When Jesus was born what were the three main religious groups?

Answer 1

By far the most important religious groups were the Sadducees and the Pharisees, followed by the Zealots and the Essenes. The Idumeans formed an ethnic underclass because their recent ancestors had been forcibly converted to Judaism and they were therefore not considered to be real Jews; however they played an important part in the Jewish Civil War.

Answer 2

There were a large number of Jewish groups that existed in Ancient Judea 2000 years ago, but the most famous of them are the Zadokites / Sadducees / Tzadokim (צדוקים), the Pharisees / Perushim (פרושים), and the Essenes / Issiyim (אסיים).

Further information:

The Jewish group that concentrated on the study, teaching and application of the Torah in every century was and is the Torah-sages and their many disciples, from Abraham down to today.

The word "Pharisees," which is based on a Greek misspelling used by Josephus, might not convey the meaning which it should. It actually refers to the Sages of the Talmud. (The Hebrew word "p'rushim," to which he referred, means people of temperance; the opposite of epicurean.)

Josephus talks of three groups among the Jews in late Second-Temple times: Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. This may convey the mistaken impression that the Pharisees were just one "sect" among others, when in fact Josephus himself admits that the Pharisees (Torah-sages) with their disciples constituted the large majority of the Jewish people.

Although the Christian Testament portrays them poorly, in fact the Pharisees were very egalitarian. They believed that all men were created in God's image and that all had the same rights, and the same right to an education, etc. They were devoted to the practicing of kindness, the fulfillment of mitzvot, the study and teaching of Torah and the education of all people, regardless of status in society. They detested hypocrisy and actively sought it out and criticized it whenever they encountered it. The Pharisees were the only movement to survive the destruction of the Second Temple and were the ancestors of modern Judaism.

Our traditional Jewish beliefs today, including the afterlife and the resurrection, are traditions continuing from the Prophets and the Sages of the Talmud ("Pharisees").

The Sadducees were men of politics and secular life. They had abandoned various parts of Judaism; and they claimed no earlier source (tradition) for their attitudes. They harassed the Torah-sages; and, like the tiny breakaway group called the Essenes, disappeared at the time of the Second Destruction, just as the earlier Jewish idolaters had disappeared at the time of the First Destruction.

Note that there is a common conception that the Sadducees, like the later (and now largely defunct) Karaites, made a deliberate decision to reject the Oral Law and reinterpret the Scriptures.

However, a careful perusal of the Talmud reveals that the Sadducees were actually opportunists who had nothing much at all to do with religion in any fashion. They were lax in Judaism; they were men of politics who weren't interested in Torah-matters.

The group that did (on rare occasions) argue with the Torah-Sages concerning subjects of religious observance, were a tiny sect called the Baitusim (Boethusians), who quickly died out.

Answer 3

There were lots of Jews in the immediate vicinity, there were believers in the Pantheon of traditional Greek and Roman religion, and there was Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persian empire.

Or did you mean, what were the three main religious groups within the Jewish world of Jesus' time? In that case, I suspect you want to think about these groups:

Pharisees -- a populist and pietistic group that tried to get on with life ignoring the Roman occupiers

Saducees -- collaborated with the Roman Occupiers in order to maintain their privileges

Zealots -- rebels against Roman rule intent on restoring an independent Jewish kingdom

Answer 4

Short answer: Saducees, Pharisees, Zealots and Essenes.

The Saducees (Zadokites) were the party of the priests; they would do almost anything to preserve the sacrificial ritual at the Temple, including allow Rome to veto candidates for High Priest, and they tolerated considerable Hellenization among the Jews so long as the Jews continued to deliver their tithes and sacrifical offerings to the Temple. The foundations of the Saducees version of Judaism were destroyed when Rome destroyed the Temple.

The Pharisees were the party of the rabbis. They opposed Hellenization and encouraged study of Jewish scriptures in the synagogues, focusing on the laws of the Torah that were applicable in daily life as much as the Temple-centered laws. Study, to the Pharisees, involved vigorous debate that sometimes crossed the line into incivility. The Pharisees survived the destruction of the Temple and gave birth to modern Rabbinic Judaism.

The Zealots advocated rebellion and launched several revolts. The Great Revolt (launched in 68, crushed in 72) led Rome to destroy the Temple in the year 70. In general, the Zealots were always on the lookout for a Messiah who would lead them in armed uprising against Rome.

The Essenes rejected the legitimacy of the Saducees and their priestly leadership, withdrawing into the desert until such time as God would send his messiahs (2 of them) to clear out both Rome and the illegitimate priesthood.