And Josephus says in Ant. 18.1.6. "But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the Galilean was the author. These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions..."Judas is not a doctor with nothing in common with the others, but someone close to the Pharisees, to the school Josephus considered the most influential. The movement Judas founded is similar to that of the Pharisees...
https://books.google.com/books?id=jIpVP ... ee&f=false
The big difference was that the Fourth Philosophy was more militant and unwilling to compromise with foreign rule, and the DSS exhibit a similar point of view. This difference is arguably an element in the term "seekers of smooth things" in the DSS, which many see as a reference to the Pharisees and their Oral Law (halakot) and, as VanderKam notes:
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/2514.htm..."smooth things" regularly has a negative connotation when it is connected to words and speaking. The term occurs in Prov 26:28 where it is a parallel of a lying tongue ("A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin"), and Dan 11:32 attributes it to the enemy king who flatters with smooth words ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=i2i5h ... ls&f=false
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/proverbs/26-28.htm
This type of "flattery" was typical of Pharisees, who generally supported the Herodians (e.g., M. Sot. 7:8: http://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sotah.7.8?lang=en) and the Roman occupation (e.g., Vespasian being proclaimed Messiah by Josephus and by Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, the founder of post-70 CE Rabbinic Judaism. https://books.google.com/books?id=Cr4eA ... ai&f=false).
Paul too is presented as being friendly with the Herodians Agrippa and Berenice in Acts and he mentions being associated with "those in the household of Caesar" in Php. 4:22 and possibly Herodians as well, as Stowers, for example, notes here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=HBLvN ... us&f=false
And the Damascus Document associates the Scoffer/Spouter of Lies with these "smooth things" too and also says that "a follower of the wind [ruach, or "spirit"], one who raised storms and rained down lies, had preached to" what are called "the kings of the peoples" and those who were regarded as polluting the Temple for marrying their nieces, a practice that was common with Herodians (as noted here, for example).
https://books.google.com/books?id=GvWG0 ... ge&f=false
This is similar to what is said of Paul in Acts 26:28: "Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?"