Jack,
Probably the best place to get a feel for 1st century CE Judaism (for "common/Christian era" or more commonly "AD" = Anno Domini = "year of the Lord") in English, short of wading through William Whiston's 1737 translations of Josephus'
Jewish War (7 rolls, pub. ca. 75 CE) and
Jewish Antiquities (20 rolls, pub. ca. 95 CE), is to read the English translation of the First Division, volume 1, of Emil Schürer's
A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ (five volumes total, 1885-1891). This introductory volume, covering roughly 175 BCE to 135 CE, but which is now rather dated, can be downloaded from the Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/historyofjewishp18910101sch
There is a more recent edition, based on a later German edition than the above, but harder to lay hands on (and not free on the internet),
The History of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ, where you would want volume 1 (1973, ISBN 0567022420).
As for Jewish factions such as Zealots, there is much confusion, due to modern authors' rather loose application of that term to factions active in periods before the Jewish war of 66-70 CE, when Josephus introduces it as the name of a faction in that war. S. G. F. Brandon, in his book
Jesus and the Zealots (1967), connects the "Zealots" of Josephus'
War with all Jewish resistance movements active from Herod's time and even before as the leaders of them (going back to Judah the Maccabee who gained Judaea's independence from Syria around 164 BCE) were often described as "Zealous" for the Law.
Cecil Roth, in
The Dead Sea Scrolls; a new historical approach (1965), while attempting (incorrectly, it later turned out) to connect the key figures mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls to 1st century Jewish politics, also engaged in this kind of conflation, although he did provide strong evidence that there may be a dynastic relationship between a well-known rebel mentioned in the revolt at the time of Herod the Great's death and a later rebel active decades later, just before the Jewish war. You can pick up a copy used for about US $4.00.
There is a rather interesting web page dedicated to the works of Josephus, called The Flavius Josephus
Home Page, here:
http://www.josephus.org/
Have fun, but expect to find the reading confusing and full of apparent contradictions.
DCH
jeszpt wrote:I would like to study and understand the conditions under which the Jews lived in the time after Herod's death up to Jesus' crucifixion, primarily if there were known organized parties with defined leaders that held insurrections or revolutionary activities. I.e., I know the 'Zealots' were around 66AD - 73AD, but who were the organized groups before? Can anyone suggest a historian or early writer who described these conditions?
Thanks! Jack