Luke 7: 36-48
“36 One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. Jesus went to the Pharisee’s house and was eating at the table.
37 A woman who lived a sinful life in that city found out that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she took a bottle of perfume 38 and knelt at his feet. She was crying and washed his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her hair, kissed them over and over again, and poured the perfume on them.
39 The Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this and thought, “If this man really were a prophet, he would know what sort of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner.”
40 Jesus spoke up, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
Simon replied, “Teacher, you’re free to speak.”
41 ⌞So Jesus said,⌟ “Two men owed a moneylender some money. One owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed him fifty. 42 When they couldn’t pay it back, he was kind enough to cancel their debts. Now, who do you think will love him the most?”
43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one who had the largest debt canceled.”Jesus said to him, “You’re right!”
44 Then, turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “You see this woman, don’t you? I came into your house. You didn’t wash my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You didn’t give me a kiss. But ever since I came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You didn’t put any olive oil on my head. But she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 That’s why I’m telling you that her many sins have been forgiven[1]. Her great love proves that. But whoever receives little forgiveness loves very little.”[2]
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.[3]”[4]
 
According to Jesus, all the woman’s actions in attending to his feet arose out of great love for him after her sins having been forgiven.
 
As such, we can reasonably infer that her “many[5] sins” had been forgiven previously, but by whom, God or Jesus[6]?  Earlier in Luke 5:21, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were unequivocal in their thoughts of “Who can forgive sins but God alone?[7]”
 
It is therefore reasonable to infer that this woman’s sins, had at the very least, been forgiven by God. Whether it was God through the person of Jesus in particular, we are unable to determine. Yet her actions in attending to Jesus’ feet out of great love to Jesus, in having had her sins been forgiven, suggests that she viewed Jesus as God, Who has forgiven her of her many sins.
 
But that is not all in the narrative. Continuing in Luke 7: 49-50, there is mentioned of a third virtue, of faith, intricately interlinked to, and, in play with the other two virtues of forgiveness and love.
“49 The other guests thought, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace!””
 
What is faith?  In Hebrews 11:1, the writer wrote of faith as:
“Faith means being sure of the things we hope for. And faith means knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.”[8]
 
In the context of this woman, I can only surmise that it would have meant that she, in faith with great love, was sure that God had forgiven her of her many sins and that this person, Jesus, is God. She must have believed it with all of her being. Or else she could not have, out of great love, attended to the feet of Jesus, believing that her many sins have been forgiven.
 
Jesus’ comparison of her actions to Simon, the Pharisee, who invited him for a meal at his home, now becomes all the more telling.
 
For He said to Simon.
“I came to your house.”

1. You didn’t wash my feet. – (accorded me the common courtesy of an honoured guest as Simon had addressed Jesus as Master or Teacher[9])
2. You didn’t give me a kiss. ( accorded me the sign of affection[10], acknowledgement of deity[11])
3. You didn’t put any olive oil on my head. (accorded me the recognition as Messiah[12] – “the Anointed One”

This sinful woman, however, in faith and love:

1. washed my feet with her tears (‘of joy’[13], in awe, wonder and gratefulness,  in having had her many sins forgiven.)         and dried them with her hair. ( giving to him all her beauty and pride[14] and representative of keeping faith[15] with him)
2. has not stopped kissing my feet. (not stopped showing me affection and love and acknowledging me for Who I Am -God enfleshed (See 1 Kings 19:18) )
3. has poured perfume on my feet. ( expended on me that which means much, if not all, to her[16])

 
All these, Jesus said, were expressed and done in faith with an outpouring of great love. I believe, in recognition and admiration of who she is and what she has done, Jesus proclaimed to her: “Your faith has saved[17] you. Go in peace”.
 
A reference to a previous incident in the narrative recorded earlier in Luke 5:17-26 is instructive to enable us to appreciate a little bit more of what was happening here.
 
“17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.[18]”
21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy[19]? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven[20],’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive[21] sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said: “We have seen remarkable things today.”[22]
 
Forgiving of sins to the Jews has always been the prerogative of God. For a man to forgive sins, it is tantamount to that man claiming to be equal to God. To the Jews, that is blasphemy.
 
For Jesus to proclaim again that this sinful woman’s many sins have been forgiven is a proclamation again of his Divinity to the people and hearers around him. The response by the guests: “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” is similar to the response of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law previously: “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy[23]? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
 
Is it not reasonable to then infer that, drawn and revealed by Heavenly Father[24], this sinful woman, in faith, believed that Jesus is who he claimed to be, the only begotten Son of God enfleshed.[25]
 
This sinful woman of many sins must have had a revelation and experience of her many sins being forgiven, arising from God’s love for her, and, felt God’s love for her. Or else, how could she, in faith and great love, have attended to Jesus’s feet as she had done.
 
I believe that even as she had freely received God’s love she desired to freely love God in return[26]. She could now reciprocate authentic love because God had first truly and authentically loved her[27].
 
I believe that deep down in her being, she was touched by the length, breadth, height and depth of God’s love for her, enabling her to recognise Jesus for Who he is and claimed to be.
 
I believe that to be able to encounter and be in the presence of Jesus, her Messiah, the Son of the Living God enfleshed, was what caused her to profusely shed tears of joy. She was experiencing the present with, and in the very physical presence of, her Lord.
 
In John 17:3, it is recorded that Jesus stated that these moments in the present or ‘now’ is what eternal life is: “eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”[28] The knowing is always in the present or “now moments.”
 
Another point to note is that the Greek word for “saved”  “σέσωκέν[29]- sesōken” connotes that this sinful woman was already saved by her faith before coming to attend to Jesus’ feet.
 
I also perceive her faith and love in Jesus being duly acknowledged and rewarded by Jesus when he affirmed, to her, ““Your sins have been forgiven” and “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace!”
 
After these words from Jesus, I believe, this woman would have been able to say that what she in faith previously believed, now she knows.
 
The apostle Paul in the later stage of his life expressed a similar sentiment in a phrase in 2 Timothy 1:12, “for I know who I have believed”[30]
 
This narrative has challenged me to re-evaluate anew, my understanding of Who Jesus is, and the import of his words and works as recorded in the New Testament.
 
There are still a whole plethora of questions to be asked and answered. There are many challenges yet to appear, to be met and solved.
 
But the faith and response of great love I see in this woman and that of God’s love and forgiveness, inspires and spurs me to press on, forge ahead, in the discovery of Triune God’s high calling in Christ. For me, this is the promise and reality of growing realisation of the mystery of love, in union and communion with Triune God and one another.
 
What about you?


[1]ἀφέωνται from root ἀφίημι aphiēmi
Speech: Verb   Tense: Perfect
Definition of "Perfect"
In Greek corresponds to the perfect tense in English, and describes an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated. Jesus' last cry from the cross, TETELESTAI ("It is finished!") is a good example of the perfect tense used in this sense, namely "It [?], has been accomplished, completely, once and for all time." See Blue letter Bible in Luke 7:47
Voice: Passive        Mood: Indicative         Person: 3rd Person     Number: Singular
Many translations translate the word as “are forgiven” implying the action as if it happened in the present instead of having been completed in the past as the word ἀφέωνται expresses. See also Young’s Literal Translation

[2] GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

[3] See ἀφέωνται above

[4] GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

[5] πολλαί from root πολύς polys See Strong’s G4183 - of multitude, number, etc., many, numerous, great.

[6] Just a point to note. There is no express reference to the woman “having been forgiven” previously, by Jesus, in Luke or in the other gospels. All inferences are just that. They are not facts or truths but perspectives and viewpoints.

[7] NIV

[8] International Children’s Bible (ICB)

[9] Διδάσκαλε from root διδάσκαλος didaskalos See Strong’s G1320 –
1.teacher.  2. In the NT one who teaches concerning the things of God, and the duties of man

[10] Genesis 27:27, 33:4,   48:10,  50:1   Ruth 1:14,  1Samuel 20:41  Tobit 7:6

[11] I Kings 19:18

[12] See Strong’s H4899 מָשִׁיחַ mâshîyach, maw-shee'-akh; from H4886; anointed; usually a consecrated person (as a king, priest, or saint); specifically, the Messiah:—anointed, Messiah. See also Luke 4:18, Acts 10:38

[13] Isaiah 61:3 “He has sent me to the sorrowing people of Jerusalem. I will give them a crown to replace their ashes. I will give them the oil of gladness to replace their sorrow. I will give them clothes of praise to replace their spirit of sadness. Then they will be called Trees of Goodness. They will be like trees planted by the Lord and will show his greatness.” ICB

[14] Song’s of Solomon 4:1,  6:5,  7:5 

[15] See Jeremiah 7:29

[16] See Exodus 35:35, 37  Proverbs 27:9  See also Matthew 26:7 Mark 14:3 at the house of Simon the leper. I believe that the giving of the perfume suggest the giving of her life as a living sacrifice unto her Lord.

[17] σέσωκέν from root σῴζω- sōzō See Strong’s G4982Speech: Verb    Tense: Perfect    Voice: Active    Mood: Indicative 
Person: 3rd Person    Number: Singular
Definition of "Perfect"
In Greek corresponds to the perfect tense in English, and describes an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated. See 2 above

[18] Same Greek word ἀφέωνται (Perfect Tense)is used here as in Luke 7:47,48 above. Literally ‘have been forgiven’ – See Young’s Literal Translation

[19] Greek word βλασφημίας  See Strong’s G988

[20] Same Greek word ἀφέωνται (Perfect Tense)is used here as in Luke 7:47,48 above. Literally ‘have been forgiven’ – See Young’s Literal Translation

[21] ἀφιέναι (Present Tense) also from root ἀφίημι aphiēmi   Speech: Verb   Tense: Present   Voice: Active   Mood: Infinitive
Note that here “to forgive” is in the present tense.

[22] NIV

[23] Greek word βλασφημίας  See Strong’s G988

[24] John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” ESV Matthew 16:16,17 “Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”ESV

[25] John 1:14 “ and the Word became flesh”

[26] Matthew 10:8 Jesus was later to command his disciples “Freely ye have received; freely give.”

[27] 1John 1:4 ““We love because he first loved us.

[28] Good News Translation

[29]  see 18  above

[30] ESV

Even as God is Triune love and loving, I perceive complete genuine love and loving displaying three essential and distinct characteristics: the elements of giving, receiving and reciprocating.

Father loves (giving) Son and Spirit. Son and Spirit accept and embraces (receiving) Father’s love (giving). Son and Spirit reciprocate (reciprocating) by similarly loving Father in return. All this happens, in a reciprocal, simultaneous, synergistic, dynamic loving exchange.
 
If God is only ONE, and is love, then complete and eternal love, would ONLY be eternal self-loving. Then, the highest and greatest expression of love would ONLY be loving one’s self, for in eternity there is no genuine and authentic OTHER to love and to be loved in return. There is giving to and receiving from yourself in self- loving. However, there is no reciprocating, as there is no genuine and authentic other reciprocating love to yourself.
 
Jesus’ statements on the first and great commandment[1] and the second like it[2], is instructive on the importance and genuineness of self, the other, love and loving.
 
In the second, Jesus introduced the element of love and loving to one’s relationship to one’s neighbour (the other). More than that, he linked it, as inseparable, of equal importance[3] to the first ; to the love obligation that an Israelite had of loving LORD (YHWH) GOD (Elohim- Plural).[4]
 
In so doing, even as Self and the Other is genuinely real in YHWH ELOHIM, so too, our individual self, and therefore, the self of another, is correspondingly, genuine and real. As such, our love and loving is also authentically and meaningfully real. I believe that this comforts and gives purpose to many who struggle with the notion of whether self or love and loving is authentically meaningful. Even as self and another freely and willingly initiate, create and complete love, giving, receiving and reciprocating love makes self and the other complete, whole and fulfilled.
 
Loving your neighbour as yourself is much more than just doing to others what you wish others will do to you or do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you. God lives, rests and abides in us when we love our neighbour. It is written in 1 John 4: ”Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”[5] “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” [6] God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”[7]
 
Giving, receiving and reciprocating love and loving, to and from God and each other, not only enables us to know God and each other, it eventually makes us one in God. Jesus prayed: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us[8], so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”[9]


[1] Matthew 22:37, 38

[2] Matthew 22:39

[3] See Matthew 22:34-39.  The word commonly translated ‘and’ is actually Strong’s  G1161 Greek word “ δέ - de” more accurately having the meaning of “but, moreover”. When paired with the Greek words “ὁμοία [(homoia) from homois ( See Strong’s G3664)”] αὐτῇ - literally ‘like it’” , the phrase has within it the connotation of “like but equally important.” “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" New Living Translation. “And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’” The Passion Translation. The word “second” connotes distinction and inseparability rather than priority vis a vis the first.  You cannot love God if you do not love thy our neighbour. By loving your neighbour, you are also loving God. See 1 john 4:7,16

[4] Deuteronomy 6:4,5  In Hebrew the word “יְהוָה-YHWH” is translated LORD, and the word “אֱלֹהֶיךָ-Elohim” is translated as God. Note that YHWH is ONE (Deuteronomy 6;4) but Elohim is Plural See Strong’s H430 – plural of אֱלוֹהַּ-‘elowahh meaning God.

[5] 1 John 4:7,8

[6] 1 John 4:12 NRSV See Strong’s G3306 translated as  “lives” here

[7]  1 John 4:16 NRSV   See Strong’s G 3306 translated as “abides’ here.  “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” NLT

[8] Other ancient manuscript reads be one in us
​
[9] John 17:20-24 NRSV

Continuing from my last post, what is the quintessential nature and essence of love?

To the apostle John, God is Love.[1] But, what does this mean?
 
For me, this means that in the Being of God, there is a dynamic eternal relationship of love and loving among Father, Son and Spirit. This eternal exchange of giving, receiving and responding in love to One Another is within the true Nature and Essence of Who God is, TRIUNE. God’s ThreeOness, ever in loving relationship, One with Another, is the complete and perfect expression of the nature and essence of love. For me, I believe, this is why God is love.
 
As God, Triune, is love, love also Is, arising from the Triune relationship of God. This means that love exists, because, out of and from the ThreeOne relationship of Father, Son and Spirit.  Love is, only because the Triune relationship is genuinely real. Relationships are real and not illusory imaginings, for, relationships have eternally existed in the eternal Triune Being of God.
 
If God is not Triune but only One, then, only self loving, loving of One’s Self  is eternally with and in God. There is no eternal, real and true love for, with and in Another.  However, if God is more than One and yet also One, TRIUNE, as revealed in, through and by the Incarnate Son and Spirit, then, true, real and eternal loving relationships, not only for one’s self but also another is revealed to be inseparable from, and essentially in, the Nature, Essence and Being of God. For me, this eternal relational happening of union and communion within the Triune, is, presently, the best matrix by which I comprehend and relate to God’s ThreeOneness, in loving nature and being.
 
In union, the Three, Father, Son and Spirit are One. In communion, the ONE GOD, is also Three: Father, Son and Spirit.[2]  Drawing from this, we can perceive that the completeness and perfection of love not only requires love to and for one’s self, but also love towards all others. This arises from the Triune loving relationship, in union and communion, jointly and severally, loving One’s self, loving all the Others as much as loving One’s self and loving and receiving love, simultaneously, in similar manner, from all the Others[3]
 
This Triune completeness and perfection of love and loving is the glory of Triune God in eternity: ““Father, those whom you have given to me—I want that those also may be with me where I am, in order that they may see my glory that you have given me because (in that)[4] you loved me before the foundation of the world(i.e.the universe)[5].”[6]
 
Son’s glory was that of loving union and communion with Father in eternity. Son’s desire was to share this glory with us:  “And I do not ask on behalf of these only, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be in us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, in order that they may be one, just as we are one— I in them, and you in me, in order that they may be completed in one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me”[7].
 
Son, even in Incarnation, remains ever One with and in Father.[8] To see Incarnate Son is to also see Eternal or Everlasting Father.[9] As Isaiah had prophesied:
“For a child has been born for us;
    a son has been given to us.
And the dominion will be on his shoulder,
    and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
        Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[10]
 
Spirit is also, in union and communion, jointly and severally, present with Father and Son, in all. For it is in and through Spirit, in union and communion, with Father and Son, in love, that all, including love and loving, happens.[11] Spirit is the Happening of Triune God, through Whom, Triune God, “I Am that I Am”, lovingly happens.[12]  Spirit expresses God to us and in us.[13]



[1] 1 John 4: 8,16. “Ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν’”

[2] Please refer to my earlier posts on relationships.  See also the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 where "the Lord (YHWH) is ONE and Lord (YHWH) GOD (Elohim-Plural) is more than one.

[3] Loving your neighbor as yourself, an expression of love, seen in this light, reveals  and points us to the completeness of love within the Triune relationship.

[4] For me, should be more accurately translated as ”(in) that” - See Strong’s G3754 ὅτι hóti, hot'-ee; neuter of G3748 as conjunction; demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant); causative, because:—as concerning that, as though, because (that), for (that), how (that), (in) that.

[5] Strong's G2889 – kosmos : 3. the world, i. e. the universe

[6] John 17:24 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

[7] John 17:20-23

[8] John10:30, John17:11

[9] John 14:9-11, Isa 9:6

[10] Isaiah 9:6 LEB

[11] Genesis 1:1-3. John 4:24. 1 Corinthians 12:3-6

[12] Read Luke 1:34-35 in conjunction with John 1:14 and we see Spirit’s role and involvement in making the Incarnation, the Word becoming a human being, a true and genuine reality, lovingly happen.

[13] John 14:17 - Statement in a several context. In Christ Jesus, in the joint, Spirit is not only with us but also in us.

​“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees[1], the Pharisees[2] got together.
One of them, an expert of the Law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”[3]
 
Presumably, countless debates, questions and ponderings, through the centuries, by teachers of the Law and their acolytes, had yielded no one settled answer. The purpose (test) of the question, intentionally posed to Jesus, was to reignite this debate and show Jesus up.
 
Immediately and unequivocally, Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’[4] This is the first and great commandment.”[5]
 
Jesus’ answer was to focus his hearers back to their covenantal relationship that their ancestors had made with God at Sinai, by referencing words in the first part of the Shema[6].
 
Having addressed the great commandment as the first, Jesus went beyond the question of the great commandment, and followed through with an insight that he hoped his hearers would consider, grasp and embrace.
 
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”[7]
 
And in case some would think that after the second would come the third and so forth, Jesus ended his discourse with this summation: ““On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
 
Note the recorded verb ‘hang’ (κρέμανται –kremantai), with its meaning of ‘be suspended from’[8]. The picture in my mind is one of two beams of wood joined together (the two commandments) with two pots (the law pot and the prophets pot) being suspended from them.
 
The beams are above the pots. The purpose of the two commandments was to direct the people into the path of love and loving God and each other, such being above all the Law and the Prophets (prophetic utterances).
 
These two great commandments were but preparatory tools introducing, guiding, teaching and constraining Israel to learn to love God and each other within the law, to love under the law. Lest we forget, when these commandments and the Law were given, Israel had just come out of Egypt, having been a nation of slaves for more than a couple of centuries.[9] Yet, slavery into freedom into a covenantal relationship took only a few months[10].
 
As such, Israel needed to be guided, like a child, through this paradigm shift towards being a special treasure to God above all peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation[11]. Hence the Law and the Prophets were given to Israel.
 
Nevertheless, being commandments, love and loving were obligations that had to be fulfilled. Nothing could change the fact and reality that, in the first, Israel had to love, rather than having chosen freely and willingly to love. Even if at a later stage, Israel chose to love, willingly and freely, from the first, having been commanded to love, Israel cannot but love. Israel under the two commandments had a duty to love and loving. Does it mean that not loving, even for the briefest moment, Israel sins?
 
In respect of the second command, the perimeters of love and loving were relative and easily defined; how you would respond and treat yourself in love in any given moment.
 
Expressing love and loving in the first and great commandment is the enigma.
 
Is love and loving expressed and found in the strict observance of every letter of the Law, including keeping exacting standards of measurement, weight, colour, material, placement and burnt offerings and sacrifices?
What does loving with all or the whole of your heart mean?
What does loving with all or the whole of your soul mean?
What does loving with all or the whole of your mind mean?
What does loving with all or the whole of your might mean?
 
Only by loving, in the moment, with all and the whole of heart, soul, mind and might would one fulfil the great commandment. Does it mean then, that not being able to love with the whole of any one of them, in any moment, would already mean failure to fulfil the great commandment, in that moment? Does failure then mean sinning?
Could this have been in the mind of Paul the Apostle, a former Pharisee when he wrote: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.[12]
 
Is there a way out of this most onerous commandment?
 
I believe so.


[1] Sadducee, Hebrew Tzedoq, plural Tzedoqim, member of a Jewish priestly sect that flourished for about two centuries before the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in AD 70. Not much is known with certainty of the Sadducees’ origin and early history, but their name may be derived from that of Zadok, who was high priest in the time of kings David and Solomon. Ezekiel later selected this family as worthy of being entrusted with control of the Temple, and Zadokites formed the Temple hierarchy down to the 2nd century BC.
The Sadducees were the party of high priests, aristocratic families, and merchants—the wealthier elements of the population. They came under the influence of Hellenism, tended to have good relations with the Roman rulers of Palestine, and generally represented the conservative view within Judaism. While their rivals, the Pharisees, claimed the authority of piety and learning, the Sadducees claimed that of birth and social and economic position. During the long period of the two parties’ struggle—which lasted until the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD—the Sadducees dominated the Temple and its priesthood.
The Sadducees and Pharisees were in constant conflict with each other, not only over numerous details of ritual and the Law but most importantly over the content and extent of God’s revelation to the Jewish people. The Sadducees refused to go beyond the written Torah (first five books of the Bible) and thus, unlike the Pharisees, denied the immortality of the soul, bodily resurrection after death, and the existence of angelic spirits. For the Sadducees, the Oral Law—i.e., the vast body of post-biblical Jewish legal traditions—meant next to nothing. By contrast, the Pharisees revered the Torah but further claimed that oral tradition was part and parcel of Mosaic Law. Because of their strict adherence to the Written Law, the Sadducees acted severely in cases involving the death penalty, and they interpreted literally the Mosaic principle of lex talionis (“an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”).
Though the Sadducees were conservative in religious matters, their wealth, their haughty bearing, and their willingness to compromise with the Roman rulers aroused the hatred of the common people. As defenders of the status quo, the Sadducees viewed the ministry of Jesus with considerable alarm and apparently played some role in his trial and death. Their lives and political authority were so intimately bound up with Temple worship that after Roman legions destroyed the Temple, the Sadducees ceased to exist as a group, and mention of them quickly disappeared from history. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sadducee
The Sadducees, ……. refused to accept any precept as binding unless it was based directly on the Torah—i.e., the Written Law. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pharisee

[2] Pharisee, member of a Jewish religious party that flourished in Palestine during the latter part of the Second Temple period (515 BCE–70 CE). Their insistence on the binding force of oral tradition (“the unwritten Torah”) still remains a basic tenet of Jewish theological thought. When the Mishna (the first constituent part of the Talmud) was compiled about 200 CE, it incorporated the teachings of the Pharisees on Jewish law…The Pharisees (Hebrew: Perushim) emerged as a distinct group shortly after the Maccabean revolt, about 165–160 BCE; they were, it is generally believed, spiritual descendants of the Hasideans. The Pharisees emerged as a party of laymen and scribes in contradistinction to the Sadducees—i.e., the party of the high priesthood that had traditionally provided the sole leadership of the Jewish people. The basic difference that led to the split between the Pharisees and the Sadducees lay in their respective attitudes toward the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and the problem of finding in it answers to questions and bases for decisions about contemporary legal and religious matters arising under circumstances far different from those of the time of Moses.
The Pharisees,….. believed that the Law that God gave to Moses was twofold, consisting of the Written Law and the Oral Law—i.e., the teachings of the prophets and the oral traditions of the Jewish people. Whereas the priestly Sadducees taught that the written Torah was the only source of revelation, the Pharisees admitted the principle of evolution in the Law: men must use their reason in interpreting the Torah and applying it to contemporary problems.
Rather than blindly follow the letter of the Law even if it conflicted with reason or conscience, the Pharisees harmonized the teachings of the Torah with their own ideas or found their own ideas suggested or implied in it. They interpreted the Law according to its spirit. When in the course of time a law had been outgrown or superseded by changing conditions, they gave it a new and more-acceptable meaning, seeking scriptural support for their actions through a ramified system of hermeneutics. It was due to this progressive tendency of the Pharisees that their interpretation of the Torah continued to develop and has remained a living force in Judaism.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pharisee

[3] Revised Standard Version

[4] Compare Deutoronomy 6:5 “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
1. The Hebrew (Masoretic Text) version of Deuteronomy 6:5 states: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (מְאֹד-m@`od  - might, force, muchness and abundance [See Strong’s H3966]).”
2. The Greek Septuagint (by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton based on the Vaticanus) records Deuteronomy 6:5 as: “Love the Lord your God with all your mind(ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου) and with all your soul and with all your strength(δυνάμεώς).” Elpenor’s and other versions have the words with all your heart(ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας), with all your soul and with all your might(δυνάμεώς).”
3. No recorded version in and of the Old Testament has verbatim the words: “all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
4. In Mark’s gospel (Mk 12:30), it was recorded that the question asked by the teacher of the law was: “ Which commandment is the first of all?”
Jesus’ reply “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength(ἰσχύος)”, has echoes and elements of Deuteronomy 6:5 but still not in verbatim.
5. In both the recorded replies of Jesus to which is the first and greatest commandment, it seems Jesus took partial elements from both the Hebrew and Brenton’s Greek versions of Deuteronomy 6:5. Or, is there another Text of the Old Testament that was in existence as Jesus would have probably answered in Hebrew – cf Luke10:25-28 (Even the lawyer’s question and answer (probably in Hebrew) Luke 10:25-28, affirmed by Jesus, has no verbatim equivalent in the Old Testament, and contains elements from both the Hebrew and Brenton’s Greek versions of Deuteronomy 6:5. Is this pointing again to another Hebrew Text that was being used?)

[5] Matthew 22:37,38  Revised Standard Version

[6] The Shema is one of only two prayers that are specifically commanded in Torah (the other is Birkat Ha-Mazon -- grace after meals). It is the oldest fixed daily prayer in Judaism, recited morning and night since ancient times. It consists of three biblical passages, two of which specifically say to speak of these things "when you lie down and when you rise up." www.jewfaq.org/shemaref.html.
In its entirety, the Shema consists of three paragraphs: Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 11:13–21 and Numbers 15:37–41.

[7] Matthew 22:39 New International Version. Leviticus 19:18 “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Revised Standard Version.

[8] Oxford Dictionary

[9] Take a look at “How Long Were the Israelites in Egypt? by David Wright on July 5, 2010 https://answersingenesis.org”

[10] Exodus 12:6,  Exodus 19:1,2

[11] Exodus 19:5,6

[12] Romans 3:23 New International Version