Ancient Judaism was very diverse and in the 1st century AD it was split into various currents, the most important of which included:

• The Samaritans were made up of the Israelites who stayed after the fall of the Northern kingdom in the 8th century BCE, and the populations that had settled after the Assyrian conquerors. In their view, the Pentateuch was the definitive text since they did not recognize the other biblical books and the Oral Law. They had their own sanctuary, located in Mount Garizim, in the biblical city of Schehem (a few kilometres from Nablus)
• The Sadducees were the true aristocracy among the Judeans for whom the Temple of Jerusalem and worship were the essential elements of Jewish practice. Described as particularly attached to traditional practices and the respect of the written law, they did not value the Oral Law. They were very attached to the Temple and they disappeared after its destruction.
• The Essenes are known from several ancient authors, but also from recent discoveries, especially those in the caves of Qumran in the middle of the 20th century. The Essenes created a very hierarchical Jewish sect and lived a monastic life in various places in Eretz Israel (land of Israel). They were a very strict community and prescribed the common sharing of property and income, chastity and physical purity, but also the strict respect of Halakha rules. They were against any practices of animal sacrifices in the Temple of Jerusalem.
• Finally, the Pharisees, as spiritual leaders of the Jews, considered themselves to be the defenders of Esdra and Nehemia, who, according to the tradition, were the creators of a Judaism based on the Torah. They prescribed the double authority of the written and oral tradition. They were also very attached to a rigid practice of religious prescriptions and advocated belief in eternal life, the resurrection, and the future coming of a messiah. It is essentially on this group of Pharisees that most currents of Judaism were founded in the next few centuries.

The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem was a major theological and liturgical challenge for Judaism. Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai was a great Rabbinic figure that, according to the tradition, was responsible for the revival of Judaism. In the absence of a sanctuary, daily sacrifices could no longer be made and were replaced by daily prayers in the direction of Jerusalem. The seventh day of the week, the Shabbat, was entirely dedicated to rest, prayer and the family. Major holidays were based on stories from the Bible or the history of the Jewish people through the centuries. While Jewish worship and liturgy were dominated by the idea of Jerusalem and its Temple, the biblical text became essential in the practice of Judaism and a symbolic alternative of the land.
In 132 AD, a second revolt erupted in Jerusalem, led by Simon Bar Kosiba, also known as Bar Kokhba. It was a revolt connected to emperor Hadrian’s wish to transform Jerusalem (renamed Aelia Capitolina) into a Roman city and erect a pagan sanctuary in lieu of the Hebrew Temple. The Jewish resistance provoked the wrath of the Roman leader who, as retaliation, prevented the Jews from living in Jerusalem and removed the name Judah, calling it Palestina instead. For the first Christians, these successive defeats seemed like a sign from God that he had abandoned his people, so they supported the idea of following the path of a “new Israel”, the Christian religion.
After the destruction of the Temple, Rabbinic Judaism succeeded Pharisean Judaism and became the norm. Centres for the study of Judaism flourished, a phenomenon that had a significant impact on the history and future of the Jewish religion and on the communities that practiced it. Rabbis, who were above all scholars, had to recreate a Judaism that was in a state of turmoil and ended up focusing exclusively on prayer and study.
Even though the biblical text was progressively set and canonized, the written law was interpreted and completed by oral teachings aiming to unify the practice. In the century after the destruction of the Temple, the oral tradition was progressively written down in important centres, including Yavneh or Bnei Brak. During the 3rd century, a set of laws from the oral tradition was written to later form the Mishna. Later, between 200 and 500 AD, the non-legal part of this oral tradition (the Aggadah) was transcribed again. The collection of all these texts, to which the Gemara (a commentary developed from the Mishna) was added between the 3rd and 5th centuries, became the Talmud. It holds an important place in the study of Judaism and in the daily life of the Jewish communities. These texts allowed the consolidation of practices in Judaism despite the dispersion of the Jewish communities. The life of every pious Jew is regulated by the Halakha, a legal system made up of religious laws, judgements and commandments (the mitsvot). Even though they have been dispersed, Jews continue to consider themselves a unique people with the vested mission of making God known to other nations and prepare the world for universal redemption. During this period, the universalist tendencies of Judaism were weakened with assemblies of scholars putting greater emphasis on the elective nature of Jewish affiliation.
The first scholars in Eretz Israel (land of Israel) and in Babylon, and their successors, were the creators of a wealth of Rabbinic texts, which changed through the centuries and became a fundamental element of Jewish culture.