of the Messianic expectation, which hardly permit
us to suppose that the book was a product of our sect, however highly it
may have been esteemed by it.

The sect gives especial honor to the sons of Zadok, the ancient priesthood
of the temple in Jerusalem (Ezek. 44 15, 2 Chron. 31 10, Sirach 51 12
Heb.); they are the chosen ones of Israel, men designated by name, who
arose in the latter times (4 3); it was Zadok who brought to light the
Book of the Law which no one had seen since the death of Eleazar and
Joshua (5 5). The context of the latter passage would suggest that Zadok
the contemporary of David is meant, who after the deposition of Abiathar
became Solomon's chief priest.(72) The precedence given to the sons of
Zadok may possibly have a side reference to the illegitimate high priests
of Seleucid creation, such as Menelaus, though, if this were the
intention, we should expect it to be emphasized.

The passages quoted are the only places in the book in which the name
Zadok or the sons of Zadok appear, and they are certainly a very slender
reason for describing the body which produced the book as a "Zadokite"
sect, whatever meaning may be attached to the term. On the contrary, one
of the outstanding things in the constitution of the sect is the
predominance of the lay element. The Supervisor is a layman; laymen form
the majority in every court; the Messiah is the "Anointed from Aaron _and
Israel_." Whether the external testimony upon which Dr. Schechter relies
for justification of the name is more adequate will be considered below.

Zadok and the sons of Zadok suggest the Sadducees,(73) whose name,
according to the most probable explanation, designates them as descendants
(or followers and partisans) of Zadok. Here again it is a question whether
Zadok of David's time is meant, so that the Sadducees were the Zadokite
aristocracy of the priesthood, as most modern scholars think, or whether
the name of the Sadducee sect is derived from a heresiarch of much later
times, as the Jewish legend represents which makes Zadok, from whom the
sect descends, a recalcitrant disciple of Antigonus of Socho, about the
middle of the second century B.C., contemporary, if we rightly interpret
our texts, with the origin of the sect we are studying.

With the Sadducees, as we know them from the New Testament, Josephus, and
rabbinical sources, our sect cannot well be identified. There is, however,
a sect sometimes associated with the Sadd