Who Were The Pharisees? 

Chapter 2  Did Yeshua Rebuke All of the Pharisees and the Keeping of the Law?

Examines Yeshua’s Attitude Towards the Torah (Law) and His Talmidim Learning from Pharisees  

 

In my opinion, the relationship between Yeshua and the Pharisees is misinterpreted by many Christians. In researching for my book, I was appalled at the number of books and videos with titles centered around how terrible the Pharisees were or how not to behave like the Pharisees. This created an image of Pharisees as villains and flamed the fire of, or planted seeds for, antisemitism instead of revealing the profound interplay between Yeshua’s teachings and the Pharisaic tradition.

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Read Matthew 23 slowly…

• 23:1 Then Yeshua addressed the crowds and his talmidim: 

• 23:2 “The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim (Pharisees),” he said, “sit in the seat of Moshe.

• 23:3 So whatever they tell you, take care to do it. But don’t do what they do, because they talk but don’t act! 

Evidently, if we read carefully, we see…

• Yeshua was speaking to talmidim, and others gathered to listen to Yeshua.

• We don’t know if Pharisees were in the crowd. The Greek word for “you” is the second-person plural. 

• This passage uses both an aorist imperative "do" and a present imperative "keep observing", indicating decisive action together with ongoing habitual practice. Yeshua is issuing a command, urging listeners to actively and continually apply the Torah teachings as taught by the Pharisees.

• Yeshua established the Pharisees' authority and knowledge, rebuked his talmidim, and ordered them to follow the Torah teachings that they had heard from them.

• Yeshua’s talmidim were being taught by Pharisees, and Yeshua did not discourage them.