Why Watch Pharisees

I thought that the Pharisees were strict followers of the letter of the law without comprehending the spirit. They expected everyone to follow all of the minutiae instead of trying to know or understand God. If you have a moment maybe you could fill me in further.

This is definitely a subject which will draw fire and ire. That being said, I have long maintained that there are among us today direct descendants of those Pharisees who targeted Christ and the early Christians. They are not gone and they continue to persecute Christians and Christianity when they can get away with it. But on the other hand there are wise men like Rabbi Daniel Lapin who recognize the harm of pharisaic teachings and are fighting the good fight within their own congregation.

There are Pharisees in every religion. They are the people who follow the letter of the Law, but ignore the spirit of the Law. They are the ones who memorize the Great Books by rote but have no understanding.

Yes, the Pharisees are still amoung us, they preach hatred and bigotry, they have a discernment problem....never knowing where to draw the line they force their opinions upon others. They are either too strict or too liberal, never seeming to find the middle ground that will allow a soul to florish. They are the ones spoken of in Mathew 23:

Woe to you, Pharisees and you other religious leaders. Hypocrites! For you won't let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you won't go in yourselves. And you pretend to be holy, with all your long, public prayers in the streets, while you are evicting widows from their homes. Hyprcrites! Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all lengths to make one convert and then turn him into twice the son of hell you are yourselves.

Interesting, isn't it?

>I thought that the Pharisees were strict followers of the letter of the law without comprehending the spirit. They expected everyone to follow all of the minutiae instead of trying to know or understand God.

Good summary. Jesus said of them: Mt 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

They were hypocrites, but the Lord said to do. If there is a major error in today's religious leaders, it is that they promote false doctrines of easy believism and have stretched Grace like saranwrap over all sin and disobedience and people have been deceived into not obeying God. There is a whole generation or two that has as a mainstay doctrine, "You can't tell me what to do!" like spoiled teenagers who never grew up.

Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

One thing is certain: Nobody will ever speak or write of the Pharisees in the first person. Always in the third person.

Great post. The drug warriors are the pharisees. The Nazi's were the pharisees. Anyone who believes that they can turn others into criminals by simply writing a law is a pharisee.

Pharisees in the US? The Traditional politically correct and the new politically correct.

Both are noted for hypocrisy. That they are hypocrites does not mean that everything they preach is wrong. Some of what they preach is true. But their actions betray the truth. And thus the other half of what they preach is to spin a fog around their hypocrisy. Need examples?

My Roman Catholic church opposes abortion. The local church leaders focus on "peace, justice and non-violence". They claim to speak for the powerless who cannot speak for themselves. They denounce capital punishment for known guilty serial murderers. They denounce Bush and push Gore from the pulpit.

Yet these local church leaders never mention abortion, which is violence and injustice to the least powerful, most innocent members of our society. Roe v Wade did not say abortion was peaceful non-violence. Roe v Wade said that it was "justifiable homicide"...that the woman had a right to choose to commit this act of violence in the same way that people (used to) have the right to self-defense when self-defense is admittedly violent.

Lest pro-lifers be too comfortable in this exposure of the hypocrisy of "liberals", let it be known that many pro-lifers are just a hypocritical...albeit about some other inconsistent facet of their lives.

P.S. Tell that Architect fellow that I pray for both of you and wish you a Merry Christmas.

Thank you. Here's to ridding the pharisees from our lives.

I thought that the Pharisees were strict followers of the letter of the law without comprehending the spirit. They expected everyone to follow all of the minutiae instead of trying to know or understand God. If you have a moment maybe you could fill me in further.

I believe YOU are correct. They worshiped the law and not the giver! This is not about Israel.

FYI

Were all Pharisees hypocrites? Weren't Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus both Pharisees? Seems they were both 'good guys." The Talmud claims that there were seven classes of Pharisee and only one acted out of love.

Was it not the Sadducees that were mostly responsible for Christ's death? They were significant as part of the ruling Sanhedrin authority at the time and the major influence in the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas, the chief priest of the Sanhedrin was a Sadduccee.

"The polemical utterances in the Gospels...created the image of the Pharisees as religious hypocrites--an image from which only modern research has freed them." Encylopaedia Brittanica. So who do we believe in this matter?

This is not about Israel.
No, it isn't. Is someone trying to make it about Israel? I would hope not.

They expected everyone to follow all of the minutiae instead of trying to know or understand God.
Good analysis. They couldn't get God into their lives so why should anyone else?
So much out of context with the time and place and ongoing conversations and perceptions...
Pick and choose to form a picture out of line and out of character.

One of the members of a school or party among the ancient Jews noted for the strict formal observance of the rites and validity of traditions of the elders. Pharisee interpretation provided the standard of observation and belief for the great majority of the Jews from the 1st century A.D.

The Pharisees were leaders and authorities of the organized religion that claimed the Bible (Old Testament only at that time) as its authority. The pharisees today are the leaders and authorities of those orgaized religions and denominations that claim the Bible is their authority generally known as Christian. Today, the religious leaders and authorities do not call themselves Pharisees, they call themselves priests, pastors, ministers, bishops, theologians, etc.

It was organized religion that demanded adherence to the traditions and teaching of earlier authorities, just as it does today. It was always the Pharisees that quoted scripture to back up their man-made laws, rituals, and practices, just as it is today. The Pharisees always claim they are God's authority on earth. If Christ should be born today, to live and walk among men, our organized religions would seek to kill him, just as it did before.

Ask any of these religious leaders why Jesus came. He may bable something about saving men, or saving men from sin. If they really know the Bible they may quote Paul, (1 Tim. 1:15) "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."

None will quote what Jesus Himself said His purpose for being born in the world was: John 18:37 "...Jesus answered, ... to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

Most today confuse the voice of some donominational authority, church leader, or the Pope for the voice of Jesus Christ.

Jesus never came to form an organized religion, which is always the enemy of truth.

Hank

Matthew 16

1: The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
2: He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3: And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
4: A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
5: And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6: Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
7: And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
8: Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
9: Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
10: Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
11: How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12: Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Luke 12

1: In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2: For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
3: Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
4: And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5: But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Matthew 18

21: Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22: Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
23: Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
24: And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
25: But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26: The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
27: Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
28: But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
29: And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
30: And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
31: So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
32: Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
33: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
34: And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
35: So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

From Kabbalah Under Examination:

The following comments are from Rabbi Lipman on the Web, from 5/6/01
Speaking of the Saducees, Pharisees, and Essenes in Judea “as early as 151 BCE” Lipman writes, “The Sadducees ... came primarily from ... priestly families ... involved in the sacrificial cult of the Second Temple. ... The Sadducees recognized the authority of the written Torah ... The Pharisees represented a NEW stream of Jewish thought. They maintained that, in ADDITION to the written Torah, God had handed down an ORAL Tradition ... They challenged the priests and maintained that the priests didn't know the correct laws because they DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION. ... THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE ORAL TORAH. ... The Essenes viewed both the Sadducees and the Pharisees as corruptors of Jewish law.”
I would just like to draw attention to the Pharisee claim of an “oral law” being “a new stream” of thought, circa 151 BCE, and that the priests of Israel “DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION” of the Pharisees, “THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE ORAL TORAH” of the Pharisees.
The Jewish historian Josephus says the same thing as Lipman. Josephus wrote in AD 77 “What I would now explain is this: the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many rituals by succession from their fathers which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to accept those rituals to be obligatory which are in THE WRITTEN WORD, but are NOT TO OBSERVE what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.” Josephus, Antiquities 13:10
The people of Israel, indeed even the PRIESTS of GOD'S Temple, were objecting 2,100 years ago to the "NEW" idea being pushed by the Pharisees, that the ORAL traditions of the Pharisee's and their own teachers, be elevated in rank and be made as binding as the WRITTEN WORD OF GOD. The idea was denounced as preposterous. Josephus well spoke the mind of the priests, that the people of Israel were to hold only those things "obligatory which are in THE WRITTEN WORD, but are NOT TO OBSERVE" these later commentaries by the Pharisees and the teachers they were sitting under and following. And Rabbi Lipman well notes that the priests of Israel “DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION” of the Pharisees, “THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE" so-called "ORAL TORAH” of the Pharisees.
That is not some new outcry of modern times, but a voice that has been crying out to Jews for twenty or twenty-three centuries!
But this Website is not actually calling for that. This is not a forum calling for the rejection of the Talmud, the so-called "Oral" Torah. We point out these issues not for their own sake, but only to lend weight to our own suggestion, which is far more moderate. Our plea here is not for REJECTION of the Talmud, but simply for the appropriate SUBORDINATION of it. It does not belong on an equal level with THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD, THE HEBREW BIBLE. One should not judge SCRIPTURE by the Talmud. The Word of GOD is not to be judged by the word of MAN. The Talmud is to be always judged by the SCRIPTURE.
That is the main point of this particular page. The Scriptures are superior to the Talmud, or any so-called "oral" tradition.

>>>Yes, the Pharisees are still amoung us, they preach hatred and bigotry, they have a discernment problem....

Jesus said, Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. So obedience is involved in one's will (choice) and is because of LOVE not HATE. I don't force my beliefs on anyone, rather I point them to Him and His Word which says to obey Him or take the consequences. Those who do love HIM, obey Him. Those who don't, won't and generally hate everyone else and try to crucify His messengers.

Pharisees don't have a discernment problem because they don't have discernment, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. He only gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him and not to those who don't.

Ac 5:32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

>>>never knowing where to draw the line they force their opinions upon others. They are either too strict or too liberal, never seeming to find the middle ground that will allow a soul to florish.

The middle ground is that territory called "spewed out" or "sinking sand." All through the Bible God calls people to be for him or against Him, hot or cold.