in the times of the Temple, there were three groups of Jews in Israel. The pharisees, from whom come modern rabbinic judaism. The sadducees, who rejected the oral traditions of rabbinic judaism relying only on the straight text of the torah and the essenes who also rejected the oral traditions but also took a very literal approach to the torah. so, for example, when it states 'lo sivaaru aish', you shall not kindle fire [on the sabbath], they took it to mean that you couldnt have fire at all and sat in the dark sabbath night.
so whatever became of them? well, most probably when it came to circumcision, they took things very literally also, so when it states 'bayom hashmini', 'on the eighth day', they took that to mean that every eight days they should take off a little more.
which led them to be a rather short-lived sect...