Summary: Jesus was critical of the religious party called the Pharisees, but as we listen to his criticisms we should listen with renewed attention. Jesus was in some important respects of like mind with the Pharisees of his day, as was Paul. But his issues with the Pharisees involve the will of God himself.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:20 (ESV)
Who Were the Pharisees? Taking a Second Look
We all know Jesus criticized the Pharisees and called them hypocrites. But was that meant to describe all Pharisees, the majority of them, or just their leadership? In reality, not all Pharisees hated Jesus, and not all of them exhibited extreme hypocrisy.
Consider the following:
- Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him (Luke 13:31). That would indicate a concern for Jesus’ safety on the part of some of them, rather than a desire to see him destroyed which characterized others Pharisees.
- Jesus said the Pharisees deserved to be obeyed because they sat “on Moses’ seat”, even though they did not practice correctly. (Matthew 23:2).
- Nicodemus, a leader among the Pharisees, came to speak with Jesus, admitting that Jesus had been sent from God (John 3:2). Jesus did not send Nicodemus away in anger, but welcomed him.
- Today’s New Testament scholars realize that Jesus’ teaching was more like the Pharisees’ than the Sadducees’, and also the Essenes’.
- After Saul of Tarsus had become Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, he still considered himself a Pharisee
- Over against the harsh way many of the Council wished to treat Jesus’ disciples, Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder, an honored leader of the Pharisees, spoke up: “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5:38-39.)
The Hypocrisy of the Pharisees
Still, what Jesus said against the Pharisees does seem directed to most of them. While there may have been exceptions, Jesus spoke of them generally in very critical terms. At the root of this disagreement is: hypocrisy. That idea comes from ancient theaters where actors wore masks. These false faces disguised who the actors really were. The image of the actor, hypokrités, with his false face was taken up by Jesus to say that the Pharisees were not who they appeared to be.
Does that mean the Pharisees were altogether insincere? No, their hypocrisy was of a different kind. The Pharisees Jesus accused of hypocrisy were completely serious about their way of life—serious enough to kill, as it turned out. They did not simply pretend to care about God and the Torah. Their hypocrisy was this: even while they claimed to be expert students of the Torah, they violated the Torah. Even with their “fence around the Torah”–additional rules meant to make breaking the actual biblical rules less likely–they sometimes actually opposed the will of God reflected in the Torah.
Here is one case in point: Jesus healed on the Sabbath, delivering people from misery. Opponents from the Pharisees assailed Jesus for this, claiming that he was working on the Sabbath in violation of the Torah. Jesus maintained that delivering people from evil on the Sabbath was consistent with the will of God, not opposed to it. In fact, there was no more fitting day for such a thing (John 7:23; Luke 13:16). No matter what sages in the past may have said, this was not in violation of Torah, but in honor of it.
Jews today speak of: Pikuach Nefesh. This principle for living by the Torah was developed in Judaism after the birth of the church, beginning with the famous Rabbi Akiba. The principle says the commandment to save life overrides other commands of the Torah. So, for instance, if surgery is required to save a person’s life on the Sabbath, a Jew must perform that surgery. That is in line with Jesus as he opposed the Pharisees.
The Law and the Pharisees
Jesus kept the Law of Moses fully, in contrast to caricatures of him as an iconoclast, against religious tradition and those who uphold it. As a Torah-obedient Jew, Jesus surely wore phylacteries just as the Pharisees did. These were small leather cases containing Torah texts written on parchment. Male Jews were commanded to wear them in Deuteronomy 11:18 and Exodus 13:9, 16. However, Jesus criticized Pharisees for wearing large phylacteries in order to be seen by others.
Jesus wore tassels at the corners of his garment also as commanded in Numbers 15:37-41 and Deuteronomy 22:12. No doubt a certain woman in a crowd wished to touch one of those tassels so that she might be healed of her internal bleeding (Matthew 9:20; Luke 8:44). However, Jesus criticized Pharisees who made their fringes broad, again, in order to be seen by others. While they scrupulously kept the precepts, they did so for the wrong reasons.
Jesus attended the synagogue regularly (Luke 4:16). The synagogue was the child of the Pharisaic movement where Jews gathered for prayer, and the reading and expounding of Scripture. Jesus was a master of the Torah, and of the Prophets and the Writings. Unlike the Sadducees, Jesus also accepted the Prophets and the Writings as Scripture, just as the Pharisees did.
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.” – Luke 4:16 (ESV)
Jesus also accepted the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead, like the Pharisees and unlike the Sadducees. Josephus wrote: “They (Pharisees) also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again…” Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18:1:3
On this subject of resurrection Paul continued to identify with his Pharisaic roots, insisting as he stood on trial in Caesarea decades after Jesus’ crucifixion that the dead will be raised.
Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” – Acts 23:6 (ESV)
Misapplying the Torah
Jesus’ harsh words for the scribes and Pharisees cannot be ignored, though there were exceptional Pharisees as we have seen. These sayings were not simply invented by later Christians who put them in Jesus’ mouth from anti-Jewish motives, as some would have us believe.
A collection of woes pronounced against the Pharisees may be found in Matthew chapter 23. Here is one of those woes:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” – Matthew 23:23-24 (ESV)
It was when the Torah was misapplied that Jesus voiced his criticisms. And when the Pharisees’ tradition of the elders conflicted with the written Torah, he spoke up. The Pharisees said there could be no clash between the Torah text and the interpretation handed down by the elders, because the tradition of the elders was given at Sinai just like the written Torah was. Jesus disagreed.
A series of statements by Jesus within the Sermon on the Mount which are critical of the tradition of the elders is called the Antitheses (Matthew 5:21-48). These all begin with a statement about what “was said of old.” That refers to the oral Torah, the tradition of the elders handed down through generations, considered by Pharisees to be of equal weight to the written Torah, and never contradicting it. Jesus said, “But I say to you…”
Here is one of those antitheses from Jesus:
38”You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” – Matthew 5:38-42 (ESV)
Jesus means here that the elders’ tradition focused on vengeance (easy to do under Roman occupation), but that the real character of God is mercy. The “eye for an eye” in the Torah was already a limit on what vengeance could be taken, and the injured party was not commanded to take vengeance at all. Jesus emphasized the mercy of God.
The Antitheses end with: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48 “Perfect” translates the Greek word “teleioi” which means “complete”, rather than incomplete. The interpretations and teachings drawn from the tradition of the elders did not go far enough. They stopped short of what the Scriptures truly reveal about God.
It is quite interesting that the Pharisees themselves left us a critical look at the members of their own movement. The Talmud’s tractate Sotah begins: “Our Rabbis have taught: There are seven types of Pharisees.” The text goes on to criticize the first six kinds for shortcomings that bring to mind Jesus’ words about them. Only the seventh kind is held up to be admired. He is the Pharisee who truly loves God from the heart and delights in the Law.
Jesus had definite reasons for criticizing the Pharisees of his day. It’s easy today to become a Pharisee critic. But Jesus alone could level such criticism altogether righteously. He was not like the Pharisees. That cannot be said of the rest of us.
Conclusion
The Pharisaic movement constituted a major party in its day. Thousands took part in it. Pharisees were respected and influential. They had characteristics we would find in major denominations and churches among Christians today: rigorous study, helping the poor, strenuous piety, a sense of history, prayer, meeting together frequently, fellowship, self-denial. These were all potentially good things.
How could the Pharisees be so wrong about the Torah? And yet they were. How could they conspire to kill Jesus? And yet some of them did. How could they continue to oppose Jesus’ disciples after the Resurrection? And yet they did that, too. Questions like these should prompt all of us to keep thinking.
TOP PHOTO: ‘The Pharisees Question Jesus’ by James Tissot. (Public Domain)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
