The Pharisees
Basically, the Pharisees were a lay-led movement in opposition to the corruption of the Sadducean priesthood. Though they attempted to trace their roots back to the days of Moses, they seem to have begun with the Hasidim, the “righteous ones,” who resisted the increasing Hellenization of Israel and its disregard for God and his law. The earliest historical reference to the Pharisees is in Josephus (Antiquities XIII) where he discusses these events and dates them at about 150 B.C.
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Generally speaking, the Hasidim, “the pious men,” disgusted with religious hypocrisy, began to adopt priestly activities into their daily lives. In time, they came to view themselves—most likely, rightly so—as more pious in their family affairs than the Sadducees were in their Temple duties. For example, certain cleansings were mandated to officiate at the sacrifices. The Pharisees duplicated these and functioned as a priest within their own families. (Seeing a meal as a sacrifice to God became the basis for not eating with gentiles.)
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For all the complaints against the Pharisees, they were serious about following God’s law. Unfortunately, their emphasis was on the law rather than the God who gave it. They were insistent on doing the right thing. The “right thing,” however, was set by their interpretation of the law and the traditions that grew up around it. Moreover, the Jewish experience in Persian captivity, led to a stress on the letter of the law rather than its intent. Thus, many of the traditions were legalistic ways around the purpose of the specific command.
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The Pharisees faced a major obstacle in their initial struggle with the Sadducees. The Sadducees had scripture as the authority for their claim of power. The Pharisees had nothing. The solution was to stress the Oral Law—those practices claimed to have been given orally to Moses but not recorded. These, and the ensuring interpretation of the Law, were viewed as being equal to the written text. Within that Oral Law they found authority for their actions and beliefs. The Sadducees said that the Oral Law was rubbish and a concoction of the Pharisees for their personal gain. The ultimate ascendancy of the Oral Law over the written text is a significant difference between Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity today.
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Their popularity exploded among the people for several reasons. Unlike the Sadducees, anyone could become a Pharisee by adopting their moral code and lifestyle. They were not contaminated by affiliation with the non-Jewish occupiers of the land. The Sadducees were. Lastly, they seriously sought to obey God’s law as they saw it.
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In Jesus’ day, it is estimated that about five percent of the population were Pharisees. After Pentecost, the Pharisees flooded into the Jewish church when they discovered that their Messianic hopes had been fulfilled in Jesus.
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