PHAREZ PHARISEES
(Greek transcription of Aramaic «p’rîshã»: «separated»).
One of the three Jewish parties that Josephus mentions, the other two being the Sadducees and the Essenes.
The Pharisees were the most rigorous (Acts 26:5).
Certainly, the sect of the Pharisees appeared before the Maccabean War, as a reaction against the inclination of certain Jews towards Greek customs. Faithful Jews were horrified by the growing influence of Hellenism, and they clung more tightly to the Mosaic law.
By unleashing persecution against them, Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC) led to them organizing themselves as a resistance party. This king of Syria ordered the death of all those Israelites who did not want to abandon Judaism or conform to Hellenism. He attempted to destroy all copies of the Holy Scriptures, ordered the death of all who were in possession of a book of the Covenant or who observed the Law (1 Mac. 1:56, 57).
The Assideians, or Hassidim (pious and influential Jews), and all those who observed the Law (1 Maccabees 2:42; cp. 1:62, 63), participated in the Maccabean revolt as a particular group. Although they did not bear the name of Pharisees, they were, in all probability, the forerunners.
When the war lost its character as a fight for religious freedom and began to pursue political objectives, the Hassidim became disinterested. They disappeared from the scene during the period when Simon and Jonathan headed the Jewish nation (160-135 BC).
The term “Pharisees” appears in the time of John Hyrcanus (135-105 BC). He himself was a Pharisee, but abandoned his party, joining the Sadducees (Ant. 13:10, 5-6). His son and successor, Alexander Jannaeus, attempted to exterminate the Pharisees. His wife Alexandra, who succeeded him in the year 78 BC, recognized that force could do nothing against faith; she then favored the Pharisees (Ant. 13:15, 5; 16:1).
Since then, they dominated the religious life of the Jews.
The Pharisees defended the doctrine of predestination, which they considered compatible with free will. They believed in the immortality of the soul, in bodily resurrection, in the existence of spirits, in rewards and punishments in the afterlife.
They thought that the souls of the wicked were imprisoned beneath the earth, while those of the righteous would be revived in new bodies (Acts 23:8; Ant 18:1, 3; Wars 2:8, 14). These doctrines distinguished the Pharisees from the Sadducees, but they were by no means the essence of their system.
They centered religion on the observance of the Law, teaching that God only grants his grace to those who conform to his precepts. In this way, piety became formalistic, giving less importance to the attitude of the heart than to the external act. The interpretation of the Law and its application to all the details of daily life took on great importance.
The comments of the Jewish doctors ended up forming a truly authoritative code. Josephus, himself a Pharisee, said that the scribes were not content with interpreting the Law with more subtlety than the other sects but also imposed on the people a mass of precepts collected from tradition, and which did not appear in the Law of Moses. (Ant. 13:10, 6).
Jesus declares that these traditional rabbinic interpretations have no force (Mt. 15:2-6)
The first Pharisees exposed to persecution were distinguished by their integrity and courage; they were the elite of the nation. The moral and spiritual level of his successors declined.
The weak points of their system became hegemonic and attracted harsh criticism. John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees a “breed of vipers.” Jesus denounced their pride, hypocrisy, and their neglect of the essential elements of the law, while they gave the greatest importance to subordinate points (Mt. 5:20; 16:6, 11, 12; 23:1-39).
In the time of Christ the Pharisees were a cunning cabal (Ant. 17:2, 4) who hatched a conspiracy against Him (Mark 3:6; John 11:47-57). However, there were always sincere men among them, like Nicodemus (John 7:46-51). Before his conversion, Paul was a Pharisee. He made use of it in his discussions with the Jews (Acts 23:6; 26:5-7; Phil. 3:5). Gamaliel, who had been his teacher, was also a Pharisee (Acts 5:34).