The Pharisees, according to the first century Jewish historian Josephus, himself a Pharisee, numbered somewhat above 6,000 in Jesus� day (Josephus Antiquities 17.2.4; Whiston 1957:505). They were the religious right, the orthodox, of first-century Judaism. The Pharisees resisted Hellenism, albeit influenced by it, and rejected any accommodation with the pagan world. As lay teachers of the Torah, drawing mainly from the middle and lower classes, the Pharisees were seemingly the most pious people in the land. Although relatively small, the Pharisee movement, with its political-religious overtones and aggressive efforts at imposing its righteousness based upon rules and rigor upon the Jewish public, became known as the sect of the Pharisees (Acts 15:5 NASB, KJV, NKJV; 26:5 NASB KJV, NKJV), or the Pharisees� party (Acts 23:9 NASB, KJV, RSV).

The Pharisees claimed Moses as their progenitor^F1 and the legitimating authority for their customs. Lee I. A. Levine explains how their view of the Torah differentiated the Pharisees from other Jewish sects.

A basic Pharisaic doctrine differentiated the sect from others. For the Pharisees, the Oral Law was the authentic amplification of the Written Law of Moses. As such, the two stood side by side, and one was incomplete without the other. The Oral Law provided the correct interpretation and application of the Written Law, although the Written Law remained the ultimate authority, the primary text and the basic parameter within which the Oral Law evolved and developed. The crowning recognition of the Oral Law as legitimate and authentic was the Pharisaic claim that it, too, was given at Sinai; God gave not only the Five Books of Moses to the Jews, but the Oral tradition as well. Armed with this notion, the Pharisees presented themselves to the people as the sole legitimate bearers of Mosaic tradition. (Levine 1988:202.)

A basalt "Seat of Moses" from the ancient synagogue at Korazin, or Corazin, dating to probably the fourth century CE. This was a symbolic physical chair of honor within ancient synagogues where the chief rabbi or elder would sit. Inscribed on the chair, which was the only inscription found on the site, are the words "Remembered for good Yudan son of Ishmael who made [or donated] this stoa and its steps from his [own] property. May he have a portion with the righteous" (Fine 1997:491; Schoville 2004: 18).

Jesus of Nazareth consistently rejected the Oral Law of the Pharisees but tells fellow Jews, according to Matthew's gospel, that "the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses" (Matthew 23:1-2). The Pharisaic "Oral Torah" came to be as highly regarded by later rabbinic Judaism as the written Torah. As rabbinic Judaism evolved at Jamnia, after the destruction of the Temple and the cessation of the daily sacrifices, the Law of Moses became the center of Pharistic Judaism (Manns 1988:26).^F2

In the daily life of the Pharisees their observance of their religious precepts was of paramount importance. The halakah, or "traditions of the elders" and later the Oral Torah, by which the Pharisees attempted to establish their jurisdiction over all aspects of Jewish life, was the ideology by which the Pharisees sought legitimization of their religious authority.^F3 The halakah of the Pharisees appears to have been self-derived and limited to their own traditions. The Sadducees rejected this Pharistic Oral Torah and accepted only the written Torah reinforcing significant contentions between the two groups.

Seeking holiness the Pharisees sought to integrate the priestly standards of ritual cleanliness and Temple purity into their private lives (Neusner 1979:89). The reputation of the Pharisees was as the most observant in the land (Josephus Wars 1.5.2; Whiston 1957:614) and "the strictest sect" of the Jews (Acts 26:5). They were not particularly popular with the Judean public although Josephus, a Pharisee himself, wanted his readers to believe they were (Josephus Antiquities 13.10.6; Whiston 1957:397). The general public tended to hold them in awe but as a rule did not join in their religious fervor. The Pharisees, on the other hand, restricted their dealings with the public whom they regarded as lax in matters of the law (Wyatt 1986:822).

New Testament writers provided the Pharisees with a more prominent role in the Gospels than other Jewish sects. Presumably this arose due to continuing tension and conflict between the two groups. The teachings of Jesus and his followers consistently clashed with those of the Pharisees�over their halakah.^F4 The amount of space devoted to the Pharisees in the Gospels does not suggest that they were a dominant force in Judea but only that they consistently and openly opposed Jesus and his disciples.

Many readers of the Gospels assume falsely that the halakah of the Pharisees described the religious practices of the Jewish public in the homeland. Beyond matters of ritual purity this was not the case. The Gospels only provide part of the story, that which focuses on the fundamental conflict between Jesus� teachings, his rejection of the halakah of the Pharisees, and the teachings of the Pharisees. The accounts of the conflicts between the two opposing movements recorded the activity of relatively small groups. The general population of first-century Palestine, presumably about one million out of the more or less six million Jews in the Roman empire (Gilbert 1992:12; Johnson 1976:12; Meeks 1983:34; Stark 1996:57), did not live as Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, nor as Christians. See Population Projections for more information.

As the peoples� party, the Pharisees proved to be the best-equipped to survive the effects of the CE 66�70 war with Rome. Pharisaic Judaism reestablished itself at the coastal town of Jamnia and began its long and perilous transformation into the rabbinic Judaism of modern times (Manns 1988:7, 45). After the failed Bar-Kokhba rebellion of CE 135 the non-Christian Jews of Palestine, under the influence of Pharisaic Judaism, became increasingly introspective, protective of their legacy, and preoccupied with survival.

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^F1The scrolls found at Qumran, supplying information on many Jewish groups during the Second Temple Period, show first-century BCE and CE Judaism to be culturally richer and more varied than formerly realized. Prior to the advent of rabbinic Judaism extensive variation, openness, and tolerance were present in Judaism. The apostle Paul referred to this first-century system as Judaism (Galatians 1:13) although scholars often prefer "Judaisms" to emphasize the period�s diversity. In contemporary scholarly literature the use of either Judaism or Judaisms is common.

^F2Jamnia, also Jabneh, Yavneh, and Yadne, was a village along the Mediterranean coast about 4 kilometers inland and 10 kilometers south of Jaffa in Israel.

^F3After the Second Temple period these "traditions of the elders" slowly emerged as rabbinical law�the halakah�which became codified in the Mishna (Danby 1980) and other writings.

^F4According to the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus openly rejected the halakhic practices of the Pharisees as the opinions of men (Matthew 15:2-3 cf. Mark 7:3�13). The gospels do not show Jesus as rejecting the written Torah commands concerning ritual purity but rather show him specifically challenging and rejecting the halakah of the Pharisees as serious distortions of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Page last edited: 01/26/06 07:12 PM

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