According to Abarim Publications which focuses on complexities of Biblical Scriptures:

“In the New Testament, the Sadducees are proverbially juxtaposed with the Pharisees as the two main Judaic systems of national government (which in turn was manifested in the monarchy, or what was left of it, the Sanhedrin and the Temple complex). The Sadducaic school of thought dominated the government during the Hasmonean era, but lost its position to the competing Pharisaic take on things mere years before the Roman invasion of 63 BC….

The New Testament rules that both the Sadducees and the Pharisees had deviated from the revealed Truth, but in their own distinctive way: the Pharisees by inflating legislation until it became an unbearable load (Matthew 23; and this in turn as an offshoot of the ‘explainers’ instated by Ezra the Reformer — Nehemiah 8:7-8), and the Sadducees by deflating it into barely anything to follow or believe in. In perhaps a too fluidic shorthand it may be suggested that the Pharisees leaned most towards Israel’s Persian legacy (from whence came the Second Temple; 2 Chronicles 36:23, Ezra 6:1-3), whereas the Sadducees embraced Greek's novel hedonism of pleasure and (near) atheism.”

...recall that some scholars view the word Pharisee as a derivative of "Persian" (Parsi / Farsi)… it’s the Pharisees who adopted many of Iranian Zoroastrian views… the Rabbinic traditions are based on Pharisee teachings… 

[pic Sydney Bond @Bible Study: for educational purposes only]