result, the powerful messianic expectation that pervaded the teaching of the Pharisees was almost completely missing from the Sadducees’ worldview. The two groups also held conflicting opinions regarding how ceremonial customs should be observed. Both Sadducees and Pharisees tended to give more attention to ceremonial law than they did to the law’s moral ramifications. But the Pharisees generally made ceremonies as elaborate as possible, and Sadducees tended toward the opposite direction. In general,