The Samaritans are outside the pale of Judaism in most, though not all, respects: like the Sadducees, they refuse to recognize the validity of the Oral Law.

Like the later so-called Qumran covenanters, the monastic group with whom are associated the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritans are opposed to the Jewish priesthood and the cult of the Temple, regard Moses as a messianic figure, and forbid the revelation of esoteric doctrines to outsiders.

The break between the Sadducees and the Samaritans occurs during the conquest of Shechem by John Hyrcanus in 128, when Jewish forces destroy the temple built by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim (built in the first place because the Jews had refused to let them participate in building the Second Temple in Jerusalem).