Most scholars contend that the Sadducees only affirmed the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).[1] However, even if this is the case, it doesn’t offer a major problem to our view of canonicity. After all, the Sadducees were removing books from the canon—not adding books (like the Apocrypha).
On the other hand, not all scholars agree with this contention. Roger Beckwith—an expert on OT canonicity—contends that the Sadducees held to the entire Jewish canon—not just the Torah. He gives several reasons why:[2]
First, the Sadducees normally conformed to Pharisaical decisions.[3]
Second, the Sadducees denied the resurrection, but this was not on the basis of inspiration but interpretation—namely, they held to a non-literal hermeneutic (Hippolytus, Refutation, 9.29). Note that the Sadducees rejected the existence of angels,[4] and yet, angels appear all over the Pentateuch! (e.g. Gen. 19:1, 15; 28:12; 32:1; etc.).
Third, Jesus answers the Sadducees’ denial of the resurrection by quoting from the Pentateuch. Yet he was answering their objection from the same section of Scripture from which they made their objection—namely, the Pentateuch. Beckwith writes, “The rabbis normally use the Pentateuch, not the Prophets or Hagiographa [the Writings], to prove the resurrection.”[5]
Fourth, Josephus states that the Sadducees “own no observance of any sort apart from the Laws” (Antiquities, 18.1.4; 18.16). But this is contrasting the “Laws” (the whole OT Scriptures) with the oral commands (cf. Antiquities, 13.10.6; 13.297). Remember, Josephus said “all Jews” accepted the 22 book canon (Against Apion, 1:8). Josephus spills considerable ink describing the differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees but never “suggests that the Sadducees rejected the Prophets and Hagiographa.”[6]
Fifth, the Sadducees quoted from Job (outside the Pentateuch) to disprove the resurrection (Tanhuma C).
Sixth, the high priest Caiaphas was a Sadducee (Acts 4:6; 5:17). Yet he questioned Jesus being the “Christ” and “Son of David.” Of course, these concepts don’t come from the Pentateuch, but the Prophets. Why would Caiaphas quote from books which he didn’t consider Scripture?
Seventh, the church fathers Hippolytus (Refutation, 9.29) and Origen (Against Celsus, 1.49; Commentary on Matthew, 17.35) state that the Sadducees only believed in the Pentateuch, and both of these church fathers were very familiar with Judaism. Yet Beckwith believes that the Sadducees might have blended with the Samaritans before they went extinct. Thus Hippolytus and Origen knew their later practice as being similar to the Samaritans, who rejected all but the Samaritan Pentateuch. References to the Sadducees die out in the mid second century AD—before Hippolytus and Origen wrote these statements.
[1] See for example Craig Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels: an Introduction and Survey (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1997), 48.
[2] See Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 86-91.
[3] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 87.
[4] See for example Craig Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels: an Introduction and Survey (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1997), 48.
[5] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 88.
[6] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 89.