Boethusians
TheBoethusians(Hebrew:בייתוסים) were aJewishsect closely related to, if not a development of, theSadducees.[1]
Origins according to the Talmud
[edit]The post-TalmudicworkAvot of Rabbi Natangives the following origin of the schism between the Pharisees and Sadducees/Boethusians:Antigonus of Sokhohaving taught the maxim, "Be not like the servants who serve their masters for the sake of the wages, but be rather like those who serve without thought of receiving wages",[2]his two pupils,Zadokand Boethus, repeated this maxim to their pupils. In the course of time, either the two teachers or their pupils understood this to express the stance that there was neither anafterlifenor aresurrection of the dead,and founded the sects of theSadduceesand the Boethusians. They lived in luxurious splendor; using silver and golden vessels all their lives, not because they were haughty, but because (as they claimed) thePhariseesled a hard life on earth and yet would have nothing to show for it in theworld to come.[3]It is known to historians that these two groups denied theimmortality of the souland theresurrection,and also that the sects found their followers chiefly among the wealthy, but the origin of the sects is unconfirmed.
TheMishnah,as well as theBaraita,mentions the Boethusians as saying that theomer offeringmust be offered on the Sunday of Passover (in opposition to the Pharisees who offered it on the second day of Passover), resulting in different dates for theShavuotholiday.[4]Elsewhere, it is narrated that the Boethusians hired false witnesses in order to mislead the Pharisees in their calculation of the new moon.[5]Another point of dispute between the Boethusians and the Pharisees was whether thehigh priestshould prepare the incense inside or outside theHoly of HoliesonYom Kippur[6]
As the beginnings of this sect are shrouded in obscurity, so also is the length of its duration. The Talmud mentions a Boethusian in a dispute with a pupil ofRabbi Akiva,[7]yet it is likely that the word here means simply a sectarian, aheretic,just as the term "Sadducee" was used in a much wider sense later on. A Boethus, son of Zonim, and nearly contemporaneous withRabbi Akiva[8]is mentioned in the Mishnah;[9]he was not, however, a Boethusian, but a pious merchant. Anamora,c. 300 CE, was also called "Boethus".
Relationship to other groups
[edit]Some scholars have identified the Boethusians with theEssenes,the sect that produced theDead Sea Scrolls.[10]Some of the scrolls express views similar to those attributed to the Boethusians by the Talmud.[11]According to this theory, the word "Boethusian" is a corruption of "Beit Essaya", meaning "House of Essenes".[12]
A high-priestly family
[edit]The Boethusians are believed to have been associated with the members of the high-priestly family ofBoethus.The family of Boethus produced the following high priests:
References
[edit]- ^The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion - Adele Berlin, Maxine L. Grossman - 2011 - Page 148 "The rabbis considered them primarily a religious sect, founded by Boethus, a heretical disciple of the Mishnaic authority... Other scholars connect the Boethusians withShimon ben Boethus,high priest in King Herod's time; the family is "
- ^Pirkei Avot1:3
- ^Avot of Rabbi Natan5:2
- ^Menachot 10:3; compare also Hagigah 2:4.
- ^Tosefta, Rosh Hashana 1:14; Bavli Rosh Hashana 22b; Yerushalmi Rosh Hashana 2 (57d), below; compare Geiger, "Urschrift," p. 137, 138.
- ^Tosefta, Yoma, 1:8; Yerushalmi Yoma 1 (39a).
- ^Shabbat 108a; Soferim 1:2
- ^compare Yerushalmi l.c. 10b
- ^Bava Metzia 5:3
- ^Y. Sussmann (1989),The History of the Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Preliminary Talmudic Observations on Miqṣat Ma‘aśe ha-Torah.Tarbiz 59
- ^Sigalit Ben-Zion,A Roadmap to the Heavens: An Anthropological Study of Hegemony Among Priests, Sages, and Laymen.Academic Studies Press, 2009. p. 105
- ^Encyclopedia Britannica,""Boethusian | Judaism".".
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Singer, Isidore;et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Boethusians".The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.Its bibliography:
- Eduard Baneth,"Ueber den Ursprung der Sadokäer und Boethus."Berliner-Hoffmann, Magazin,ix.1-37, 61-95 (also printed separately, Dessau, 1882);
- Geiger,Urschrift,1857, pp. 105 et seq.;
- Heinrich Grätz,Gesch. der Juden,iii.89, 223, 4th ed.;
- Emil Schürer,Gesch.ii.217-218, 409–419.
