Pharisees

According to the Bible, Pharisees were the group of lawmakers in the Jewish church. They were very involved in lawmaking, including the law that Moses received from God, however they went to the extreme to make sure the people followed them. Along with being against Jesus’ teachings, The Pharisees were known for being the "Disciples of the Wise". Pharisees were simply common people of a town. However, with their sophisticated scholarly interpretations on the Bible, they were respected on a higher rank, therefore had more control over the population than just the common people. Even Herald the Great feared getting on the wrong side of a Pharisees. Anyone who had read the Bible would know that a large quantity of the Pharisees were…

towards followers of Christ, and talks about how and why he became a devout follower. He talks about how the Lord told him to leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people there would not accept his testimony. However, the crowd still wanted Paul to be killed and taken away, because of his interaction with Gentiles. Just as Paul was about to be flogged by the Roman soldiers, he says that he is a Roman citizen. At this, the interrogators drew back, and the commander was alarmed that he had put…

Throughout his complete works, Josephus identifies three main sects of Judaism that were present within his lifetime: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Throughout his different works he offers many descriptions of these different sects. He describes the Pharisees in the most detail, likely because he asserts that the Pharisees drew much support from the common man and that he himself was once a Pharisee (Antiquities 13.10.5). It is useful to help understand these three sects by…

dining in the home of a synagogue official” (Dinkler, 2013, p. 340) in fact, the official is “a Pharisee” (Dinkler, 2013, p. 340), at the Pharisees house, Jesus “heals a man suffering from dropsy” (Hartstock, 2013, p. 342). The sacred text “shows a compassionate Jesus at table on the Sabbath, confronting the hardness and legalism of Pharisees” (Story, 2009, p. 68). Jesus had previously interacted with the Pharisees, where “the relationship between Jesus and Pharisees is punctuated by conflict”…

New Testament Sadducees, are descendants from Hasmonean families (Middendorf 50). The Sadducees are from the known parts of Jerusalem (Middendorf 50). They belong to the upper classes of Israel and are high priestly families (The Jewish Religious System). The Sadducees are leaders in the Jewish culture, yet rejected all supernatural objectives. They did not believe in the “popular beliefs of angels, spirits, and the resurrection of the dead” (Middendorf 50). The Sadducees had talked with…

Introduction Thesis: Biblical teachers should be focused on the needs of the vulnerable in their society rather than their appearance with the people in public settings. Two Types of Teachers: Scribes vs. Jesus (12:35-37; 41-44) Chapter 12:35-44 is a continuation of the previous events in chapter 12. One of the themes seen in the previous events is Jesus being questioned, specifically by the scribes. The goal of the Pharisees and Scribes was to catch Jesus in the offense in order for them to…

to show us a further conflict between Jesus, and the Judeans. While the initial conflict takes place between Jesus and the Pharisees, he will be attacked by a larger group of general Judeans (8:31). Chapter 8 represents the growing enmity between Jesus and people, other than the disciples, who have potential to follow him. He becomes more and more bold throughout the chapter, being able to confidently assert himself as a child of God, and not as an adversarial force (as the Jews had labeled…

Martin Goodman comments vehemently on the first century CE sects of Judaism and focussing on important similarities as well as differences, this paired with Philo’s Apologia pro Iudaeis and Josephus’s Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities calls for some interesting, thought-provoking discussion. I especially find interest in his comments on the contradictions between the Sadducees in contrast to the Pharisees, it is easy to presume that the Sadducee and the Pharisee as an individual could not be any…

well as the highlighting of the racism of the Pharisees (we will also see a return of Nicodemus). 7:1-24 This section immediately lets us know both Jesus ' setting (Galilee) as well as his rationale for avoiding…

Essenes are Jewish just like Jesus. They believe that any pleasure is bad; they don’t engage in marriage because they think that a woman cannot be faithful to one man, but they agree that people can get married. They despise rich people and believe that everyone should be equal financially; they are all equal because it’s their law and they share everything that they have with each other. They are hard working men, so, to them, being sweaty is a good thing. When they travel to remote places, the…