The Pharisees

    A party bearing the name of Pharisee is first mentioned during the reign of John Hyrcanus (134-104 B.C.), and it is evident that even then there was an antagonism between the "orthodox" Pharisee and the more open-minded Sadducee. The word Pharisee means "separated one", and the name probably meant, in the first instance, one who had separated himself from the corrupting influence of Hellenism in his zeal for the Biblical Law. Josephus says that the Pharisees "appear more religious than others, and seem to interpret the laws more accurately."
    Pharisees were punctilious in observing the laws regarding ceremonial purity. For this reason they could not purchase items of food or drink from a "sinner" for fear of ceremonial defilement. Nor could a Pharisee eat in the house of a sinner, although he might entertain the sinner in his own home. Under such circumstances the Pharisee would provide the sinner clothes to wear, for the sinner's clothes might be ceremonially impure.
    With a sincere desire to make the Law workable within the changing culture of the Greco-Roman world, the Pharisees developed systems of tradition which sought to apply the Law to a variety of circumstances. During the first century before MESSIYAH two influential Pharisaic teachers gave their names to two schools of legal thought. Hillel was the more moderate of the two, ever considerate of the poor and willing to accept Roman rule as compatible with Jewish orthodoxy. Shammai, on the other hand , was more strict in his interpretation and bitterly opposed to Rome. His viewpoint ultimately found expression in the sect of Zealots whose resistance to the Romans brought on the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Talmud preserves the record of the three hundred sixteen controversies between the schools of Hillel and Shammai.
    Tradition, in Pharisaic thought, began as a commentary on the Law but it was ultimately raised to the level of Law itself. To justify this teaching it was maintained that the "oral law" was given by YAHWEH to Moshe-(Moses) on Mount Sinai along with the "written law" or Torah (Parker Aboth, 1.1). The ultimate in this development is reached when the Misbna states that oral law must be observed with greater stringency than written law, because statutory law (i.e., oral tradition) affects the life of the ordinary man more intimately than the more remote constitutional law (the written Torah) (M. Sanhedrin, 10.3)
    In addition to the charge that Pharisaism involved little more than a concern for the minutia of the Law, the New Covenant affirms that tradition had largely neglected the real intent of the Law MattitYahu-(Matthew) 15:3). As in many worthy movements, the early piety of those who had separated themselves from impurity at great cost, was exchanged for an attitude of pride in the observance of legal precepts.
    Men such as Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Gamaliel, and Saul of Tarsus represent some of the nobler souls from the Pharisaic tradition in the New Covenant. To Saul, later Sha'ul-(Paul) the apostle, the Pharisee represented the epitome of orthodoxy, " the most straitest sect of our religion" (Acts 26:5). Pharisaism began well, and its perversion is a constant reminder that self-complacency and spiritual pride are temptations to which the pious are particularly susceptible.

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A Concise Scriptural history Malachi to Messiah  Malachi to Matthew  Persian Period  Alexander The Great  The Ptolemies  Syrian Seleucids  Maccabee  Hasmonaeans  Romans  The Pharisees  Sadducees  Essenes  Zealots  YAHWEH's Remnant  Scripture History Through the Ages