[The Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes were as close to sovereign power as any non-Roman could get in the Roman Empire.

Their sovereign^infra focused on “knowing how to fulfill the letter of the covenant”, thus generating two (vertical intersecting) nested forms headed by think^law-filled₃ and think^unlawful₃.

The normal context of think^unlawful₃ was projected onto almost everyone who was not a member or a supporter.  Political resistance was interpreted as disobedience to the Laws of Moses.  Political resistors were tagged as holding “unlawful views”; that is, think^unlawful₃; and having a “bad conscience”; that is, a conscience^unlawful₁.

The accusers, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, could not be accused.  They were “golden calves” in contrast to the “scapegoated” prophets.  Sovereign power was used by the Pharisees to close the language, so that everything could be defined as either “lawful” or “unlawful”.  As soon as any debate was phrased in the language of the Pharisees, the debate was over.

The prophets had to step out of the established framework.  They had to withdraw.  They went into the desert.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus went into the desert.  John baptized in the wilderness.  Jesus taught in parables.  Both stepped out of the totalizing paradigm of the sovereign^infra religion of the Second Temple.]