>>513277608
Pharisees would have been around but without much official power. The Romans were in charge, and they were close to the elite Temple class of Sadducees. Think of it like Americans occupying some ME country and working with local puppet elites. Then you’ve got some less important religious factions. Romans were calling the shots.

When the gospels were written, the Temple and the Sadducees were long gone. The Pharisees were the only Jews around, the only ones people would have heard of. Interestingly enough, Romans didn’t like Jews, because of the wars and no doubt because of the Jewish behavior we all know and love. So if you are trying to sell Rabbi Yeshua to Romans, you make Pilate nice and sympathetic to Jesus, leave the Sadducee allies mostly unmentioned, Jesus friendly to centurions and have him tell his people to pay their taxes, and turn the Pharisees into the ultimate bad guys in the story.

Reminder that early Christians were LARPing as Jews (and often were actually Jews), so their tales of persecution and sometimes miraculous escapes should be regarded with extreme skepticism— as one does for Holocoasters and homocide chambers that ran out of gas that day.
>>513212252
Literally met in secret with the corpses under the city. I’m sure they weren’t up to anything nefarious.