Sadducees = "the righteous"<OL TYPE="1"><LI>a religious party at the time of Christ among the Jews, who denied that the oral law was a revelation of God to the Israelites, and who deemed the written law alone to be obligatory on the nation, as the divine authority. They denied the following doctrines:<OL TYPE="a"><LI>resurrection of the body<LI>immortality of the soul<LI>existence of spirits and angels<LI>divine predestination, affirmed free will</OL></OL>