These are two fragments, discovered a few years ago by Schechter in the Cairo _Genizah_.[170] They belong respectively to the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D., and deal with the religious beliefs and practices, as well as with details of the constitution, of a Jewish sect which existed in Damascus during the second century B.C.,[171] before the Maccabæan struggle. This sect possessed, in addition to the Old Testament, other sacred books; it had its special laws interpreting various commandments in Scripture; and it had, moreover, its own calendar. The sect looked upon itself as the remnant to which God had revealed “the hidden things in which all Israel erred.” The members of this sect had a special dislike for the Pharisees, against whom their polemics were directed. In the text of one of the manuscripts the Pharisees are denounced as transgressors of the Covenant; and various other accusations are brought against them, such as polygamy, and a wrong way of observing the dietary laws and the Levitical laws of purity. The Law, it is contended, was only discovered with the rise of Zadok. This antagonism to the Pharisees stamps the sect as representing some form of Sadducæanism, and this is further emphasized by the fact that the Messianic doctrine taught agrees with that of the Sadducees against the Pharisaic teaching on the subject. The fragments raise a number of other questions which cannot be discussed here; the point of chief importance for us lies in the Sadducæan character of their contents. These, then, are the sources from which we gain our information regarding the specific doctrines of the Sadducees and Pharisees, which we now proceed to consider.[172] III. THE DOCTRINES OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES (_a_) _The Doctrine of the Law._ As the attitude of the Pharisees to the Law is so well known not many words need be devoted to describing it. All the sources agree that they were the champions _par excellence_ not so much of the written Law, but specifically of the oral Law, and that their energies were concentrated on the elaboration and minute observance of the latter. It is the attitude of the Sadducees to the Law with which we shall, therefore, mainly concern ourselves, for some other points of Sadducæan doctrine are closely connected with this. We may begin by quoting the evidence of Josephus; he says in _Antiquities_ XIII, x. 6: “The Pharisees have delivered to the people from the tradition of the fathers all manner of ordinances not contained in the laws of Moses; for which reason the sect of the Sadducees reject these ordinances; for they affirm that only such laws ought to be observed as are written, while those which are orally delivered from the tradition of the fathers are not binding. And concerning these things great questionings and differences have arisen among them.”[173]