Was there a "correct" Jewish faith?

[Macgruber]

I’m currently studying the Old Testament. One question I can’t answer is whether Catholics today consider any of the Jewish faiths mentioned to have been correct practices/interpretations (until Christianity begins). By faiths I mean Pharisees, sadducees, Essenes, zealots, whatever else. Would we consider any of these more correct than the others?

 

[Wesrock]

Well, the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch as scripture and denied the resurrection and many other things. They can probably be seen as less correct in Christian terms. Jesus Himself appears to have actually been theologically much closer to the Pharisees, even if he was very critical of many for hypocrisy (in the scriptures). We don’t know very much on the Essenes, and I don’t know that we would say Jesus or John the Baptist were closer to them than other schools of thought, but apparently they engaged in frequent penitential baptism.

I’m wary of ranking any of them in terms of correctness, aside from my comment on the Sadducees. We don’t have a full picture of them all as they were in the first century and prior.

 

[Todd977]

Jesus seems to have endorsed the Pharisees:
Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. (Matthew 23:1-3)

On the other hand, he pointed out the erroneous teaching of the Sadducees concerning the resurrection of the dead:
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

 

[Macgruber]

Thanks for the answers. I guess if Jesus said practice and observe what the Pharisees tell you, then that answers my question.

 

[SyroMalankara]

The answer was some of each, all of none.