THE PHARISEES. The Pharisees were one of the three chief and most influential Jewish sects, the others being the Sadducees and the Essenes. The word Pharisees is derived from the verb ‘parash,’ “to separate,” and it does not occur in the Old Testament, or in the Apocrypha, while it does so frequently in the New Testament. They are the group that emerges into the light of history during the reign of John Hyrcanus and became dominant for a time under Salome Alexandra {Josephus, Antiquities XIII, 288-98, 400 ff}. The group originated as a separate group shortly after the times of the Maccabees and go back at least to the fierce pietism of the Hasidim who had fought alongside Judas in the early days of the revolt against Hellenism, and for Jewish independence. This separatist or Puritans of Judaism, withdrew from all evil associations and sought to keep complete obedience to every precept of the moral and written law, which zeal for law had been thing of the past as they grew in political success. There is a strong evidence for conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, although not all were opposed to Jesus’ teachings. Just as the prophet Daniel had revealed it empire followed empire as history marched towards God appointed time. The Babylonian empire fell to the Persian. The Persian fell to Alexander the Great, and upon his death in 323 BC., his empire had been divided to his four generals. Greek language and culture had spread throughout the world, as one of the most significant of God’s prepared steps for the gospel to be preached all over the world and all people to understand His Word. From 320-198 BC., Ptolemies dominated Palestine, known as the good years for the Jews, as their faith had been encouraged and the Jewish Scriptures had been translated into Greek, providing the Jews in Egypt with knowledge of the Old Testament as they could only read Greek. After many attempts by the Seleucids, in 198 BC., they finally won Palestine. Antiochus III defeated Egypt and replaced the Egyptian high priest with Jason, a pro-Syrian who had been eager to transform Jerusalem on the pattern of a Greek city, involving Greek names, language, dress and morality. Thus, the Jewish revolt against Jason was confronted by the Syrian army, and Judaism had become a capital offense. However, such horrific steps did not affect the faith but instead another heroic movement began by Mattathias and his five sons, the Hasmoneans, best known as the “Maccabees,” whose only desire was to preserve their Jewish ancient faith and the God of Israel. This war, was also a civil war, and against those Jews who wanted to adopt the Hellenistic way of life. After many years of fighting, they have defeated Syria, and took back the priesthood, purified the temple which was defiled by the Syrians, and rebuild back Jerusalem. However, there had been no peace for this family as the other smaller nations had been always ready for war. Within the country opposition grew from the very Hassadims, or ‘pious,’ which had supported the revolt in the beginning, but later their relationship to the Hasmean regime is best described as check red, ranging from qualified approval to outright antagonism. Hungry for political power, the Hasmonean family maintained some kind of independent rule for Palestine for about 100 years {143-37 BC.}, but the country was never free. By the time Jesus was born, power had passed out of Jewish hands entirely into the greatest empire the world has ever known: that of Rome. Out of the Hasmoneans, are the Sadducees of the New Testament and out of the Hassadims are the Pharisees who fought strongly against pagan culture and the keeping of the covenants of Yahweh, arising in the mid-second century. The Pharisees theology was founded upon the entire canon of the Old Testament which included the Law of Moses, or Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Most scholars also held that the Pharisees dominated Jewish society, having supplanted the priests, who had long since ceased to be effective leaders. It is broadly agreed; that the Pharisees formed the core of the rabbinic movement, so that the first century Pharisaic perspective could be read out of rabbinic literature-even though that was admittedly published only in the third to six centuries latter. They were the moral watch dogs of the Jewish nation, working hard against the Hellenism of the Herods and their rich supporters, and who are said to have great power and influence over the multitude, and the synagogues. This they retain to the last; the Sadducees, who were the aristocratic party, having little support; and the Essenes a very limited number of adherents. Regarding their tenets, we read in Acts 23, that the Pharisees believed both in the resurrection and in the existence of spirits which in some areas resembled the Persian Zoroastrian theology which also questions their name whether it was derived from ‘perushim’ [separatists] as they separated themselves from the Hasidaeans, or was it from ‘Perianizer’. First, Jesus differed with them over the way they have interpreted the Law. Paul calls their organisation “the straightest sect of our religion” in Acts 26. Josephus who was himself a Pharisee, describes them as not merely accepting the Law of Moses, and interpreting it very skilfully to others, but, adds that they have delivered to the people a great many oral observances by succession from the fathers which are not written in the Law of Moses {Antiq. XIII. X. 6}, these being the tradition of the elders, and which our Lord pronounced to be of no binding authority in {Matt. 15:2, 3, 6; Mark 7:5, 9, 13}. The Pharisees have seated themselves in Moses seat, but he Lord stresses the fact that this was an imaginary authority they claim for themselves {Matt. 23:2-4}. There was a legitimate sense in which the priest and the Levites had authority to decide matters of the Law {Dt. 17:9}, but the scribes and the Pharisees had gone beyond any legitimate authority and were adding human tradition on the Word of God {Matt. 15:3-9}. Salvation was not so much a matter of a relationship of a forgiving God as it was a climb towards perfection by constant efforts to obey. For that Jesus condemned them in {Matt. 23:8-36}. The Pharisees also, “fenced off” many people from the life of the synagogue if they were not able to follow their strict rules for the Sabbath, including exclusion on the sinner from their Pharisaic community if one was not following even the least of their Sabbath observances. They kept the Sabbath so strictly, allowing not even for healing of the neither sick nor casual plucking of grain for eating by the wayside. In contrast to them, in {Matt. 12] on the Sabbath, Jesus’ disciples were hungry and began to pick at some heads of grain and eat them. In the same chapter, our Lord heals the sick man with the shrivelled hand and emboldened others to break the Sabbath and the many rules of the Pharisees, which made Him look like a Law-breaker, and according to them- bringing curse upon the Jewish people, thus, they were plotting a way of how to murder Him. Jesus shows them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath and that the Sabbath was made for man, and not the man for the Sabbath. Also, the Pharisees rejected the sinner and kept him out of the synagogue for breaking even the smallest of their Sabbath rules, therefore stripping them of God’s blessings upon their life and keeping them away from Him. And, when they would have managed to convert one of those sinners- they would place heavy burdens upon his shoulders, but, they themselves have carefully concealed their own inward corruption, having much more in common with their father’s who killed the prophets of God in the past, said the Lord {Matt.23}. In contrast t them, in {Matthew 9:10-13} we have our Lord reclining at the table and eating with many tax payers and sinners, while the Pharisees thought they were well-religiously whole and pure. The outcast knew they were not. Salvation can’t come to the self-righteous. The Pharisees, having shun God’s righteousness, were seeking to establish righteousness of their own {Ro. 10:3}-and teaching others to do so as well. Their legalism and self-righteousness effectively obscured the narrow gate by which the Kingdom must be entered {Matt. 7:13, 14}. Christ is all about showing mercy and grace to all those that will accept Him as their Lord regardless of where they came from and how heavy their sins were, for it is a matter of the heart that was important, and not religious rituals made by men. The second critical difference is that, the Pharisees practiced ritual defilement and purification stated in Leviticus, mutual prayer and fasting, and tithed their property meticulously {Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42]. A Pharisee could not eat at the house of a sinner [one who did not practice Phariseeism], but, might entertain a sinner in his own house. He had to provide clothes, however, lest the sinner’s own clothes be ritually impure. The ritual washing of their hands before their meals was practiced, while our Lord and His disciples ate with unwashed hands. The Pharisee was concerned with ceremony, not hygiene or holiness, and wanted to be seen and praised by other men for their fake devotion to God by praying in public places.{Luke. 11:37-44}, this contrast inner virtues with external ceremonies. Whilst, Jesus placed freedom on eating in the new church, as well as freedom of the necessity of ritual washing up of hands, including the making of all meats clean. The third probable source of conflict is that according to some of the Pharisees the Messiah was the One that will bring freedom through military force and violence against the oppressors of Israel, who at the time of Jesus was the Roman Empire. However, Jesus refuses any involvement with violence. There had been two types of Pharisees: The Hillel followers, who were the passive ones that accepted Rome’s rule over Gods’ people and their land; and the others were the followers of Shammai who believed in righteous zeal and fighting with the sword against the oppression of the Gentiles. Such example was Judas from Galilee who through the support of Saddok-the Pharisee brought the uprising against the Roman census in 6 AD., which led to disastrous results ending with heavy personal taxations. Again, Jesus promotes peace and refuses the use of any violence against Rome in order to achieve freedom for the Jewish people and their land. But, for most Pharisees, military triumph spoke more loudly and eloquently than did their lingering moral reservations. Although, the Pharisees devised legal loop holes for their own convenience, and Jesus and the Pharisees repeatedly clashed over the artificiality of such legalism, they both had much in common, such as they agreement and pointing out to the sacred scriptures as the ultimate guide in all things. The Pharisees also believed in the creation account and the end of the universal resurrection. They believed that the souls of the wicked shall be detained forever in a prison-house, while those of the virtuous rise and live again, removing into other bodies {XVIII. i. 3; Wars, II., viii. 14; Life, 2, 38, etc.}. Josephus makes the Pharisees; after their influence with the people became paramount, show themselves an intriguing body of men {Antiq. XVII. Ii. 4}, and it is well known how severely our Lord denounced them when He was on earth for their self-righteousness, their hypocrisy, their inattention to the weighty matters of the Law, while being very particular as to minute points with other faults {Matt. 5:20; 16, 6, 11, 12, 23:1-39; Luke 11:37-39; 42-44; 18:10-14}. Partly, perhaps, on the account of the sever censures He pronounced upon them, they took a prominent part in plotting His death {John 7:32; 11:47-57}.Mainly, the conflict between them began as a defence on the covenant of Yahweh, where Jesus asserts that they have managed to twist the basic message of God and held back from those that were lost within Israel’s house. Jesus ministry shows that He is the Messiah who brings the hope and the fulfilment of the covenant that brought the Kingdom of God, while, the Pharisees saw Him as a law-breaker and destroyer of God’s house who is with Satan. Paul in his early life was a Pharisee, and was accustomed to bring forward the fact when he was reasoning with his countrymen {Act 23:6; 26:5-7}. His teacher Gamaliel, had been of the same sect {Act 5:34}. Putting all these notices together, the following statement seems to be established: At first, when the Pharisees ran great risk of joining the party or sect, they were men of deep religious character-the best people in the land. When subsequently, Pharisaism became an inherited belief the profession of which was popular, men of very inferior character to the original Pharisees joined its ranks and brought it into disrepute. By our Saviour’s time it had become very corrupt, but even when it was at the worst it had within its pale some men of perfect sincerity and high character, the future apostle of the Gentiles being the most notable of all. Not all Pharisees were hypocrites. Nicodemus was the man who earnestly sought Christ during His earthly ministry, and who shared the responsibility of burying Jesus’ body as well. Although, the Pharisees moral and spiritual standard may have tended towards self-righteousness and consequently towards hypocrisy, but they were high in comparison with the average of their day, not-withstanding, that probably being the reason why from all the other sects, Pharisaism alone survived, becoming a foundation of modern Orthodox Judaism. BY PASTOR SUZANA HRISIKOVSKA
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:53:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015