Sect

"Sect" (Greek hairesis, from which "heresy" derives) denoted in the first century a school of thought, party, or philosophical faction united by shared doctrine or practice. In Acts, the term is used without necessary negative connotation to describe the Pharisees (Acts 15:5; 26:5) and the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), as well as the followers of Jesus, whom opponents called "the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5) and simply "this sect" (Acts 28:22). Felix had "a rather accurate knowledge of the Way" — another name for the movement (Acts 24:22). Paul himself acknowledged belonging to "the strictest sect" of Judaism, the Pharisees (Acts 26:5). The word takes on its exclusively negative sense ("heresy") in the Epistles, where it denotes divisive factions in the church (1 Cor. 11:19; Gal. 5:20; 2 Pet. 2:1).