The Pharisees and the Afterlife

According to Josephus, the Pharisees were a group who believed in some common Hellenistic doctrines. They held that there was an oral Torah which was on an equal footing with the written text of scriptures. The Sadducees were sort of a minority ruling clique with their thumbs on the levers of power in Judea. Then we have the Essenes who were super righteous Jews who went off to live in separate communities.