The Life of Jesus in Harmony | Index

Pharisees

The name of the Pharisees literally means 'separated ones'. Their roots go back to the movement of 'the pious' (Hebrew Hasidim) who with the Maccabees, opposed attempts to introduce Greek elements into Jewish culture in the second century BC. Later they opposed the Maccabees when they combined secular and religious offices.

The Pharisees are first mentioned as a distinct group under the high priest Jonathan. Unlike the Essenes, who looked for a kingdom of the new age, the Pharisees were willing to make compromises in order to survive as a distinct group. For this they were branded 'hypocrites' by the Essenes. On the other hand, as the Pharisees firmly believed in the resurrection, they clashed with the Sadducees. They held that 'he that says there is no resurrection of the dead has no share in the world to come'. The Sadducees were mainly priests, concerned with the temple worship practices; the Pharisees were primarily scribes, who interpreted the scriptures according to the oral law, which they held was as ancient as the written Law.

Their concern in interpreting the Law (the Torah) was first of all to apply the eternal Law to the changing circumstances of their day, by means of elaborate arguments. Secondly, they sought to 'make a hedge about the Law', that is, to take added precautions to prevent the breaking of the Law. For example, if the Law said that a task must be completed by morning, the rabbis went a step further and said that it should be completed by the previous midnight. A tailor should not place a needle in his clothes on Friday for fear he carry it with him and break the Sabbath law. It was this punctilious zeal for the letter of the Law which was condemned by Jesus as hypocrisy.

Not all Pharisees were hypocrites, however. In the generation before Jesus, Hillel, a famous rabbi who was

originally from Babylonia, said: 'Do not do to others that which is hateful to you.' Hillel's grandson, Gamaliel, was the most famous rabbi of his day. The apostle Paul studied under him, and was until his conversion to Christianity a zealously sincere Pharisee. The Pharisees were also opposed to the revolutionary policy of the Zealots. The Pharisee leader Johanan ben Zakkai secured permission from the Emperor Vespasian to open a rabbinical school at Jamnia (Jabneh) near Jaffa, which enabled Pharisaism to survive the Jewish-Roman War.