Pharisees (Gr. farisáios; transliteration of Heb. Perûshîm, “the separated ones”; Aram. perishay-ya’). Conservative religious sect or party of Judaism in intertestamental and NT times. They called themselves the “companions” (Heb jabêrîm) or the “saints” (Heb. qedôshîm). The Pharisees are supposed to have originated as a separate party in the 2nd half of the 2nd century BC However, their origin is somewhat obscure. It seems reasonable to suppose that they were successors of the Hasidim (Hasidim or Assids), “the pious”, who actively supported the early Maccabees in their fight against the Seleucids. As they were strictly Orthodox and were very concerned to preserve the religious purity of their people, they rejected all attempts to introduce Hellenistic practices among the Jews. When the Maccabean rulers began to support Hellenism, this group of Orthodox Jews began to oppose their own rule. The name “Pharisee” first appeared in our sources under John Hyrcanus (135-105/04 BC); the name indicated that the adepts considered themselves promoters of a separation from the world and its tendencies. Having become a religious-political party, it actively opposed the worldly rule of John Hyrcanus, and even more so his son Alexander Jancus (103-76 / 75 BC). The result was a bloody persecution against these zealous religionists and the death of many notable Pharisees. But it soon became clear that his influence over the people was growing despite adversity. Janeo’s widow and successor, Alejandra (Salome), sought a reconciliation with them, and the Pharisees became a powerful force in their state. When civil war broke out between the 2 brothers (Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II), shortly after Alexandra’s death, the Pharisees supported the 1st and the Sadducees* the 2nd. When Palestine fell under Roman rule (63 BC), the Pharisees retained their position as an influential political party and as standard-bearers for orthodoxy. Herod the Great, coming to power (40-4 BC), was wise enough not to persecute them, because he knew that they had great influence over the people, although their number was about 6,000, a relatively small number. To that time belong Hillel and Shammai, their greatest teachers of all time. His teachings survived in the rabbinic writings of the Mishnah and the Talmud. The Pharisees formed one of the 3 groups that made up the Sanhedrin, along with the Sadducees and the Herodians. It was the sect of the Pharisees that for several centuries continued to produce the greatest religious leaders among Orthodox Jews, and thus exercised more influence over the religious life of their nation than any other force within Judaism. His place in NT Jewish life and thought can best be understood when contrasted with the other great parties: the Sadducees and the Essenes.* In the religious spectrum of NT Judaism, the Sadducees were the liberals. Since they were “in the world,” they were also ready and willing to be “of” the world. The Pharisees, on the other hand, though by necessity “in the world,” refused to be a part of it. Phariseeism – “separatism” – emphasized separation from the world and its contamination. The Essenes not only refused to be “of” the world, but did everything they could to escape from it by living an ascetic life. While the Pharisees lived separate from the world and hoped to get out of it, the Sadducees did not expect any other world. The eyes of the Pharisees were fixed on the future life, but those of the Sadducees on this life, since they had no hope of another. For the Pharisees, religious interests were paramount, but secular interests were the dominating concern for the Sadducees. The Pharisees shunned civic duties and passively resisted Roman authority, but the Sadducees were the practical political party and were willing, as things were, to co-operate with the Romans and Herodians; in reality, they had a strong concern for the secular affairs of the nation and willingly accepted public office. The Pharisees were mainly middle class; the Sadducees were the party of the rich aristocracy. The common people did not belong to either sect, but favored the Pharisees. See Dead Sea Scrolls (III). The letter and spirit of legalism – of justification by one’s own works – which in NT times became identified with the Jewish religion, accurately reflected the spirit and teachings of the Pharisees. In their zeal for strict compliance with all religious duties mandated by the Torah (or “law of Moses”) and by tradition, and in the belief that the well-being of the nation depended on this course of action, the Pharisees tended to overlook the fact that the disposition of the heart was of greater importance than external acts. Most of the “scribes” or “doctors of the law” (Luke 5:17)—the students and professional expositors of the “law”—were Pharisees. His occupation was to interpret and apply “the law” to every minute detail and circumstance of life. In the time of Christ, this ever-increasing mass of regulations was known as “the tradition of the elders” (Matt 5:2). The Pharisees accepted as Scripture most, if not all, of the OT books (3 divisions; cf Luk 24:44), while the Sadducees rejected all but the 5 books of Moses. While the Pharisees were the conservative and orthodox “fundamentalists” of their time, the Sadducees were the progressive and liberal “modernists.” The Pharisees believed that a divine providence ordered the affairs of men, and they emphasized man’s dependence on God. They conceived of God as a strict Father who watched intently for the slightest infraction of his will, always ready to punish anyone who erred. For the Sadducees, God paid little attention to men and had little interest in their affairs; they believed that man was the arbiter of his own destiny and did not look forward to an afterlife. The Pharisees believed in the existence of spirits, the immortality of the soul, the literal resurrection of the body, and the afterlife, where men would be rewarded or punished according to their deeds in this life. They taught that at death everyone went to Hades, the underground world, which was the prison of souls, where those who had been “impious” in this life would remain forever, but from which those who had lived “virtuously” would escape to “live again”. They believed that “all things are directed by fate,” but that men are free to act as they choose. Although in many ways Jesus’ teachings resemble those of the Pharisees rather than the Sadducees, Jesus had vigorous arguments with the Pharisees throughout his ministry because of their rigorous adherence to tradition (Mark 7:1-13). ) and the resulting emphasis on outward acts to the practical exclusion of heart attitudes and motives (see Matt 23:4-33). It was precisely this rigorous outward piety in keeping “the law” as interpreted and applied by their traditions, with total neglect of inward piety, and thus allowing legalism to be the cloak to cover sin, that led to Jesus to classify the Pharisees as hypocrites (Mat_23). John the Baptist regarded the Pharisees and Sadducees as a “generation of vipers” (3:7), and he admonished them to produce “fruit” that testified to a change of heart (v 8). When Jesus emphasized that the motive behind the act is of greater importance in God’s 441 sight than the act itself, the Pharisees inevitably plotted to discredit Jesus in the minds of the people and silence his message. On one occasion the Sadducees joined with them in challenging his authority and demanded a “sign from heaven” to confirm their right to teach (16:1-6); but it was not until near the end of his ministry that the Sadducees bothered to attack him with a quibble about the resurrection (Mat 22:23-33). Pharisees were the ones who raised the dispute about the disciples of Jesus and those of John (Mat 9:11, 14; cf Joh 4:1); those who accused him of casting out demons by the power of the prince of demons (Mat 9:34; 12:24); those who resented his teaching regarding the worthlessness of tradition (15:1-12); those who took the lead in his arrest, condemnation and crucifixion (Mat 27:62; Mar 3:6; Joh 11:47-57; 18:3). Nicodemus was a Pharisee (Joh 3: 1), as was Paul and also his teacher Gamaliel (Acts 5:34; 23: 6; 26: 5-7). Bib.: FJ-AJ xvii.2.4; xiii.10.6; xviii.1.3.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
Greek pharisaios, Hebrew perusîm, separated. Popular religious group emerged in the second century BC. C., at the time of the Maccabean rebellion, as a resistance to the Hellenizing influences, to syncretism, which threatened the religion of their parents, so their religious life revolved around meditation and strict compliance with the Law. Possibly, in their beginnings, they were part of the group of Assidians, Hasidim, devotees, from which they broke off. The f. they claimed that all affairs, political, public and private, were governed by divine Law, and opposed the secular policy of King John Hyrcanus I, 134-104 BC. C. Their adherence to the Law earned them martyrdom in the time of Alexander Jannaeus, 103-76 BC. C. Although they resurfaced under the reign of Alejandra Salomé, 76-67 a. C. The f. they strongly opposed the aristocracy of priests, the Sadducees. With these they differed in that the f. they admitted the immortality of the soul and the resurrection, which were denied by the Sadducees; affirmed the f. the uniqueness and transcendence of God, the existence of an intermediate world between God and man, the heavenly court of angels and evil spirits. As for the Law, they developed the casuistry, that is, the application of the same to everyday issues, to those cases not foreseen in it, for which oral tradition was of immense importance to them, and they led to exaggeration and formalism, that is why they allude to “the tradition of the ancestors”, Mt 15, 2; the Sadducees, his opponents, on the other hand, rejected any tradition outside the written Law and their main concern was politics. The f., which began as a small group, managed, by the teaching they exercised of the Law and tradition, to spread throughout Palestine and to the Jews of the diaspora, and these traditions ended up codified later in the Misnah and the Talmud, writings that contributed to the preservation of Judaism and are still valid. To this must be added that the scribes were mostly of Pharisaic origin. The destruction…