THE PHARISEES | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 19, 1881

THE PHARISEES.

"The separated"—there is a whole story in the name. It was given at first, probably, to that extreme party of the Jews who opposed most bitterly the adoption of Grecian customs. Cursed alike by them was the Jew who kept pigs or taught his child Greek. But the name gathered a deeper meaning, until in the time of Christ the Pharisee felt himself "separated" as well from the rest of his own race as from the Gentiles, and could utter complacently that prayer, "I thank thee that I am not as other men."

The Pharisees were the Jews of the Jews when all the Jews were filled with hatred towards all other men, would refuse even to point out the way to any but a Jew, would receive a proselyte only on condition that he abjure his country and abandon his children, parents and family, and held ignorance of everything not Jewish a sacred part of their religion. It was the Pharisee's pride to be considered the orthodox of his race, the perfect exponent and representative of Moses, the flower of God's "chosen people."

It was as the orthodox party, hedging around the law with oral traditions held equally sacred and binding with the law, that the Pharisees grew into power and became the recognized religious leaders of the nation. They soon strove to be its political leaders also, and to mould the State into an independent theocracy. They recognized no law but that of Moses with all their additions.

They looked upon Herod as an usurper of civil and divine rights, and hated the Roman dominion with unspeakable hatred. To them may be traced the restless turbulence of the nation, which "made Judea, to Herod and the Roman emperors, what Ireland at one time was to England, and Poland to Russia—the seat of chronic revolt, which knew no considerations of odds against success, and seemed to take counsel of despair." In Christ's day the Pharisees numbered above 6,000 men in Judea, and were at the height of their power in the national councils. Josephus, himself one of them, says they prided themselves greatly on their knowledge of the law, and made men believe they were holier than their neighbors, and especially in favor with God. They plotted Herod's death with the women of his family. They claimed the gift of prophecy, were closely bound together, and had as their one great thought and inspiration the founding of a grand hierarchy in which the Jews should reign over the whole world. The Messiah they expected was to set up such a kingdom for them.

By the traditions with which the Pharisees sought to bind the whole Jewish race together, they treated men like children, formalizing and defining the minutest particulars of daily action. They were the extreme Ritualists of their day, and made the usual mistake, if not the inevitable one, of losing the spirit of religion in its form. There had been at first and there always were some good and holy men among them, and their reputation had largely been gained because of their plain and rigorous life, with fastings oft. Indeed, those who strictly followed their rules would have little time for anything else but observances. But they had largely divorced religion from morality, so that it was possible for the worst among them morally, to be considered the most religious. Their character had become such as to fully justify the denunciations of Jesus, the most bitter that ever fell from his lips.

To show the Pharisaic feeling brought out in the lesson at the failure of Christ to wash his hands before dinner, it was related by the Jews of later times with intense admiration how the Rabbi Akiba, when imprisoned and given only water enough to maintain life, preferred to die of starvation rather than eat without the proper washings. That illustrates well, too, the spirit with which the Pharisees looked upon all their formalities. They went into elaborate argument, in their supplement or commentary on the Mishna of the Talmud, to show how the candles of the Sabbath were to be lighted, and with what materials. There was a grave discussion between opposing parties as to whether an egg laid on a festival might be eaten, the school of Shammai saying yes, the school of Hillel saying no.—Examiner and Chronicle.