The priestly aristocracy who ran the temple — wealthy, few, and politically pragmatic in their dealings with Rome, since the arrangement that kept the temple running was the arrangement that kept them in office. Their name probably descends from ZADOK, Solomon's high priest. They held to the written Law alone and rejected what the Pharisees added: no oral tradition, no angels, and — the difference that mattered most — no resurrection (which is why the one argument Matthew records between them and Jesus is about a dead man's wife, 22:23). ⚠ Because their whole existence was tied to the building, they did not outlive it: after AD 70 the Sadducees effectively vanish from history, while the Pharisees' successors wrote the Talmud. At Matthew 3:7 they arrive at the Jordan alongside the Pharisees, which almost never happens, and John addresses the two parties as one crowd.