Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees series

#1 Who Were These People?

Jesus lived in a highly complex religious society, one that included many professional religionists. Those professionals were in four primary groups: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. At this point, it is only necessary to introduce these groups briefly.

The Pharisees believed that right religion consisted in divine laws and religious tradition. Their primary concern was for fastidious observance of the Mosaic law and of every minute detail of the traditions handed down by various rabbis over the centuries. They focused on adhering to the laws of the past.

The Sadducees focused on the present. They were the religious liberals who discounted most things supernatural and who modified both Scripture and tradition to fit their own religious philosophy.

The Essenes were ascetics who believed that right religion meant separation from the rest of society. They led austere lives in remote, barren areas such as Qumran, on the northwest edge of the Dead Sea.

The Zealots were fanatical nationalists who thought that right religion centered in radical political activism. These Jewish revolutionaries looked down on fellow Jews who would not take up arms against Rome.

In essence, the Pharisees said, “Go back”; the Sadducees said, “Go ahead”; the Essenes said, “Go away”; and the Zealots said, “Go against.” The Pharisees were traditionalists; the Sadducees were modernists; the Essenes were separatists; and the Zealots were activists. They represented the same primary types of religious factions that are common today. But Jesus’ way was not any of those. To the Pharisees He said that true spirituality is internal, not external. To the Sadducees He said that it is God’s way, not man’s way. To the Essenes He said that it is a matter of the heart, not the body. To the Zealots He said that it is a matter of worship, not revolution.

True religion in God’s kingdom is not a question of ritual, of philosophy, of location, or of military might—but of right attitude toward God and toward other people. The Lord summed it up in the words “I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20).

When the Pharisees with whom Jesus was having lunch were bothered that He did not ceremonially wash His hands before eating, Jesus said, “Now you Pharisees have the habit of cleaning the outside of your cups and dishes, but inside you yourselves are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside too? But dedicate once for all your inner self, and at once you will have everything clean” (Luke 11:39-41, Williams). That was His message for every sect of Judaism.

Although the precise origin of the Pharisees is unknown, they appeared sometime before the middle of the second century b.c. Numbering perhaps as many as six thousand, many of them were also scribes, authorities in Jewish law both scriptural and traditional. As has been noted many times in this study of Matthew the Pharisees were by far the dominant religious group in Israel in Jesus’ day and the most popular with the masses.

The other major party the Sadducees, were largely in charge of the Temple, but their driving concern was not for religion but for money and power.  As their name suggests, the Herodians were a political party loyal to the Herod family.

The Essenes, which are not mentioned in Scripture, were a reclusive sect who devoted much of their efforts to copying the Scriptures, and the Zealots were radical nationalists who sought to overthrow Rome militarily.

Like the Sadducees, the Herodians’ and Zealots’ interest in religion was motivated primarily by desire for personal and political gain. Consequently it was to the scribes and the Pharisees that the people looked for religious guidance and authority, a role those leaders greatly cherished.

William Barclay who devoted many years to biblical research in Palestine, reports that the Talmud (Sotah, 22b) speaks of seven kinds of Pharisees:

1. The first group Barclay calls “shoulder Pharisees,” so named because of their custom of displaying accounts of their good deeds on their shoulders for other people to see and admire. When they prayed, they put ashes on their heads as an act of humility and wore sad expressions on their faces to suggest piousness

2. The second group he calls “wait a little,” due to their cleaver ability to come up with a fabricated spiritual reason for putting off doing something good. Pious excuses were their stock in trade.

3. The third group were the “bruised and bleeding.” In order not to commit the sin of looking at a woman lustfully those Pharisees closed their eyes whenever women were around. Understandably they received many bruises and abrasions from bumping into walls, posts, and other objects. They measured their piousness by the number and severity of their injuries.

4. The fourth group were the “humpback tumbling.” In order to show off their supposed humility they slouched over with bent backs and shuffled their feet instead of taking normal steps, leading to frequent stumbles and tumbles.

5. The fifth group were the “ever-seeking,” named because of the meticulous record keeping of their good deeds in order to determine how much reward God owed them.

6. The sixth group were the “fearing” Pharisees, whose terror over the prospect of hell motivated everything they did.

7. The seventh and last group were the “God-fearing,” those whose lives were motivated out of genuine love for God and a desire to please Him. The Pharisee Nicodemus (see John 3:1; 19:39) would doubtlessly have been classed in this group. But Nicodemus and the few other Pharisees who believed in Jesus were very much the exceptions. For the most part, the Pharisees were the Lord’s most strident critics and implacable enemies.

The common Christian stereotype of the Pharisee is "the hypocritical enemy of Jesus." The basis for that stereotype is the fact that the gospels frequently present the Pharisees in the role of Jesus' antagonists.

Early in Jesus ministry, they became His opponents. They grew increasingly hostile as His popularity and influence grew among the Jewish populace.

Matthew's first reference to the Pharisees records John the Baptizer castigating the Pharisees and Sadducees who visited him in the desert as "offspring of vipers."' (Matt. 3:7).

Matthew records numerous encounters between Jesus and the Pharisees:

·         The Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners.

·         They claimed His power to heal came from the prince of demons.
They accused His disciples of violating the Sabbath when they stripped ripened grain from stalks along the path.

·         They conferred among themselves seeking a way to destroy Him.

·         They asked Him for a sign which would prove His relationship with God.

·         They asked why His disciples did not keep the authoritative traditional
teachings. By using a controversial divorce question, they tried to trap Him in His teachings.

·         They wanted to arrest Him

·         They sent people to "respectfully" ask Him a trick question concerning taxes in a de-liberate plan to "ensnare" Him in His teachings."

Luke adds considerable additional information about their antagonistic feelings:

·         When Jesus forgave the palsied man of his sins, the Pharisees began reasoning that Jesus had blasphemed

·         Once they tried to frighten Him away from ]erusalem by warning Him that Herod Antipas wished to kill Him

·         Simon, a Pharisee, invited Jesus to eat with him, and Jesus accepted Jesus accepted another Pharisee's invitation to breakfast. On this occasion Jesus shocked him by not ceremonially washing His hands before eating.

The gospels clearly portray other segments of Jewish society as being equally hostile toward Jesus and His teachings. Among the other antagonists were the chief priests, the scribes, the Jewish elders, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the lawyers. (we’ll look at each of these groups during this study).

Who were the Pharisees?
Most scholars seem to locate their beginnings between the return from the Babylonian exile and the uprising (c. 165 B. C.). There seems to be a link between them and the Hasidim or "pious men" of the intertestamental period:
· the Hasidim regarded themselves as being the orthodox Jew
· they held strict religious views based on the Mosaical covenant
· they maintained a zealous commitment to ancient Judaism and its ways
· political and national aspirations were of little interest.
· they were devoted to preserving the old paths against cultural changes and a changing world

By the time of Israel's political independence under Maccabee (140 B. C.) the Pharisees appear to be a recognizable group already entrenched in their infamous conflict with the Sadducees. During the next one hundred years they would go in and out of the favor of the rulers, but grew more
and more in their popular standing.

Two of the most famous and influential of the Pharisees before the time of Christ were Hillel and Shammai. Hillel’s House more popular...his followers led in the formation of the academy at  Jamnia after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. Paul was a student of Gamaliel who
in turn was of Hillel's teaching.

The name "Pharisee" means "the separated ones." It may mean that they separated themselves from the masses of the people or that they separated themselves to the study and in-terpretation of the law. The Pharisee's desire was to obey that which their forefathers had neglected.

Indeed it was out of this intense concern to follow the law scrupulously that the Pharisees developed their unique characteristics:
· In order to keep from any deviation or transgression from the Torah they developed specific regulations and guidelines in the application of the sacred law.
· These stipulations in turn became the oral tradition which in time the Pharisees held in equality with the written commands of God.

The Basic Concern
There is broad agreement concerning the basic concern of Pharisaism.
· A dire threat to the survival of Judaism began with the Babylonian captivity (597 BC).
· From its beginnings, Judaism was designed to be a national religion of a settled, localized people.
· They would have one center of sacrificial Worship.
· Attendance to national religious festivals would be within ability of all and compulsory for all the men
· A priesthood would be accessible to the populace and capable of meeting their religious needs

The Babylonian captivity created a dilemma with which Judaism was not designed to cope. That dilemma threatened to destroy the Jewish people as a distinctive society and Judaism as a religion:
· the temple was in ruins and its site far away
· sacrificial worship as originally instituted was impossible
· with no temple in which to serve, the priests could not function in their ancient role
· religious festivals and pilgrimages as they had been observed in Palestine were impossible

The end result was new serial circumstances, new religious questions about life and existence, new ways of living, new moral dilemmas, new ethical questions, new aspects of human needs, and differing religious demands.

At some point in this period, Pharisaism evolved. It derived its impetus from two basic concerns:
1. The desire to preserve and to maintain Judaism’ old paths and ancient ways.

If the ancient ways were to survive, Judaism had to answer effectively these new moral and ethical questions and meet the real needs of the daily life situation.

 

2. The desire to answer the questions and issues of the day by making the spirit and the intent of the Torah relevant to the problems and needs of daily life.

Ineffective, irrelevant "pat answers" from a world and society which no longer existed would have doomed Judaism to becoming a dead religion. Teachings of the Torah had to harmonize with the realities of the existing world The true spirit of the Torah and God's intent in the Torah had to be applicable to all life's realities in that present age.

Significance
Like so many things, what started as a good and noble thing became in the end mere vanity. Everything we have looked at so far has been commendable. Here is a group that desires to please God by living in obedience to the statues He had given them. How is that objectionable?

What the Pharisees neglected was not the letter of the law, but the giver of it. In trying to earn God's favor, they missed the fundamental message of the law: no one is holy except God alone.

Were all the Pharisees Wrong?
They are the quintessential bad guys. In looking at the Apostle Paul it is only fair to ask if this classic understanding is accurate, because Paul refers to himself as having been a Pharisee before his conversion:

· Acts 26:5 "I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion."

 

· Acts 22:3 "I am a Jew, born of Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today."

 

· Acts 23:6 "I am a Pharisee, a son of a Pharisee . . ."

 

· Phil. 3:5 "circumcised on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee."

 

· Gal. 1:14 "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countryman, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions."

Perhaps we should remind ourselves that not all of the Pharisees were hypocrites. There were about 6,000 Pharisees in that day, with many more who were "followers" but not full members of the group. Most of the Pharisees were middle-class businessmen and were sincere in their quest for truth and holiness.

Among the Pharisees were a few members who sought for true spiritual religion.

Nicodemus
(John 7:50-53): "Nicodemus said to them (he who came to Him before, being one of them), {51} "Our Law does not judge a man, unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?" {52} They answered and said to him, "You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see
that no prophet arises out of Galilee." {53} And everyone went to his home."

Joseph of Arimathea
(Mark 15:43-46): "Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. {44}And Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. Mark {45} And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. {46} And Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock;
and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

(John 19:38-40:) "And after these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. He came therefore, and took away His body. {39} And Nicodemus came also, who had first come to Him by night; bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. {40} And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews."

The unnamed man mentioned in Mark 12:32-34, come to mind:
"And the scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher, You have truly stated that HE IS ONE; AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; {33} AND  TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE  UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." {34} And when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions."

Even Gamaliel showed a great deal of tolerance toward the newly formed church
(Acts 5:34-40): "But a certain Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time. {35} And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men. {36} "For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody; and a group of about four hundred men joined up with him. And he was slain; and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. {37} "After this man Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away some people after him, he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered. {38} "And so in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action should be of
men, it will be overthrown; {39} but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God." {40} And they took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them to speak no more in the name of Jesus, and then released them."

But for the most part, the Pharisees used their religion to promote themselves and their material gain. No wonder Jesus denounced them.

Their major beliefs
· The Pharisees were strongly monotheistic. (one God)
· They accepted all the Old Testament as authoritative.
· They affirmed the reality of angels and demons.
· They had a firm belief in life beyond the grave and a resurrection of the body.
· They were missionary, seeking the conversion of Gentiles (Matt. 23:15).
· They saw God as concerned with the life of a person without denying that the individual was responsible for how he or she lived.
· They had little interest in politics.
· The Pharisees opposed Jesus because He refused to accept the teachings of the oral law.

FROM HOLMAN’S BIBLE DICTIONARY

JEWISH PARTIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Judaism in New Testament times was diverse. We read of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. One man is called a Zealot. From other sources we learn of the Essenes.

Pharisees The Pharisees constituted the most important group. They appear in the Gospels as the opponents of Jesus. Paul claimed that he was a Pharisee before becoming a Christian (Phil. 3:5). They were the most numerous of the groups, although Josephus stated that they numbered only about six thousand. They controlled the synagogues and exercised great control over the general population.

No surviving writing gives us information about the origin of the Pharisees. The earliest reference to them is dated in the time of Jonathan (160-143 B.C.), where Josephus refers to Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Their good relations with the rulers ended in the time of John Hyrcanus (134-104 B.C.). They came to power again when Salome Alexandra became queen (76 B.C.).

The name “Pharisee” means “the separated ones.” It may mean that they separated themselves from the masses of the people or that they separated themselves to the study and interpretation of the law. It is usually assumed that they were the spiritual descendants of the Hasidim, the loyal fighters for religious freedom in the time of Judas Maccabeus. They appear to be responsible for the transformation of Judaism from a religion of sacrifice to one of law. They were the developers of the oral tradition, the teachers of the two-fold law: written and oral. They saw the way to God as being through obedience to the law. They were the progressives of the day, willing to adopt new ideas and adapt the law to new situations.

The Pharisees were strongly monotheistic. They accepted all the Old Testament as authoritative. They affirmed the reality of angels and demons. They had a firm belief in life beyond the grave and a resurrection of the body. They were missionary, seeking the conversion of Gentiles (Matt. 23:15). They saw God as concerned with the life of a person without denying that the individual was responsible for how he or she lived. They had little interest in politics. The Pharisees opposed Jesus because He refused to accept the teachings of the oral law.

Sadducees The Sadducees were the aristocrats of the time. They were the party of the rich and the high priestly families. They were in charge of the Temple and its services. They claimed to be descendants of Zadok, high priest in the time of Solomon. However, the true derivation of their name is unknown. In all our literature, they stand in opposition to the Pharisees. They sought to conserve the beliefs and practices of the past. They opposed the oral law, accepting the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, as the ultimate authority. The Sadducees were materialistic in their outlook. They did not believe in life after death or any reward or punishment beyond this life. They denied the existence of angels and demons. They did not believe that God was concerned with what people did. Rather people were totally free. They were politically oriented, supporters of ruling powers, whether Seleucids or Romans. They wanted nothing to threaten their position and wealth, so they strongly opposed Jesus.

Zealots The Zealots receive only brief mention in the New Testament. Simon, one of the disciples, is called Zealot (Luke 6:15). John 18:40 uses a word for Barabbas that Josephus used for Zealot. Josephus states that the Zealots began with Judas the Galilean seeking to lead a revolt over a census for taxation purposes (A.D. 6). He did not use the name Zealot until referring to events in A.D. 66, the beginning of the Jewish revolt against Rome. The Zealots were the extreme wing of the Pharisees. In contrast with the Pharisees, they believed that only God had the right to rule over the Jews. They were willing to fight and die for that belief. For them patriotism and religion were inseparable.

Herodians The Herodians are mentioned in only three places in the New Testament (Matt. 22:16; Mark 3:6; 12:13). In the earliest reference in Mark, they joined with the Pharisees in a plot to kill Jesus. The other two passages refer to the sending of Pharisees and Herodians to ask Jesus about paying taxes to Caesar. It is assumed that they were Jews who supported Herod Antipas or sought to have a descendant of Herod the Great given authority over Palestine. At this time Judea and Samaria were under Roman governors.

Essenes We know of the Essenes through the writings of Josephus and Philo, a Jewish philosopher in Alexandria, Egypt. They are not mentioned in the New Testament. More information about the Essenes has come to light since 1947 with the discovery of the manuscripts from the caves above the Dead Sea, commonly called the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is generally believed that the people of the Scrolls were closely related to the Essenes. They may have begun at about the same time as the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Essenes were an ascetic group, many of whom lived in the desert region of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. They took vows of celibacy and perpetuated their community by adopting male children. However, some Essenes did marry. When one joined the Essenes, he gave all his possessions to the community. A three-year period of probation was required before full membership was granted. The Essenes devoted themselves to the study of the law. They went beyond the Pharisees in their rigid understanding of it. There is no evidence that either Jesus or John the Baptist had ever had any relation to Qumran. Jesus would have strongly opposed their understanding of the law.

The vast majority of the people were not a member of any of these parties, although they would have been most influenced by the Pharisees.

From the Encyclopedia of the Orient Pharisees   Hebrew: perushim     Jewish orientation or school, sometimes referred to as a sect. The Pharisees played an important part in the religious struggles of Judaism from the middle of 2nd century BCE until 1st century CE. One of the main challenges when studying the Pharisees, is to look apart from the bias in the majority of the sources. As a group in opposition to others, they have often been condemned more than they deserve. TEACHING The Pharisees based their doctrines on both the Torah, as well as the oral traditions, contrary to their opponents, the Sadducees, who only revered the Torah. The Pharisees meant that there had to be evolution in the Law, in order to give answers to any new legal questions that would occur. Also, they meant, the law had to be adjusted to reason and conscience, and not obeyed blindly by the letter. In their zeal for creating what they considered to be a true religion, they came to define some of the obligations for the priests, to be binding for all Jews. Central to their learning was to resist any form of foreign influences, which at this time were powerful, like the Hellenistic. By doing this, they wanted to take care of their religion, its monotheism and its rituals. For the Pharisees it was of utmost importance that all affairs, be it state or religion, should be governed according to the divine Law. Yet, they meant that the Temple of Jerusalem was not indispensable to Jewish law, life and rituals. By this, they defined a religion that could practiced even far away from Jerusalem, and in societies where the Jews represented a minority. As part of the protest against the Sadducees, and their domination of the Temple, the synagogue was developed. While there was only one Temple, there was no limit to how many synagogues there could be. Related to this, was the Pharisee teaching on rituals, where they rejected the bloody sacrifices performed in the Temple. Instead they emphasized prayer and the study of the Law. But the Pharisees had proven not to be impregnable to Hellenistic influences: there were unusual strong elements of individualism (like the transferring of obligations from the priests to the laymen, and of making prayer and self-study the main rituals), and mysticism had also become part of their ideology. ORGANIZATION The Pharisees consisted of scholars, laymen and scribes, and they had many supporters. It is clear that already from the 1st century BCE, the Pharisees represented a larger part of the Jewish society than the Sadducees. The Pharisees did not represent a political party or movement, and they were loosely organized. The Pharisees could well be defined first and foremost as a philosophy with many supporters. There were many sub-groups among the them, and most must be considered to be true and honest in their beliefs. But one sub-group developed a hypocritical approach to Judaism, and became condemned both by scholars writing in the Talmud as well as the Jewish rebel Jesus. Christians have come to consider all Pharisees as hypocritical due to the stories in the Gospels, but this is seriously unfair to the majority of Pharisees. HISTORY Around 160 BCE: After the success of the Maccabean Revolt, the Pharisees emerge as a group, probably as a continuation of the Hasideans, and in opposition to the hereditary temple aristocracy. Around 100: A struggle between the Pharisees and the temple aristocracy start about who should control and govern Judaism. From the temple aristocracy grows a group known as Sadducees. 70 CE: The Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed, but the learning of the Pharisees continues to exist, and their learning would represent the continuation of Judaism.