, Paul of Tarsus chose this point of division to attempt to gain the protection of the Pharisees (around 59 CE).
• The Sadducees may have rejected the notion of spirits or angels, whereas the Pharisees acknowledged them. This is based on Acts 23:8, which can be translated as either "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both", or as "For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither as an angel nor as a spirit, while the Pharisees profess both"; the latter approach to the text has been advanced by theologian and scholar of religion David Bentley Hart.