"They regarded the law (written Scripture) as binding, but rejected the scribal tradition and held the prophets less authoritative. They disliked innovation, hence rejected: a) the Persian concept of two hierarchies of good and evil spirits (Acts 23:8); b) the resurrection of the body (cf. Luke 20:27-33, where they argued that the Law of levirate marriage disproved it, but were shown from the law that God assumes the continued existence of the patriarchs and that the resurrected are as angels), though Josephus may exaggerate when he says that they denied even the immortality of the soul (Ant. 18.1.4); c) rewards and punishments in Hades."

"But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the bodies; nor do they regard the observation of anything besides what the law enjoins them; for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent; but this doctrine is received but by a few, yet by those still of greatest dignity; but they are able to do almost nothing of themselves; for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them."

"The Sadducees were a small but wealthy ruling party closely associated with the temple and Jerusalem. They controlled the important office of the high priest and had great political influence in the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling body).

"They taught a strict observance of the Torah as 'it was given to Moses' and would permit no new doctrines apart from those found in the original Torah. As a result, they rejected oral interpretations of the Torah along with new ideas about life after death, the resurrection of the body, and angels and spirits. They tended to accept older interpretations of the afterlife found in the Torah. To them, life after death consisted of semilifeless ghosts confined to the gray underworld known as sheol."

"Once when Hillel left his disciples, they said to him, 'Whither are you going?' He replied, 'To do a kindness to a guest in the house.' They said, 'Have you every day a guest?' He said, 'Yes, is not the soul a guest in the body? To-day it is here, to-morrow it is gone.'" (Lev.R., Behar, XXXIV, 3)

"No aspect of the subject of the Hereafter has so important a place in the religious teaching of the Rabbis as the doctrine of the Resurrection. It became with them an article of faith the denial of which was considered as sinful; and they declared: 'Since a person repudiated belief in the Resurrection of the dead, he will have no share in the Resurrection' (Sah. 90a).

"The prominence which this dogma assumed was the effect of religious controversy. It was one of the differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees. The latter, as we know from other sources [here referencing Josephus], taught that the soul became extinct when the body died and death was the final end of the human being. This denial of a Hereafter involved the doctrine of reward and punishment to which the Pharisees attached great importance, and for that reason they fought it strenuously. They made it the theme one of the Eighteen Benedictions which formed part of the daily services of prayer: 'Thou sustainest the living with lovingkindness, revivest the dead with great mercy, supportest the falling, healest the sick, looses the bound, and keepest Thy faith to them that sleep in the dust. Who is like unto Thee, Lord of mightly acts, and who resembles Thee, O King, who killest and revivest, and causest salvation to spring forth? Yea, faithful art Thou to revive the dead. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who revivest the dead.'"

"The synagogue being free, and it being open to anyone to lead in prayer, there was a danger that heretical prayers might be recited by a reader who held heretical views. His reluctance to recite one of the 'tests' preserved the orthodoxy of the pulpit. A Sadducee would be deterred by having to proclaim that 'God quickens the dead' and a Samaritian would hesitate to pray for Jerusalem."