a sect of the Jews. The earliest mention of them is by
Josephus, who tells us that they were a sect of considerable weight when
John Hyrcanus was high priest, B. C. 108. They were the most numerous,
distinguished, and popular sect among the Jews. The time when they first
appeared is not known, but it is supposed to have been not long after
the institution of the Sadducees, if, indeed the two sects did not
gradually spring up together. They derived their name from the Hebrew
word _pharash_, which signifies separated,” or set apart;” because they
separated themselves from the rest of the Jews to superior strictness in
religious observances. They boasted that, from their accurate knowledge
of religion, they were the favourites of Heaven; and thus, trusting in
themselves that they were righteous, despised others, Luke xi, 52;
xviii, 9, 11. Among the tenets inculcated by this sect, we may enumerate
the following: namely, they ascribed all things to fate or providence;
yet not so absolutely as to take away the free will of man; for fate
does not coöperate in every action, Acts v, 38, 39. They also believed
in the existence of angels and spirits, and in the resurrection of the
dead; Acts xxiii, 8. Lastly: the Pharisees contended that God stood
engaged to bless the Jews, to make them all partakers of the terrestrial
kingdom of the Messiah, to justify them, and make them eternally happy.
The cause of their justification they derived from the merits of
Abraham, from their knowledge of God, from their practising the rite of
circumcision, and from the sacrifices they offered. And as they
conceived works to be meritorious, they had invented a great number of
supererogatory ones, to which they attached greater merit than to the
observance of the law itself. To this notion St. Paul has some allusions
in those parts of his Epistle to the Romans, in which be combats the
erroneous suppositions of the Jews, Rom. i-xi.
The Pharisees were the strictest of the three principal sects that
divided the Jewish nation, Acts xxvi, 5, and affected a singular probity
of manners according to their system; which, however, was, for the most
part, both lax and corrupt. Thus many things which Moses had tolerated
in civil life, in order to avoid a greater evil, the Pharisees
determined to be morally right: for instance, the law of divorce from a
wife for any cause, Matt. v, 31, &c; xix, 3–12. (See _Divorce_.)
Farther: they interpreted certain of the Mosaic laws most literally, and
distorted their meaning so as to favour their own selfish system. Thus,
the law of loving their neighbour, they expounded solely of the love of
their friends, that is, of the whole Jewish race; all other persons
being considered by them as natural enemies, whom they were in no
respect bound to assist, Matt. v, 43; Luke x, 31–33. They also trifled
with oaths. Dr. Lightfoot has cited a striking illustration of this from
Maimonides. An oath, in which the name of God was not distinctly
specified, they taught was not binding, Matt. v, 33; maintaining that a
man might even swear with his lips, and at the same time annul it in his
heart! And yet so rigorously did they understand the command of
observing the Sabbath day, that they accounted it unlawful to pluck ears
of corn, and heal the sick, &c, Matt. xii; Luke vi, 6, &c; xiv. Many
moral rules they accounted inferior to the ceremonial laws, to the total
neglect of mercy and fidelity, Matt. v, 19; xv, 4; xxiii, 23. Hence they
accounted causeless anger and impure desires as trifles of no moment,
Matt. v, 21, 22, 27–30; they compassed sea and land to make proselytes
to the Jewish religion from among the Gentiles, that they might rule
over their consciences and wealth; and these proselytes, through the
influence of their own scandalous examples and characters, they soon
rendered more profligate and abandoned than ever they were before their
conversion, Matt. xxiii, 15. Esteeming temporal happiness and riches as
the highest good, they scrupled not to accumulate wealth by every means,
legal or illegal, Matt. v, 1–12; xxiii, 5; Luke xvi, 14; James ii, 1–8;
vain and ambitious of popular applause, they offered up long prayers in
public places, but not without self-complacency in their own holiness,
Matt. vi, 2–5; Luke xviii, 11; under a sanctimonious appearance of
respect for the memories of the prophets whom their ancestors had slain,
they repaired and beautified their sepulchres, Matt. xxiii, 29; and such
was their idea of their own sanctity, that they thought themselves
defiled if they but touched or conversed with sinners, that is, with
publicans or tax-gatherers, and persons of loose and irregular lives,
Luke vii, 39; xv, 1.
But, above all their other tenets, the Pharisees were conspicuous for
their reverential observance of the traditions or decrees of the elders:
these traditions, they pretended, had been handed down from Moses
through every generation, but were not committed to writing; and they
were not merely considered as of equal authority with the divine law,
but even preferable to it. The words of the scribes,” said they, are
lovely above the words of the law; for the words of the law are weighty
and light, but the words of the scribes are _all_ weighty.” Among the
traditions thus sanctimoniously observed by the Pharisees, we may
briefly notice the following: the washing of hands up to the wrist
before and after meat, Matthew xv, 2; Mark vii, 3; which they accounted
not merely a religious duty, but considered its omission as a crime
equal to fornication, and punishable by excommunication: the
purification of the cups, vessels, and couches used at their meals by
ablutions or washings, Mark vii, 4; for which purpose the six large
water pots mentioned by St. John, ii, 6, were destined: their fasting
twice a week with great appearance of austerity, Luke xviii, 12; Matt.
vi, 16; thus converting that exercise into religion which is only a help
toward the performance of its hallowed duties: their punctilious payment
of tithes, (temple-offerings,) even of the most trifling things, Luke
xviii, 12; Matt. xxiii, 23. And their wearing broader phylacteries and
larger fringes to their garments than the rest of the Jews, Matt. xxiii,
5. See PHYLACTERIES.
With all their pretensions to piety, the Pharisees entertained the most
sovereign contempt for the people; whom, being ignorant of the law, they
pronounced to be accursed, John vii, 49. Yet such was the esteem and
veneration in which they were held by the populace, that they may almost
be said to have given what direction they pleased to public affairs; and
hence the great men dreaded their power and authority. It is
unquestionable, as Mosheim has well remarked, that the religion of the
Pharisees was, for the most part, founded in consummate hypocrisy; and
that, at the bottom, they were generally the slaves of every vicious
appetite, proud, arrogant, and avaricious, consulting only the
gratification of their lusts, even at the very moment when they
professed themselves to be engaged in the service of their Maker. These
odious features in the character of the Pharisees caused them to be
reprehended by our Saviour with the utmost severity, even more so than
the Sadducees; who, although they had departed widely from the genuine
principles of religion, yet did not impose on mankind by a pretended
sanctity, or devote themselves with insatiate greediness to the
acquisition of honours and riches. A few, and a few only of the sect of
the Pharisees in those times, might be of better character,--men who,
though self-righteous and deluded and bigoted, were not like the rest,
hypocritical. Of this number was Saul of Tarsus; but as a body their
attachment to traditions; their passionate expectation of deliverance
from the Roman yoke by the Messiah, and the splendour of his civil
reign, their pride, and above all their vices, sufficiently account for
that unconquerable unbelief which had possessed their minds as to the
claims of Christ, and their resistance to the evidence of his miracles.
The sect of the Pharisees was not extinguished by the ruin of the Jewish
commonwealth. The greater part of the Jews are still Pharisees, being as
much devoted to traditions, or the oral law, as their ancestors were.
Josephus, who tells us that they were a sect of considerable weight when
John Hyrcanus was high priest, B. C. 108. They were the most numerous,
distinguished, and popular sect among the Jews. The time when they first
appeared is not known, but it is supposed to have been not long after
the institution of the Sadducees, if, indeed the two sects did not
gradually spring up together. They derived their name from the Hebrew
word _pharash_, which signifies separated,” or set apart;” because they
separated themselves from the rest of the Jews to superior strictness in
religious observances. They boasted that, from their accurate knowledge
of religion, they were the favourites of Heaven; and thus, trusting in
themselves that they were righteous, despised others, Luke xi, 52;
xviii, 9, 11. Among the tenets inculcated by this sect, we may enumerate
the following: namely, they ascribed all things to fate or providence;
yet not so absolutely as to take away the free will of man; for fate
does not coöperate in every action, Acts v, 38, 39. They also believed
in the existence of angels and spirits, and in the resurrection of the
dead; Acts xxiii, 8. Lastly: the Pharisees contended that God stood
engaged to bless the Jews, to make them all partakers of the terrestrial
kingdom of the Messiah, to justify them, and make them eternally happy.
The cause of their justification they derived from the merits of
Abraham, from their knowledge of God, from their practising the rite of
circumcision, and from the sacrifices they offered. And as they
conceived works to be meritorious, they had invented a great number of
supererogatory ones, to which they attached greater merit than to the
observance of the law itself. To this notion St. Paul has some allusions
in those parts of his Epistle to the Romans, in which be combats the
erroneous suppositions of the Jews, Rom. i-xi.
The Pharisees were the strictest of the three principal sects that
divided the Jewish nation, Acts xxvi, 5, and affected a singular probity
of manners according to their system; which, however, was, for the most
part, both lax and corrupt. Thus many things which Moses had tolerated
in civil life, in order to avoid a greater evil, the Pharisees
determined to be morally right: for instance, the law of divorce from a
wife for any cause, Matt. v, 31, &c; xix, 3–12. (See _Divorce_.)
Farther: they interpreted certain of the Mosaic laws most literally, and
distorted their meaning so as to favour their own selfish system. Thus,
the law of loving their neighbour, they expounded solely of the love of
their friends, that is, of the whole Jewish race; all other persons
being considered by them as natural enemies, whom they were in no
respect bound to assist, Matt. v, 43; Luke x, 31–33. They also trifled
with oaths. Dr. Lightfoot has cited a striking illustration of this from
Maimonides. An oath, in which the name of God was not distinctly
specified, they taught was not binding, Matt. v, 33; maintaining that a
man might even swear with his lips, and at the same time annul it in his
heart! And yet so rigorously did they understand the command of
observing the Sabbath day, that they accounted it unlawful to pluck ears
of corn, and heal the sick, &c, Matt. xii; Luke vi, 6, &c; xiv. Many
moral rules they accounted inferior to the ceremonial laws, to the total
neglect of mercy and fidelity, Matt. v, 19; xv, 4; xxiii, 23. Hence they
accounted causeless anger and impure desires as trifles of no moment,
Matt. v, 21, 22, 27–30; they compassed sea and land to make proselytes
to the Jewish religion from among the Gentiles, that they might rule
over their consciences and wealth; and these proselytes, through the
influence of their own scandalous examples and characters, they soon
rendered more profligate and abandoned than ever they were before their
conversion, Matt. xxiii, 15. Esteeming temporal happiness and riches as
the highest good, they scrupled not to accumulate wealth by every means,
legal or illegal, Matt. v, 1–12; xxiii, 5; Luke xvi, 14; James ii, 1–8;
vain and ambitious of popular applause, they offered up long prayers in
public places, but not without self-complacency in their own holiness,
Matt. vi, 2–5; Luke xviii, 11; under a sanctimonious appearance of
respect for the memories of the prophets whom their ancestors had slain,
they repaired and beautified their sepulchres, Matt. xxiii, 29; and such
was their idea of their own sanctity, that they thought themselves
defiled if they but touched or conversed with sinners, that is, with
publicans or tax-gatherers, and persons of loose and irregular lives,
Luke vii, 39; xv, 1.
But, above all their other tenets, the Pharisees were conspicuous for
their reverential observance of the traditions or decrees of the elders:
these traditions, they pretended, had been handed down from Moses
through every generation, but were not committed to writing; and they
were not merely considered as of equal authority with the divine law,
but even preferable to it. The words of the scribes,” said they, are
lovely above the words of the law; for the words of the law are weighty
and light, but the words of the scribes are _all_ weighty.” Among the
traditions thus sanctimoniously observed by the Pharisees, we may
briefly notice the following: the washing of hands up to the wrist
before and after meat, Matthew xv, 2; Mark vii, 3; which they accounted
not merely a religious duty, but considered its omission as a crime
equal to fornication, and punishable by excommunication: the
purification of the cups, vessels, and couches used at their meals by
ablutions or washings, Mark vii, 4; for which purpose the six large
water pots mentioned by St. John, ii, 6, were destined: their fasting
twice a week with great appearance of austerity, Luke xviii, 12; Matt.
vi, 16; thus converting that exercise into religion which is only a help
toward the performance of its hallowed duties: their punctilious payment
of tithes, (temple-offerings,) even of the most trifling things, Luke
xviii, 12; Matt. xxiii, 23. And their wearing broader phylacteries and
larger fringes to their garments than the rest of the Jews, Matt. xxiii,
5. See PHYLACTERIES.
With all their pretensions to piety, the Pharisees entertained the most
sovereign contempt for the people; whom, being ignorant of the law, they
pronounced to be accursed, John vii, 49. Yet such was the esteem and
veneration in which they were held by the populace, that they may almost
be said to have given what direction they pleased to public affairs; and
hence the great men dreaded their power and authority. It is
unquestionable, as Mosheim has well remarked, that the religion of the
Pharisees was, for the most part, founded in consummate hypocrisy; and
that, at the bottom, they were generally the slaves of every vicious
appetite, proud, arrogant, and avaricious, consulting only the
gratification of their lusts, even at the very moment when they
professed themselves to be engaged in the service of their Maker. These
odious features in the character of the Pharisees caused them to be
reprehended by our Saviour with the utmost severity, even more so than
the Sadducees; who, although they had departed widely from the genuine
principles of religion, yet did not impose on mankind by a pretended
sanctity, or devote themselves with insatiate greediness to the
acquisition of honours and riches. A few, and a few only of the sect of
the Pharisees in those times, might be of better character,--men who,
though self-righteous and deluded and bigoted, were not like the rest,
hypocritical. Of this number was Saul of Tarsus; but as a body their
attachment to traditions; their passionate expectation of deliverance
from the Roman yoke by the Messiah, and the splendour of his civil
reign, their pride, and above all their vices, sufficiently account for
that unconquerable unbelief which had possessed their minds as to the
claims of Christ, and their resistance to the evidence of his miracles.
The sect of the Pharisees was not extinguished by the ruin of the Jewish
commonwealth. The greater part of the Jews are still Pharisees, being as
much devoted to traditions, or the oral law, as their ancestors were.