Jewish sects and parties
From both the New Testament and extrabiblical material the main religious groups or parties in Palestinian Judaism may be discerned. Such descriptions, however, may be somewhat biassed or apologetic. Philo, an Alexandrian Jewish philosopher (died c. ad 40), Josephus, a Jewish apologist to the Romans (died c. 100), and sectarian writings found at Qumrān near the Dead Sea in 1947 that date back to about c. 200 bc and end about ad 70 all provide data about the respective Jewish religious groups in Palestine in the 1st century bc and the 1st century ad. The Pharisees (typically Jesus’ opponents, although his ideas may have been close to their own), the Sadducees, and the Zealots are mentioned in the New Testament. The Essenes were described by Philo and Josephus, but new evidence from their own writings makes their group better understood (i.e., the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumrān).