From a282244 Thu Jul 13 19:31:43 DST 2000
From: a282244
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: The Pharisees
References: <8kgn4d$t44$17@newsmonger.rutgers.edu> <8kjc25$e1p$14@newsmonger.rutgers.edu>
From: Helmut.Richter@lrz-muenchen.de (Helmut Richter)
Reply-To: Helmut.Richter@lrz-muenchen.de
Organization: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, Muenchen (Germany)

chennelson@aol.com (ChenNelson) writes:

>Bushbadee wrote:
>>You don"t know the first thing about the Pharisees before you expound on
>>them. 
>>Why dont you read a book on them.
>>Aren"t you aware that Christianity is a Pharisitic religion and the Jesus
>>himself was a pharisee.

>Not sure where you get these ideas. Could you cite some sources and summarize
>them? If you believe the gospels, Jesus certainly couldn't of been a Pharisee,
>unless he was with them (nominally as a teacher of the law), but stuck out with
>his criticism of them.

Of the groups with different spiritualities that existed among the
Jews at the time of Jesus's life on earth, the Pharisees were those
whose ideas were closest to what Jesus said. Insofar Bushbadee's
comment is in order. But it requires some comment.

Legal pickiness, or legalism as we call it today, should not be
regarded a vice for a Jew. Remember that God's will is first and
foremost revealed as law in the OT. It is consequent for a person who
loves God that fulfilment of what God has commanded is the primary way
to express their love of God.  We are doing injustice to the
law-abiding Jews then and today if we attribute to them motives other
than this love, as for instance pride or the desire to earn salvation
for themselves (where the notion of salvation in the Christian sense
is largely alien to Judaism, although there is the notion of having a
"share in the world to come"). Among Jews then and now, and certainly
not less so among Christians then and now, there are quite some who
have such dubious motives, or who boast with their righteousness -
sometimes I belong to these as well. It is *them* with whom Jesus has
his quarrels. He reproaches them of their motives, their words, and
their actions, but not of their membership to the Pharisees.

The two main streams within Judaism were the Sadducees and the
Pharisees. The Sadducees were priests, which is heritable according to
the law, hence also their name that referred to the priest Tsadoq
(2Sam.15:24) from which they descended. Their primary interest was the
sacrifice in the temple and ritual cleanliness. Sometimes they made
arrangements with the Romans in order to protect the rituals, while
other groups regarded that as an illegitimate compromise. They lost
their importance with the destruction of the temple.

The Pharisees focused much more on each person's personal conduct
according to the law.  It is their tradition in which the precise
casuistry for the application of the law to every situation in the
daily life developed which is typical for Jewish life until
today. Because of that precision they had to keep away from those that
were less obedient - hence their name which derives from <parash>
(withdraw, set aside). Their leading persons were the experts of the
law and the Scripture, the rabbis, which is not a priest's but a
layman's job.

So, when the gospel says "the priests and the scribes" (Mk.11:18), two
different groups are meant that act together. Much more often, only
the "Pharisees and scribes" are mentioned which are the same group by
two names (or the Pharisees, in particular the scribes). It is them
with whom Jesus argues most of the time. I'll come back to that in a
minute. Finally, we also see Pharisees and Sadducees argueing against
one another (Mt.22:34, Ac.23:6) - then Jesus or the Christians are
always on the side of the Pharisees, backing up the statement in the
beginning.  Jesus was not interested in the temple service but in each
person's life, just like the Pharisees, and he certainly had friends
among the Pharisees, for instance Nicodemus (Jo.3:1).  No such thing
is known regarding the Sadducees.

Of the remaining religious groups, the Essenes (and the people from
Qumran who may or may not have been an Essene group) and the Zelotes
are the most well-known. Christianity has already been related to all
of these groups except the Sadducees. But it is certainly the
Pharisees in whose spiritual environment Jesus's message fits best and
who have probably been open to Christianity more than other groups.
Christianity is, of course, not a Pharisaic, hence Jewish, movement,
but something quite new.  Nonetheless, the (Jewish, what else) roots
of Christianity are in Pharisaic soil.

As to why Jesus argues almost always with the Pharisees, I'll share
with you what the late Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish professor who studied
the NT, said in a round-table chat after a lecture he had given. He said:

 "I'll tell you what. Jesus and the Pharisees were friends. I ask you:
  with whom will you argue about the truth? With your enemies? No, you
  will steer clear of them. You argue with your friends!"

Lapide liked punchlines like this, and he was certainly aware of the
limitations of such a statement. But there is more truth to it than
the average Christian, for whom "Pharisee" is but a pejorative word,
will believe.

Christians should stop using the word Pharisee only in this sense. The
greatest sages of Judaism were Pharisees, among them loving and wise
men like Hillel or like Gamaliel who saved the young Christianity from
persecution (Ac.5:34).

Helmut Richter