Pharisees

Pharisees , one of the two great Jewish religious and political parties of the second commonwealth. Their opponents were the Sadducees , and it appears that the Sadducees gave them their name, perushim, Hebrew for "separatists" or "deviants." The Pharisees began their activities during or after the Hasmonean revolt (c.166-142 BC). The Pharisees upheld an interpretation of Judaism that was in opposition to the priestly Temple cult. They stressed faith in the one God; the divine revelation of the law both written and oral handed down by Moses through Joshua, the elders, and the prophets to the Pharisees; and eternal life and resurrection for those who keep the law. Pharisees insisted on the strict observance of Jewish law, which they began to codify. While in agreement on the broad outlines of Jewish law, the Pharisees encouraged debate on its fine points, and according to one view, practiced the tradition of zuggot, or pairs of scholars with opposing views. They developed the synagogue as an alternative place of worship to the Temple, with a liturgy consisting of biblical and prophetic readings, and the repetition of the shma, the basic creed of Judaism. In addition, they supported the separation of the worldly and the spiritual spheres, ceding the former to the secular rulers. Though some supported the revolt against Rome in AD 70, most did not. One Pharisee was Yohanan ben Zakkai, who fled to Jamnia, where he was instrumental in developing post-Temple Judaism. By separating Judaism from dependence on the Temple cult, and by stressing the direct relation between the individual and God, the Pharisees laid the groundwork for normative rabbinic Judaism. Their influence on Christianity was substantial as well, despite the passages in the New Testament which label the Pharisees "hypocrites" or "offspring of the vipers." St. Paul was originally a Pharisee. After the fall of the Temple (AD 70), the Pharisees became the dominant party until c.135.

Bibliography: See L. Finkelstein, The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of Their Faith (3d ed., 2 vol., 1963); A. Finkel, The Pharisees and the Teacher of Nazareth (1964); L. Baeck, Pharisees (1947, repr. 1966); J. Neusner, From Politics to Piety (1973) and The Pharisees (1985).

Pharisees (Heb., perushim, ‘separatists’ or ‘interpreters’). Members of a Jewish religious sect of the second Temple period. The Pharisees emerged c.160 BCE, after the Hasmonean revolt. They believed themselves to be the inheritors of the traditions of Ezra and were scrupulous in their obedience to the oral law as well as to the written Torah. In some sense, they were the predecessors of the rabbis. Despite the strong anti-Pharisaic bias of the New Testament, there is no doubt that the Pharisees set high moral standards for themselves and through their devotion sustained the people through the trauma of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the loss of the sacrificial cult.

Pharisees (Heb. for ‘separated ones’). A Jewish religious party mentioned by Josephus and in the NT. Unlike the Sadducees, who tried to apply the Mosaic Law precisely as it was given, the Pharisees allowed some interpretation of it to make it more applicable to different situations. In the Gospels they appear as the chief opponents of Christ, whom they attacked e.g. for forgiving sins and breaking the Sabbath. He denounced what the Gospels describe as their purely external observance of the Law and their selfrighteousness. They seem to have been less hostile than the Sadducees to the nascent Church, with whom they shared belief in the resurrection. After the fall of Jerusalem (AD 70) they disappear from history.