I believe Armstrong makes a very strong case that the Sadducees could have actually been the ones to control Temple worship when Jesus walked the earth so I am linking to his lengthy article on who controlled Temple worship and why.
There is a quote from Wikipedia on the Megillat Taanit, a first century CE document that forbade fasting and lamenting on certain holidays of the Jews. One must be careful when using Wikipedia and I am not able to confirm this quote but I post it so someone who reads it may be able to confirm for themselves its veracity.
Among the dates penned in
Megillat Taanit and which were all forbidden to fast thereon, and for others also forbidden to lament the dead thereon, are to be noted the following:
- “And from the eighth day thereof (i.e. the lunar month of Nisan) until the end of the [last] festival day [of Passover], the Feast of Weeks (Shavu’ot) was restored, [being days on which] it is prohibited to mourn” [Original Aramaic: ומתמניא ביה ועד סוף מועדא איתותב חגא דשבועייא די לא למספד]
[
Excursus: This episode has been explained by
Rashi in
Babylonian Talmud (
Taanit 17b, s.v. מתמניא ביה) to mean the vindication of the
Pharisees over the
Boethusians in the days of Rabbi
Yohanan ben Zakkai, when the Boethusians held the errant view that the people of Israel are to only begin counting the seven weeks, or 49 days of the
Counting of the Omer, after the first Sabbath that follows the first Festival Day of Passover, which method would invariably cause a delay in the counting, and push back further the
Feast of Weeks (
Shavu’ot) which falls on the 50th day. According to the Pharisees, on the other hand, whose opinion is
Halacha, the Counting of the Omer begins immediately following the first Festival Day of Passover, which happens to be the Sabbath day of rest spoken of in
Leviticus 23:15, that is to say, Passover itself, and they begin the counting on the following day, on the 16th day of the lunar month Nisan, in which case the festival day known as the
Feast of Weeks will always fall on the 6th day of the lunar month
Sivan. When Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai prevailed over the Boethusians at this time, the days were commemorated as a semi-holiday;
Shavu’ot being restored to its former time of observance.]
[20][21]
If this quote from Wikipedia is accurate, and I am not claiming it is, but if it is, then that would be strong evidence that the Sadducees controlled Temple worship during the time Jesus had his public ministry.
The quote refers to Rabbi
Yohanan ben Zakkai, a Pharisee, who lived from about 30 CE to 90 CE and was instrumental on returning reckoning of the wave sheaf back to Pharisean control.
Wikipedia’s article on Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai gives the following:
The
Talmud reports that, in the mid-first century, he was particularly active in opposing the
Sadducees‘ interpretations of
Jewish law,
[2][3] and produced counter-arguments to the Sadducees’ objection to the
Pharisees.
[4] So dedicated was he to opposing the Sadducee view of Jewish law, that he prevented the
Jewish high priest, who was a Sadducee, from following the Sadducee interpretation of the
Red Heifer ritual.
[5]
His home, at this time, was in
Arav, a village in the
Galilee, where he spent eighteen years.
[6][7] However, although living among them, he found the attitude of Galileans to be objectionable, allegedly exclaiming that they hated the
Torah and would therefore “fall into the hands of robbers.”
[6] During the outbreak of hostilities, he settled in Jerusalem.
I want to do further research into this so I added the link to his article here, in my blog post. It’s over 80 printed pages long so read it in small chunks.
https://tinyurl.com/757tbjc8
