Pharisee

You have seen that the Pharisees were born out of the necessity.  They were captives in a faraway land (Babylon) with no Temple and no ‘promised land’. What was their identity?  What was an Israelite (Jew) without a home and a Temple? How do they maintain national identity and worship YHWH in captivity? So, we have looked at how the Sabbath was a bone of contention between the Pharisees and Jesus.

Jesus and the Pharisees had the most in common of all the Sects of the day.  If that was true, why then were they so hostile to each other?

Here is one example of why they differed so vehemently. Can you think of others?

First, ask yourself where did the Pharisees originate from?  Where were they, in what time period, what was happening at their birth? Then consider the following.  SOS the passages.

The Land’s Sabbath and the Exile

Who were they?

 A priestly–aristocratic party centered on Jerusalem’s Temple and high-priestly leadership. Think “Temple administrators, landowners, and elite families” rather than a popular lay movement.

Where did they come from?

 They rose to prominence in the Hasmonean period (2nd–1st century BCE), when priest-kings ruled Judea. Their base was the Temple, and many high priests came from Sadducean families. [1][2]

Who were the Pharisees?

 They were a grassroots movement within Second-Temple Judaism (c. 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE). They weren’t priests; they were mostly lay teachers, scribes, and householders who wanted ordinary life to be lived “as holy” before God.