READING ACTS:
Fourth Maccabees and the Fourth Philosophy.
It is possible the book of 4 Maccabees represents the “fourth philosophy” mentioned by Josephus as a subgroup of Judaism in competition with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. It has been thought that this “fourth philosophy” referred to the Zealots, but this has been challenged by Richard Horsley in his work on first century messianic movements.
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Past posts in Phil Long's series on the Second Temple Period are noted
here and links.