(_d_) _The Sadducæan attitude regarding Belief in the existence of Angels and Spirits._ In Acts xxiii. 8 it is said that “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit”; this is the only authority which we have on the latter point; it is not referred to either in Josephus’ works or in the Talmud, nor have the _Zadokite Fragments_ anything to say about it. Now since the Sadducees regarded the written Law as their final authority, it would certainly have been strange if they had really denied the existence of angels, for one has but to recall such passages as Genesis xvi. 1 ff., xxviii. 10 ff., Numbers xx. 16, xxii. 22 ff., and others, to realize that the written Law distinctly teaches a doctrine of angels. One has, therefore, to recognize the possibility that what is said on this subject in Acts xxiii. 8 may be due to a mistaken inference derived from the Sadducæan disbelief in the resurrection, namely, that the _departed_ do not become angels or spirits[187]; this does not necessarily deny the existence of angelic beings who have never been in the flesh.[188] (_e_) _The Doctrine of the Messiah._ One other specifically Sadducæan doctrine must be briefly mentioned, namely that of the Messiah. As against the Pharisees, who taught that the Messiah was to be of the seed of David, and who thus held the old prophetic belief of Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Sadducees, regarding the Pentateuchal Law as the supreme arbiter in all matters, and finding nothing there which spoke of the Messianic ruler as belonging to the house of David, held that Aaron and his seed were the chosen ones from whom the Messiah would ultimately proceed; it was with Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, that God had made an eternal covenant; and, therefore, as Ezekiel (xliv. 15 ff.) had prophesied, the sons of Zadok[189] were to be the rulers of the people, and the Messiah must be of priestly blood (cp. Exod. xix. 6).[190] So that, as Leszynsky points out (p. 94), the very name of the Sadducæan party, i.e. the Zadokites (the descendants of Zadok) also had a place in the strife regarding the Torah _versus_ Tradition.