Floyd Parker, «The Terms "Angel" and "Spirit" in Acts 23,8», Vol. 84 (2003) 344-365
In any discussion of the Sadducees, there will always remain a certain amount of doubt due to the paucity of sources about them. Based on what data has survived, the older theory that the Sadducees rejected the extravagant beliefs about angels and spirits provides the most convincing solution to the problem of Acts 23,8. The Sadducees’ reasons for rejecting these views were twofold: 1) angels were integrated into the apocalyptic world view that they rejected; and 2) angels often served as God’s servants to administer predestination or providence. Thus, when Paul claimed that a heavenly being had appeared to him in a manner and with a message that appeared to be predestinarian in nature, the Sadducees were unwilling to entertain the idea that an angel or spirit had appeared to him. Certainly new theories will arise in an attempt to grapple with this issue, but to re-appropriate the words of Jesus in Luke 5,39, "the old is good enough".
Before passing on to the evaluation of the next theory, the fourth point mentioned above requires an additional comment. There is only one instance in which a Sadducee seems to deny the existence of angels (San 38b). In this passage, an unnamed Sadducee interrogating R. Idith concerning his views of the angel Metatron, asks whether Metatron or God was the speaker in Exod 24,1. The Sadducee contended that the speaker was God, not Metatron, for otherwise one would end up praying to an angel. This debate seems to have arisen because some Jews believed that Metatron was the "angel of the Lord" (Exod 23,20-23), of whom God said, "my name is in him" (Exod 23,21). Some Jews prayed to Metatron14, while others regarded him as "the lesser YHWH" (3 Enoch 12,5). The heretic Acher may have gone so far as to identify him with God (Hag 15a)15. This encounter between the Sadducee and R. Idith seems to be an isolated case and too much should not be made of it. Such a reaction to excessive veneration of a specific angel on the part of one Sadducee does not imply a rejection of the existence of the entire angelic world by all Sadducees. Moreover, the concerned Sadducee does not deny the existence of angels, but merely argues that one should not pray to them. In this view the Sadducee is not alone. Indeed several talmudic texts also discourage the cult of angels and prayer to them16.
2. Sadducean Rejection of Angelic Speculation
The claim that Sadducees rejected excessive speculation about angels and spirits, attested among many other Jews of that time, is more difficult to analyze. Several plausible reasons have been proposed in order to account for why the Sadducees might have rejected these views: 1) they may have been generally resistant to change. As Saldarini points out, the dominant class in a society tends to be conservative17. This is certainly true of the Sadducees, who were part of the governing class, for they resisted the new customs (e.g., oral Torah) and new beliefs about the afterlife (e.g., resurrection) introduced by the Pharisees18. Perhaps this conservative spirit also led to disdain for the fascination of many Jews in the names, roles, and nature of