A group of Jewish scholars that championed an approach to Scripture and to Judaism that came to bear their name (that is, rabbinic Judaism; see also midrash). The Rabbis were so known because, starting in the first century c.e., the leaders and teachers of this group were addressed and spoken of as “Rabbi” (that is, “my teacher,” “my master”). A conventional distinction separates the Rabbis of antiquity into two chronological groups: those before 200 c.e. (see Mishnah) are called tanna’im and those after 200 E. are called ‘amora’im. But as a school of exegetes and practitioners, the Rabbis are probably older than the use of their distinctive title might indicate: scholars of similar tendencies are known to us earlier as the “sages,” “elders,” soferim (“scribes”), and Pharisees (possibly: “specifiers,” “explainers”). The Pharisees are mentioned often in the Christian Bible, the writings of Josephus, the Mishnah, and elsewhere, but they are frequently presented as merely one of several rival Jewish groups that existed in Second Temple times. These groups disagreed on a number of fundamental issues; prominent among them was the matter of how and on what basis to interpret, extend, and apply biblical laws—that is, their systems of halakhah. It is clear that the Pharisees’ halakhah was markedly different from that of another group, the Sadducees. Their two systems of halakhah had deep roots, perhaps going back early in the Second Temple period. There is some indication that the Dead Sea Scrolls community basically followed the halakhah of the Sadducees, though they themselves seem to be connected (on the basis of other accounts in ancient writings) with yet a third group, the Essenes, a strict, somewhat ascetic Jewish sect that flourished during the same period.