Biblical Literature, 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 Qumran near the Dead Sea in 1947 that date