Holy Idols, The Pharisees

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Most of us met the Pharisees in Sunday school as the bad guys. Jesus said hard things to them, and he meant every word. They were hypocrites. They treated their own rules as if God had spoken them. And they let fear keep them from looking at what God was doing right in front of them. 

But they weren't cartoon villains. They came from people who died rather than abandon God's law. They were scared, and they had good reasons to be: of God's judgment, of losing who they were, of Rome, and of the would-be messiahs Rome crucified by the thousands. They weren't all alike. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. So was Paul. And their mistakes are the same ones every believer struggles with. 

Jesus' own advice still holds: "Do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do." 

 
If you'd been a Pharisee in Jerusalem when Jesus came, which one would you have been?
  

 
1.        The mother. A mother and her seven sons die under Antiochus Epiphanes.

2.       Where they came from. Antiochus in Daniel 11, the Maccabees, and who the Pharisees were.

3.       What they were afraid of. Borrowed power, God's judgment, losing who they were, Rome, and the messiahs before Jesus.

4.       The first mistake: hypocrisy.

5.       The second mistake: putting fences in God's mouth. Our fences, Mark 7 and Corban, and the withered hand.

6.       In and out. How a fence becomes a badge.

7.        The third mistake: refusing to look. Leaders who believed but stayed quiet, miracles nobody followed to their conclusion, and Lazarus.

8.       Not villains. Sinners, not Voldemort, and why we shouldn't call everyone a Pharisee.

9.       Not all the same. Nicodemus, Gamaliel, Paul, and ignorance rather than malice.

10.   So close. The good Jesus saw in them, and his invitation.

11.     Where we land. What to keep, what to watch for, and a heart that seeks God.
 

 
Everything in this episode can be checked. Scripture quotations are from the ESV unless noted. The books of Maccabees are not in most Protestant Bibles; quotations follow the RSV. Josephus is cited by book and section number, the same in every translation; Antiquities is Antiquities of the Jews, and War is The Jewish War. A free public-domain translation is linked below.

The mother and where they came from

•           2 Maccabees 7, the mother and her seven sons; the second son's words are from 7:9. Read it (RSV)

•           2 Maccabees 6:1–2, the Temple given to Olympian Zeus; 1 Maccabees 1:41–64, the decrees of Antiochus. Read 1 Maccabees 1 (RSV)

•           1 Maccabees 4:36–59, the cleansing of the Temple, remembered at Hanukkah.

•           Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 57b, the rabbis' retelling of a mother and seven sons. Read it on Sefaria

•           Daniel 11:21, 31–33.

•           Acts 23:6–8; Acts 26:5, "the strictest party of our religion"; War 2.162–166, "the most accurate interpreters of the laws."

•           Mark 7:3–4, handwashing and the washing of cups and pots; Antiquities 13.297, the "traditions of the fathers."

•           The name "Pharisee" is usually traced to the Hebrew perushim, "separated ones." Scholars debate what they separated from.
 
What they were afraid of

Borrowed power

•           John 18:31, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death."

•           Antiquities 18.26, 33–35, 95, Roman governors appoint and remove high priests, including Caiaphas.

•           Antiquities 15.403–408; 18.90–95, the high priest's vestments kept in the Roman-held Antonia fortress and released only for festivals.

•           Antiquities 13.298; 18.15, the Pharisees' influence with the people.

God's judgment

•           Jeremiah 17:19–27, the prophet's warning about the Sabbath and the gates of Jerusalem.

•           2 Chronicles 36:15–21, the exile "until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths."

•           Nehemiah 13:15–18, Nehemiah confronts Sabbath trading: "Did not your fathers act in this way?"

Losing who they were

•           1 Maccabees 1:11–15; 2 Maccabees 4:7–17, the gymnasium in Jerusalem and those who "abandoned the holy covenant."

Rome

•           Antiquities 14.69–73; War 1.152–153, Pompey takes Jerusalem in 63 BC and enters the Holy of Holies.

•           Tacitus, Histories 5.9, a Roman historian's account of Pompey entering the Temple.

•           Psalms of Solomon 2, a Jewish poem written in reaction to Pompey's conquest.

The Messiah they hoped for

•           Psalms of Solomon 17, a first-century BC Jewish prayer for a son of David who would drive out the nations and purge Jerusalem.

•           Luke 24:21, "we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel"; Acts 1:6; John 6:15.

The messiahs before Jesus

•           Judas son of Hezekiah, who raided the armory at Sepphoris: Antiquities 17.271–272; War 2.56.

•           Simon, Herod's former servant, who crowned himself and burned the palace at Jericho: Antiquities 17.273–277; War 2.57–59. Tacitus, Histories 5.9, also mentions a Simon who "seized the title of king."

•           Athronges the shepherd and his four brothers: Antiquities 17.278–284; War 2.60–65.

•           Varus burns Sepphoris and crucifies about 2,000: Antiquities 17.286–298 (17.289, 17.295); War 2.66–79.

•           Judas the Galilean and his partner Saddok, a Pharisee: Antiquities 18.1–10 (18.4), 18.23; War 2.118; Acts 5:37.

•           Theudas: Acts 5:36. Josephus describes a Theudas around AD 45 (Antiquities 20.97–98), later than Gamaliel's speech in Acts 5. Scholars debate whether these are the same man.

•           Josephus never calls these men "messiahs." He calls them would-be kings. A king sent by God to free Israel is what the people meant by the Messiah, which is why scholars call them messianic claimants.
 
The first mistake: hypocrisy

•           Matthew 23, especially 23:4–7, 23:15, 23:16, 23:23–28, 23:29–36.

•           Ezekiel 18:1–4, 20, "The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father"; see also Jeremiah 31:29–30.

•           Matthew 23:24, "strain out a gnat and swallow a camel."

•           Matthew 5:29; Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:24, Jesus' hyperbole elsewhere.

•           Matthew 23:27, whitewashed tombs. Mishnah Shekalim 1:1 records that graves were marked each year in the month before Passover so travelers would not become unclean. Read it on Sefaria

•           James 3:2, "we all stumble in many ways."
 
The second mistake: putting fences in God's mouth

•           Mishnah Avot 1:1, "make a fence around the Torah." Read it on Sefaria

•           Ephesians 5:18; 1 Timothy 6:10; Galatians 5:19.

•           Mark 7:1–13, the tradition of the elders, Isaiah 29:13, "You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men" (7:8), and Corban (7:9–13). Matthew 15:1–9 tells the same story.

•           Mark 3:1–6, the withered hand, and the plot with the Herodians (3:6).

•           Mishnah Yoma 8:6, any possible danger to life overrides the Sabbath. Read it on Sefaria
 
In and out

•           Mishnah Demai 2:3, members of a purity fellowship and the ordinary people outside it. Read it on Sefaria

•           Mark 2:16; John 7:49; John 9:13–34.

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