and services, and those who emphasized the importance of other Mosaic Laws. A fourth point of conflict, specifically religious, involved different interpretations of the Torah and how to apply it to current Jewish life, with Sadducees recognizing only the Written Torah (with Greek philosophy) and rejecting doctrines such as the Oral Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and the resurrection of the dead. According to Josephus, the Sadducees differed from the Pharisees on a number of doctrinal grounds, notably rejecting ideas of life after death. They appear to have dominated the aristocracy and the temple, but their influence over the wider Jewish population was limited. The Essenes preached a reclusive way of life. The Zealots advocated armed rebellion against any foreign power such as Rome. All were at violent loggerheads with each other, leading to the confusion and disunity that ended with the destruction of the Second Temple and the sacking of Jerusalem by Rome. Split of early Christianity and Judaism The first Christians (whom historians refer to as Jewish Christians) were the original Jewish followers of Jesus, a Galilean preacher and, according to early Christian belief, the resurrected messiah. After his crucifixion by the Romans, his followers broke over whether they should continue to observe Jewish law, such as at the Council of Jerusalem. Those who argued that the law was abrogated (either partially or fully, either by Jesus or Paul or by the Roman destruction of the Temple) broke to form Christianity. The eventual repudiation of Moses' Law by Jesus' disciples and their belief in his divinity, along with the development of the New Testament, ensured that Christianity and Judaism would become different and often conflicting religions. The New Testament depicts the Sadducees and Pharisees as Jesus' opponents (see Woes of the Pharisees), whereas the Jewish perspective has the Pharisees as the justified predecessors of the rabbis who upheld the Torah including the Oral law, which Christians refer to as the Mosaic Law or Pentateuch or "Old Covenant" in contrast to the "New Covenant". Karaite Judaism Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole source of binding Jewish Law. Karaites rejected the rabbinic tenet that an Oral Torah (oral law) was transmitted to Moses at Mount Sinai along with the written scriptures. Accordingly, they rejected the central works of Rabbinic Judaism which claimed to expound and interpret this written law, including the