Pharisees: A Major Influence in the Life of Yeshua

The Pharisees played a major role in the life of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), and His taught ones (talmidim/disciples) in the first century. However, many people are ignorant about who the Pharisees really were and the impact this sect had in the lives of the Jewish people and God-Fearers during this period. Growing up within Christianity, when our teachers spoke the word “Pharisee,” it was always in a negative way, associating them with legalism or traditions over commandments. After looking at history and Yeshua’s teaching, we believe this blanket stereotype is not warranted.

Although, Yeshua had some very hard things to say to, and about, the Pharisees; not all of it was bad. Believe it or not, He endorsed them strongly in Matthew 23:1-2:

• “…The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. So, you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”

How could He say this, acknowledging their authority, and yet make their behavior a focus of His criticism in the Gospels? We should know from this verse that the Pharisees were on the right track with their understanding/teaching of the Torah (Law), but some students were off track in its (Torah) application to their lives. This is what He meant when He warned His taught ones, speaking about the “leaven (sin)” of the Pharisees, in Matt 16:1-12. In verse 12 He explains:

• “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

We believe that Yeshua was speaking as a Pharisee to other Pharisees. This is much like groups or denominations today who have disagreements within their own circles and are trying to work out their differences. Like Judaism today, there are three main branches and their leaders do not all agree with the application of the Torah (Law). It is the same within Christianity concerning their doctrines and practices.

We find that many of the views that Yeshua taught concerning the Torah (Law) paralleled with the school of Rabbi Hillel, who was one of the two prominent Pharisaic scholars living during Yeshua’s childhood. There were two main sects (schools) of Pharisees, which we will discuss below. Some say there were as many as 26 different major denominations in the first century.

The Pharisees greatly impacted the lives of people of Israel after the Maccabean revolt (165 - 140 B.C.E.) and their teachings and understanding of the Torah (Law) continue to impact our understanding today. Since many of the first century followers of Yeshua were Pharisees, including the famous letter writer Paul, we need to understand what this sect believed and practiced. Hopefully, through a look at Scripture, history, and scholarly sources quoted below, we will gain a correct understanding.

Please keep in mind that when the word “Pharisee” is used in the Apostolic Writings,” it CANNOT be applied globally to all Pharisees. Unfortunately, the Apostolic Writings does not differentiate between the two main schools of Pharisees, Beit (School of) Hillel and Beit Shammai. These two Pharisaic schools formed the main sects of Pharisees before and during Yeshua’s time.

The School of Shammai was known for its rigid and sometimes legalistic interpretation of the Torah and Oral Torah. The School of Hillel was known for its “human” and “merciful” approach to interpreting Scripture. We believe that the majority, or maybe all, of Yeshua’s “negative” encounters were with the School of Shammai or those from both schools who were hypocrites and did not exemplify what their own schools taught.

The most renowned Pharisee that followers of Yeshua acknowledge today is Paul. Paul was raised as a Pharisee and remained one until the day he died. We know that he was from the School of Hillel because he was taught by Hillel’s grandson, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).

In Acts 23:6, Rabbi Paul uses the present tense when he states: “I a Pharisee” (Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, J.P. Green Sr.). He also states in Philippians 3:5, speaking of himself: “according to the Law, a Pharisee.” (see our article “Was Paul the Founder of Modern Christianity?)

WHAT IS A PHARISEE?

The word Pharisee is believed to be derived form the Hebrew word perushim meaning “separated ones.” It may have come from parosim meaning ‘specifier’ since they sought to specify the correct meaning of God’s law to the people.

Pharisees primarily came from middle-class families. They were zealous for the Torah (Law) and had a tremendous influence with the common people through synagogue education. They also considered themselves traditional followers of Ezra, priest and scribe, who led the Jewish people back to the land from the Babylonian exile and rebuilt the second Temple.

WHAT WERE THEIR PRIMARY TEACHINGS?

Pharisees accepted the Torah (Law) as inspired and authoritative. They believed in the free will of man, but that it was impossible for either free will or the sovereignty of God to cancel out each other. Pharisees taught a developed hierarchy of angels and demons. They believed in resurrection of the dead; reward and retribution for righteousness after death; being strong supporters of human equality; and ethical principles as well as theological.

HISTORY OF THE PHARISEES

The following quote is from V. Q. Garcia, author of “What You never Knew About the Pharisees”:

• “…the word Pharisee means “pure”, “washed” or “separated”, and was an apt term for this group of religious men who were known for establishing many ritual baptisms and ablutions in connection with their religious rites and symbolism. In the time of Jesus there were several thousand Pharisees in Israel led by two main schools of philosophy...”

British historian Paul Johnson in his “A History of the Jews”, states:

• “In their battle against Greek education, pious Jews began from the end of the second century B.C. to develop a national system of education. To the old scribal schools were gradually added a network of local schools where in theory at least all Jewish boys were taught the Torah. This development was of great importance in the spread and consolidation of the synagogue, in the birth of Pharisaism as a movement rooted in popular education and eventually in the rise of the rabbinate.”

Messianic teacher, Bryan Huie, wrote in his article, “Who were the Pharisees and Sadducees?”:

• “Synagogues first came into being after the Jews returned from Babylonian exile. They were meant to be “houses of prayer” and a place for instruction in the Torah. At first the teachers were the Priests and Levites. But after hellenization of the priesthood, the scribes, who were lay teachers of the Law, eventually supplanted the priests in the synagogues. The model for the scribes was Ezra, a soper or one learned in Hebrew Scriptures. They were also referred to as Lawyers and teachers of the law... Although not all Pharisees were scribes, the majority of scribes were Pharisees. The Pharisees were solidly devoted to the daily application and observance of the Mosaic law and the ‘oral law’ known as the Oral Torah.”

One more comment by Elias Bickerman, author of “The Maccabees”:

• “The Pharisees...wished to embrace the whole people, and in particular through education. It was their desire and intention that everyone in Israel achieve holiness through the study of the Torah...”

TWO MAIN SCHOOLS OF THE PHARISEES

Dr. Louis Goldberg tells us:

• “There are seven ‘wings’ in the Pharisees' ‘house,’ ranging from legalists (those who wore their good deeds before others) to mystics (those who looked inwardly for higher levels of spiritual perfection). Many others took middle positions. In Yeshua's day, the two prominent groups of Pharisees were the house of Shammai (the legalistic point of view), and the house of Hillel (the mediating view).”

In the “Dead Sea Scrolls Prove Pharisees Controlled Temple Ritual” by John Keyser, he states:

• “As a result of the harsh portrayal in the New Testament of these teachers of Jewish law, the very name Pharisee has become synonymous with hypocrisy and self-righteousness...(modern scholars)...have failed to realize that the Pharisaic religion was divided into TWO SEPARATE SCHOOLS - the school of Shammai and the school of Hillel. The group that Christ continually took to task in the New Testament was apparently the school of Shammai - a faction that was very rigid and unforgiving in their outlook.”

V. Q. Garcia in What You never Knew About the Pharisees, reinforces the common view of the school of Shammai:

• “The School of Shammai. The closest example to illustrate the philosophies of this school would be to imagine an Aryan White supremacist church. The school of Shammai was very similar, believing, among other things, that the Jews were the master race and that all other peoples were of no value. Salvation, in their opinion, was only available to Jews, and they wouldn’t even allow a Gentile to convert to Judaism. Pharisees from the school of Shammai hated all non-Jews and had little regard even for Jews who didn’t follow them. So passionate was the hatred of these Pharisees for Gentiles that around 8 AD Shammai passed 18 edicts specifically meant to force separation between Jews and non-Jews. Among these was a prohibition of entering the house of a Gentile lest a Jew thereby become defiled and even eating with a Gentile was forbidden. Because of Shammai’s influence, these edicts became laws of Israel....It’s critical for you to note that virtually every time you see Jesus or the Apostles in strife against what the of the Bible label as “Pharisees” or “Judaisers” it is referring specifically to Pharisees or ex-Pharisees from the School of Shammai. Even before he became a Christian, Paul would have had many differences with his fellow Pharisees from this school which would be the dominant influence in Judaism until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.”

V. Q. Garcia continues on the School of Hillel:

• “The School of Hillel was much more liberal, and its founder was renowned for placing people and mercy at the heart of Judaism whereas Shammai stressed strict observation of religious laws. While Hillel’s followers acknowledged that the Jews were God’s special people, they accepted Gentile converts to Judaism. When you read in the New Testament about “Hellenists” or about Jews with Greek names, this was the school whose rabbis would have accepted these Gentiles into the Jewish faith. Soon after the time when Jesus, at age 12, was in the Temple astonishing the priests with his wisdom, Hillel died and was eventually succeeded by his grandson Gamaliel, who was Paul’s tutor. Hillel may even have been one of the rabbis Jesus was interacting with in the Temple!…So wise was Hillel that even two sayings we commonly attribute to Jesus were supposedly coined by Hillel before his death and were being quoted by Jesus in the Gospels. These were the Golden Rule (“Do unto others...”) and the summary of the Law and the Prophets (“Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself”)...A good example of the differences between Hillel and Shammai can be seen in the story of the man healed at the pool of Bethesda. While carrying his mat home, the man is accosted by some “Pharisees” who rebuke him for carrying the mat on the Sabbath. We can absolutely know these are Pharisees from the school of Shammai by the fact that the school of Shammai specifically had a rule that a man healed on the Sabbath could not carry his mat without breaking the Sabbath laws. The school of Hillel had an opposite rule that a man healed on the Sabbath could carry his mat home. Another perfect example of the struggle over Jesus between both schools is seen in John 9:16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees (from the school of Shammai) This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others (from the school of Hillel) said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. On the one hand, you can see the school of Shammai rejecting Jesus outright while Pharisees from the school of Hillel aren’t sure. This also helps illustrate again the philosophical differences between the two schools. Shammai would teach that healing on the Sabbath is work, and thus a sin, while Hillel would hold that healing is a good deed and thus permissible on the Sabbath.”

PHARISEES – GET A BAD RAP

Dr. Brad Young, noted Christian scholar and author writes:

• “A Pharisee in the mind of the people was far different from the popular conceptions of a Pharisee in modern times...The image of the Pharisees in early Jewish thought was not primarily one of self-righteous hypocrisy...The Pharisee represents piety and holiness...The very mention of a Pharisee evoked an image of righteousness.....while Jesus disdained the hypocrisy of some Pharisees, he never attacked the religious and spiritual teachings of Pharisaism....In Matt. 23:2, Jesus states that they ‘sit on Moses seat, indicating that they were the authoritative teachers of the Law.’”

The words “hypocrites” or “offspring of vipers” have been mistakenly applied to “all” Pharisees. The Pharisees knew that there were “sore spots” or “plagues of the Pharisaic party” among them as is mentioned in the Talmud (Sot. 3:4 and 22b)

Bernard J. Lee, in “The Galilean Jewishness of Jesus: states:

• “For the most part, a very hostile attitude controls the way the Pharisees are presented in the Christian Scriptures...Christian and Jewish scholars alike recognize the unreliability of the Gospel presentation of the Pharisees...”

There were four major Jewish sects at the beginning of the first century: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots. After 70 CE, the Zealots and the Essenes were destroyed by Rome; the Sadducees no longer had control of the Temple; and the Pharisees were the prominent group that remained.

YESHUA’S AFFILIATION WITH PHARISEES

Jewish Scholar, Dr. Louis Goldberg, tells us:

• “Yeshua challenged many of the rulings by the house of Shammai, as reflected in the gospels, and is therefore frequently regarded as partial to the house of Hillel. The stance Hillel's grandson, Gamaliel, took regarding Yeshua's disciples typified the more moderate of the two positions. Gamaliel advised that they be left alone, stating that if they were not of God, they would fail. If they were of God and the religious leaders attempted to stop them, the leaders would only ‘find [themselves] fighting against God.’” (Acts 5: 38-39)

Dr. David Bivin, Director of Jerusalem School for the Study of Synoptic Gospels, states:

• “Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees was “in-house,” constructive criticism. There was hypocrisy among the Pharisees--it was not unique to them--and in their own writings they were just as critical of this hypocrisy as was Jesus...He endorsed the Pharisees doctrine, stating in Matt. 23:3, “Do and observe what they [the scribes and Pharisees] command you.”

Bernard J. Lee in The Galilean Jewishness of Jesus agrees:

• “...recent book by Rabbi Harvey Falk, Jesus the Pharisee. Rabbi Falk contends that Jesus himself was a Pharisee, belonging to the House of Hillel.” “The synagogue is a Pharisee-directed institution; and Jesus is a synagogue Jew with sufficient education to be recognized as ‘teacher’ (education is a synagogue function).”

As mentioned above, Yeshua is believed to have been raised and trained in Pharisaic thought under the Pharisaic School of Hillel:

• He went to the Pharisees house for dinner [Luke 7:36; 11:37; 14:1(on a Sabbath]

• He was warned of danger by Pharisees [Luke 13:31]

• Many of the Pharisees believed and followed Him [Nicodemus, Acts 15:5; Acts 23:9]

IN CLOSING

In Matthew 23, we are given warnings against spiritual pitfalls such as pride, coveting social positions, locking others out of the kingdom of God, twisted communication, holding traditions above the Word, and forgetting the heavier matters of the Torah (i.e., mercy, justice). These can affect us all; not just different sects of Pharisees in the first century.

Hopefully, through this article, we have presented another perspective on the Pharisees which will help in interpreting the Gospels and Apostolic Writings from a Hebraic perspective. Let us strive to learn more about this sect and not blindly accept only negative teachings about them for they are a great part of our spiritual heritage.