Found at this site remarks about the Pharisee and the Sadducee:
The mark of the Pharisee - the ritualist - is that he is always ADDING TO. He is not content with the written Word of God, and with the plain truth of the Gospel. He must start adding his own ideas and ordinances, until religion and salvation are a highly complicated matter.
The mark of the Sadducee - the rationalist - is that he is always TAKING FROM. He cannot accept the written Word of God in its entirety, nor the truth of the Gospel as it stands without drastic deletions. Everything must be tried at the bar of human reason. This, that, and the other thing must be cut out to make faith reasonable and tenable.
The mark of the Herodian - the secularist - he cared neither for adding to nor taking away from. Like the careless Gallio, he "cared for none of these things." The written Word of God, the message of the Gospel were far from his first concern. His prime consideration was the life that now is. What does it matter that a heathen Herod reigns on a throne made crimson with crime so long as material interests are furthered? While the ritualist Pharisee was busy adding to, and the rationalist Sadducee was skeptically taking away from, the secularist Herodian was heedlessly passing by.
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