The Sadducees (Zadokim), so called after Zadok their master, as is known, stood rigidly by the original Mosaic code, and set themselves determinedly against all traditional developments. To the Talmudists, therefore, they were especially obnoxious, and their bald, cold creed is looked upon by them with something like horror. It is thus the Talmud warns against them — " Believe not in thyself till the day of thy death, for, behold, Yochanan, after officiating in the High Priesthood for eighty years, became in the end a Sadducee.* (Berachoth, fol. 29, col. 1.) In Derech Eretz Zuta, chap, i., a caution is given which might well provoke attention — " Learn or inquire nothing of the Sadducees, lest thou be drawn into hell.*