Who Were The Pharisees?

 

  Emerging Experts

 

I will add information to this area as I discover interesting facts while researching my book. The Baby Steps area will be for individuals just starting to explore the Jewish roots of the New Testament and some related Jewish traditions. I hope to have a forum for you, more seasoned viewers. I would not use "Jesus" so often, but these are quotes. "I used to go to a church where, sitting next to my friend, every worship service, I would lean over to her and sing,' Here we are praising Yeshua and calling him Jesus." 

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Soon, we will have a monthly Zoom meeting. Join our open discussions at WhoWereThePharisees for a unique exploration into the world "about nothing special", as Jerry Seinfeld once said. Connect with like-minded individuals and seekers in an engaging and thought-provoking environment. Discover the secrets and mysteries surrounding the Pharisees while fostering meaningful conversations about what's on your mind for an enlightening experience.

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As I write content for my upcoming book, I will add my findings here, new chapters, and any additional content that has been incorporated into existing chapters. Just click on the chapter numbers to view the content.

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Chapter 1 ​

"Did Yeshua Rebuke All Pharisees and the Keeping of the Law?"

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

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Chapter 3 

"Was Sha’ul Saul/Paul a Pharisee?"

Explores Paul’s identity as a Pharisee and how it shaped his ministry.

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Chapter 7  "Law, Love, and Tradition: The Pharisaic and Yeshua’s Commitment to Torah"

Look at the Pharisees’ and Yeshua’s dedication to the Torah and their approach to law and tradition.

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Chapter 8 "The Pharisaic Influence on Early Believers in Yeshua"
Discusses how Pharisaic teachings impacted the development of New Testament thought.
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Chapter 12 "Rabbi Yeshua, The Pharisee

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​Below are quotes from "The History of the Jews," published by the Jewish Publication Society in 1893! The English is a little unusual in some places, but the information is fascinating. 

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[1]"The most fanatical against the Nazarene was Saul of Tarsus, A zealous follower of the Pharisaic School, who held that no edict of either the oral or the written law might be tampered with. As he spoke Greek himself, he could measure the boldness of the utterances of the Judean Christian Greeks who were in Jerusalem, and his indignation was great against them. One of the Greeks of the name of Stephen was exceptionally violent in his attacks

And had recklessly spoken against the holiness of the law and the temple. It appears that Saul proclaimed him to be a blasphemer and that he was stoned, whether after a judicial trial or by an angry populace, is not known.    

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[2]Those followers of Jesus, however, who notwithstanding their new faith, did not deny the holiness of the law, remained unmolested. Their three leaders, James, a brother, or a relation of Jesus, Kephas or Peter and John, son of Zebedee, lived at Jerusalem without fear of persecution.

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[3]To the cultivated Greeks in Christianity which Paul preached, based on the so-called resurrection of Jesus appeared as a ridiculous absurdity. The Judaeans were naturally displeased with him. Paul’s chief topics on which he dilated to the heathens whom he wished to convert, were the Judaean nation, Judaean writings and the Judean law;  Without these, his preaching about a messiah or salvation had no foundation. The Greeks must have been told about Israel and Jerusalem or his words would have fallen on deaf ears.  He therefore could only resort to those towns where in Judean communities dwelt from whom the heathen nations had received some faint notion of history and doctrines of Judaism.

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[4]His [John’s] appeal, on the other hand, had nothing in its tenor and character to offend the Pharisees or arouse any opposition among the ranks of that ruling party. John’s disciples, those who were bound closest to him and who carried out his mode of living, kept strictly to the words of the law and observed all its prescribed fasts. If the Pharisees comprising at that time, the schools of Hillel and of Shammai did not greatly favor the enthusiasm and extravagant to the Essenes, they placed themselves in no direct antagonism to the Baptists.

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[5]Jesus made no attack upon Judaism itself, he had no idea, of becoming the reformer of Jewish doctrine or the propounder of a new law; he sought merely to redeem the sinner, to call him to a good and holy life, to teach him that he is a child of God and to prepare him for the approaching messianic time.

 

He insisted, upon the unity of God and was far from attempting to change in the slightest degree the Jewish conception of the Deity.  To the question once put to him by an expounder of the law, “What is the essence of Judaism?” He replied, “’ Hear O Israel our God is one’ and Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ These are the chief commandments” (Mark xii.28)

 

His disciples who had remained true to Judaism promulgated the declaration of their Master –“I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill; til heaven and earth pass,  one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled” (Matthew v.17). 

 

He must have kept the Sabbath holy, for those of his followers who were attached to Judaism strictly observed the Sabbath, which they would not have done had their master disregarded it.

 

It was only the Shammaitic strictness in the observance of the Sabbath which forbid even the healing of the sick on that day, that Jesus, protested against, declaring that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

 

Jesus made no objection to the existing custom of sacrifice, he merely demanded - and in this the Pharisees agreed with him – that reconciliation with one’s fellow man should precede any act of religious atonement. Even fasting found no opponent in him, so far as it was practiced without ostentation or hypocrisy. 

 

He wore on his garments the fringes ordered by the Law and he belonged so thoroughly to Judaism, that he shared the narrow views held by the Judaeans at that period and thoroughly despised the heathen world.

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He was animated by that feeling when he said, “give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.”

(In the time of Jesus, the term dogs was used in a derogatory way to refer to Gentiles or non-Jews.)

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[6] “The merit of Jesus consists, especially in his efforts, to impart greater inner force to the precepts of Judaism in the enthusiasm which he obeyed them himself in his ardor to make Judeans turn to God, with filial love as children to their father in his fervent upholding of the brotherhood of men, in his insistence that moral laws be placed in the foreground and in his endeavors to have them accepted by those who had been hitherto regarded as the lowest and most degraded of human beings.”

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[7] “He wished to prevent any misconception as to his desire to alter the law and his reply to the Pharisee, who asked what would be the required of him if he became his disciple was, ‘ If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor.’”

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[8]“Nothing seemed to stagger their (the disciples) faith in the Messianic character of Jesus, but greatly as they venerated and glorified him, they had not yet raised him above humanity; in spite of the enthusiasm with which he inspired them, they could not look upon him as God. They regarded him only as a highly gifted man who, having obeyed the Law more completely than any other human being, had been found worthy to be the Messiah of the Lord. They deviated in no degree from the precepts of Judaism, observing the Sabbath, the rite of circumcision, the dietary laws whilst they also reverenced Jerusalem and the Temple as holy places.

 

[1] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America, Page 221-222

[2] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America, Page 221-222

 

[3] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America, Page 229

[4] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America, Page 147

[5] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America Page 155-156

[6]  History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America Page 156

[7] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America Page 160

 

[8] History of the Jews, Volume Two, Professor H. Graetz, 1893, Jewish Publication Society of America Page 168