According to the Essenes there were three types of Jewish doctrine at the time of Jesus.
Sadducees which say the government is the ultimate authority, just do what you are told.
Pharisees which say that they are the ultimate authority, the Bible is too complicated for the common man, so you need us to tell you what it says.
and
The Essenes which were quite similar to Evangelical Christians today.
It seems to me we have these three kinds of "Christians" on this forum.
A couple of other points, the Sadducees didn't want to talk to anyone who didn't agree with them, so in that case they were similar to what we call "leftists". MSNBC and NPR would be prime examples.
The Pharisees were open to all Jews, but not to Gentiles, and they believed the Messiah was a man who was going to lead a revolt, take power from the Romans and give it to them. To me you could easily be in the MAGA movement chanting FJB and be a Pharisee.
The Essenes view of Messiah was that He was the Son of God. They were not interested in talking about overthrowing the Roman government, but if you wanted to talk about the Messiah that they would do.
Again, I think this is relevant because I think we have these three mindsets on this forum, particularly on this thread. Though it has turned into a debate between Sadducees and Pharisees.