The NIV Study Bible entry on the Intertestimental Period helped me formulate the table below.

Party Name	Sadducees	Pharisees	Essenes
Centered In	Temple	Synagogue	Wilderness
Writing Focus	Torah Only	“Law”	Dead Sea Scrolls
Power Base	Greek Gov’t.	Common People	Outcasts
Mindset	Nation/State	Diaspora	Separate
Description	Ruling Class, including the High Priest, corruptly dependent on Greek Rule, and jealous of Christ’s popularity	Became the Rabbis. Built a “wall” around the Law to protect the people in Diaspora state. Some integration with the world	Called out of the world, little formal influence, might have included John the Baptist and Lehi, and the Savior
Likening to Today	High Priest like today’s Prophet or locally like the temple president, yet dependent upon government authority for position	The diaspora mindset makes them like the Stakes of the current church, scattered, and having to integrate with gentiles in some ways simply to survive and to spread the truth	Rejecting the temple as corrupt, and the integration with society as polluting, they separate themselves and attempt to work completely out of the system frameworks, like some apostate groups today

]]>