Broadly speaking one could trace the history of Judaism back to the early religion of Israel, the religion that produced the Hebrew Scriptures that are known to Christians as the Old Testament. Here, however, we take Judaism to refer to the religion that was known to Jesus and his contemporaries, and that was later developed and formulated by the Rabbis. A key date in the development of Judaism was 70 C.E. the year in which the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Judaism of the pre-70 period is known to us from the New Testament and from other sources. It was a Judaism in which the Temple and its elaborate sacrificial system held a central place. Pilgrims from all over the Jewish world converged on the Temple on the occasion of the great Jewish festivals (see Exod. 23:14-17; Acts 2:1-11). Judaism of the first century C.E. included several groups that were often antagonistic to each other. Some of those groups, such as the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes, are......
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