Who were the Pharisees in the time of the second Temple?

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.”
(Shabbat 31a)

1. Background: judaism of the Second Temple

• Period: since the rebuilding of the Temple (ca. 516 a. Bc) until its destruction by Rome in 70 ce. C.).
• Main features:
  • The absence of monarchy davidita; power in the hands of priests and, later, of dynasties such as the asmoneos and herodian.
  • Judaism plural: pharisees, sadducees, essenes, groups apocalyptic, “common people” (ʿam ha-aretz), later zealots, etc
  • Center of worship: the Temple of Jerusalembut at the same time grow the synagoguesthe prayer and the study of the Torah.

In this landscape appear the pharisees as one of the two great currents popular, along with the sadducees (more aristocratic).

2. Name and etymology of “pharisees”

• In Hebrew/aramaico: perushim / perishaya (פְּרוּשִׁים), which means “separated” or “paragraphs”.
• “Separated” in various senses as possible:
  • Separated from the population ritually neglected (ʿam ha-aretz).
  • Separate influences of hellenistic or pagan.
  • Separated from the elite priestly saducea, in the political-religious.

In Greek, the sources (Gospels, Josephus) call Φαρισαῖοι (Pharisaioi), transcription of the term semitic.

3. Historical sources on the pharisees

What we know of them comes from four broad types of sources:

1. Flavius Josephus (s. I. d. C.):
   • Jewish antiquities and Jewish war describe the pharisees, sadducees and essenes as “three philosophies” of judaism.
2. New Testament:
   • Especially the Gospels and Acts, where the pharisees appear in dispute halájicas with Jesus and Paul.
3. Rabbinic literature:
   • Mishnah (ca. 200 d. C.) and Talmud preserved traditions of wise men, in their majority, they continue the line farisea, although no longer used by both the labels “pharisee / sadducean cultured”.
4. Texts of Judaism from the Desert (Qumran):
   • The essenes (or the group of Qumran) polemizan against those who probably include pharisees and priests of Jerusalem, although without naming them always in a direct way.

All of these fonts are partial and often contentious, so there's that contrast.

4. Historical origin of the pharisees

4.1. Background

• After the exile in Babylon and the return under the persians, the power is vested in the priesthood and the scribes, experts in the Torah.
• In hellenistic times (domain of the seleucids), there is a group of “pious” (chasidim), and supports the resistance against the impositions pagan antecedent likely of the pharisees.

4.2. Emergence in the era asmonea

• Century II. C.: with the dynasty asmonea (Maccabees), the priests of this family take political and religious power (high priesthood + royalty).
• The pharisees emerged as a group of wise men, and scribes that:
  • Do not accept without more control priestly/real-asmoneos.
  • Defend an interpretation more “democratized” of the Torah.
• Josephus mentions for the first time to the pharisees under the government of Jonathan and then John Hyrcanus (mid s. II. C.).

4.3. Conflicts with the kings asmoneos

• With John Hyrcanus and, above all, with Alexander Jannaeus, the tension breaks out:
  • A pharisee named Eleazar question the legitimacy priestly of Hyrcanus.
  • Alexander Jannaeus is allied with the sadducees and aims violently the pharisees (accounts of crucifixions mass in Josephus).
• After the death of Alexander Jannaeus, his widow Salome Alexandra rules (76-67 to. C.) and favors the pharisees, that they dominate the Sanhedrin.

In summary: born as a current scholars tied to the people, in tension with the elite priestly and with the power asmoneo.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
(Avot 1:14)

5. Social Base and organization

5.1. Social Base

• The pharisees were a sect lowercase; in the sources appear as very popular:
  • Linked to scribes, teachers of the Law, rabbis in germ.
  • Supported by sectors, media and popular: artisans, farmers, merchants, in contrast with the elite priestly saducea.

5.2. Structure

• They were not a church with a hierarchy rigid, but a network of scholars and disciples:
  • Central figures: pairs (zugot) of the wise men of previous generations to 70 d. C., as Hillel and Shamai.
  • They are organized in study circles and brotherhood of purity (chaverim), with strict rules on what to eat, who to eat, how to tithing, etc

5.3. Role in the community

• Worked like:
  • Interpreters of the Torah for the people.
  • Judges and authorities halájicas in everyday matters.
  • Educators synagogues and houses of study.

6. The central doctrine: written Torah and oral Torah

The distinctive feature key:

They believed that next to the Written torah (the five books of Moses) there is a Oral torah, interpretative tradition given also to Moses by God and transmitted by sages.

6.1. Oral torah

• This oral tradition:
  • Explains how to apply the commandments in specific situations.
  • Set “fences around the Torah” (gezerot) to avoid transgressions involuntary.
  • Regulates aspects of daily life: food, purity, Shabbat, marriage, agriculture, tithes, etc
• Later, the oral Torah will be encoded in the Mishnah that was developed in the Talmud (rabbinic judaism).

6.2. Purity in everyday life

• While the Law of Moses linked to many standards of purity Templethe pharisees taught that:
  • The table of home it resembles the altar.
  • You have to observe standards of purity even when eating food common (not only sacrifices).
  • There is that tithing with rigor and separate portions to the priests and levites.

This stretched the “priestly” to all the peopleone of the big changes that survive to the Temple.

7. Other faiths features

7.1. Providence and human freedom

• Unlike the sadducees (more “rationalist”), the pharisees said:
  • The divine providence that governs history.
  • But also a certain free will human: God directs the ensemble, the man is responsible for his actions.

7.2. Resurrection and future life

• The pharisees believed in:
  • Resurrection of the dead at the end of time.
  • Reward and punishment post-mortem.
  • Existence of angels and spirits.
• The sadducees, however, denied the resurrection, angels, and immortal soul, according to the christian sources and Josephus.

7.3. Synagogue, prayer and study

• They give huge importance to:
  • Synagogues as places of Torah reading and teaching.
  • The regular prayer (not only sacrifices in the Temple).
  • The study of the Law as the supreme form of worship.

After 70 d. C., these elements will be the center of judaism.

“If you have a plant in your hand and tell you that Messiah comes, floor first floor, and then go to meet him.”
(Avot of Rabbi Natan 31b)

8. Pharisees in the political history of the Second Temple

8.1. The asmoneos to Rome

• With Salome Alexandra, the pharisees reach maximum influence policy.
• When erupts Rome (Pompey, 63. C.), the pharisees seem to be:
  • See the roman intervention as a punishment for the corruption asmonea.
  • Seek to maintain the Torah more than political independence at any price.

8.2. Under Herod and his successors

• Herod the Great it relies more on the elite saducea, but respects in part to the influence of popular farisea.
• The pharisees continue to be:
  • Very influential in the people.
  • Present in the Sanhedrin and in the religious life everyday.

8.3. Attitude to the riots

• In the First jewish War (66-70 d. C.), the attitude farisea was nuanced:
  • Some scholars seem to have supported the principle of resistance.
  • Others, such as the traditions about Yohanan ben Zakkaiprioritise to preserve the Torah and teaching above the fight suicide against Rome.

They were not a monolithic block, but in general they were less identified with the violent extremism that the zealots.

9. Relationship with other jewish groups

9.1. Pharisees and sadducees

• Doctrinal differences:
  • Oral torah: accepted by the pharisees, rejected by the sadducees.
  • Resurrection and angels: asserted by the pharisees, denied by the sadducees.
  • Purity: pharisees extend standards of purity to the field everyday; sadducees focus on the Temple.
• Social differences:
  • Sadducees: elite priestly aristocracy, allies to power.
  • Pharisees: scholars, scribes, and more link with the masses.

9.2. Pharisees and essenes

• The essenes (among them the group of Qumran) critical:
  • The corruption of the Temple.
  • The official authorities (priests, possibly including pharisees).
• They opt for a radical separation in communities of their own in the wilderness; the pharisees, in contrast, remain in the midst of the people and of the Temple, seeking to reform it from within.

9.3. Pharisees and zealots

• The zealots they were a movement nationalist-revolutionary.
• The pharisees, though they could be critical of Rome, is defined primarily by:
  • Observance of the Law.
  • Religious life and legal, not political violence.
• After the disaster of the ' 70s, the line farisea (which ends in the rabinismo) is imposed on the logic of rebellion constant.

10. Pharisees, Jesus and early christianity

Although your primary focus is historical, this is key because many images of the pharisees comes from the Gospels.

10.1. In the Gospels

• To appear in:
  • Disputes Shabbat, purity, food, fasting, contact with sinners, etc
  • Disputes over the interpretation of the Law and the “traditions of the elders”.
• They are often presented as the opponents of Jesuscriticised for hypocrisy and legalism.

10.2. Historical overtones

• Many scholars underline that:
  • Jesus and his disciples share with the pharisees of the faith in the resurrection and the authority of the Law (although interpreted differently).
  • The polemics of the Gospels reflect also the tensions later among christian communities and judaism pharisaic/rabbinic, written after 70.

10.3. Paul as a pharisee

• The apostle Paul described himself as pharisee (Phil 3,5; Acts 23,6).
• This indicates:
  • The self-righteousness was a training framework important even within the early christianity.
  • The border between pharisaism and christianity, in the beginning, it was a dispute intra-jewishnot a total rupture.

11. Of pharisees to rabbinical judaism after 70 d. C.

The destruction of the Temple, that changes everything.

11.1. Disappearance of other currents

• After the 70:
  • The sadducees left without a Temple and disappear.
  • The essenes they also seem to become extinct.
  • The zealots were crushed militarily.
• Are two large currents beans:
  • The judaism pharisaic/rabbinic.
  • The christians (initially a jewish group, then each time more gentle).

11.2. Yavne and the reorganization

• Tradition: rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai escapes from Jerusalem during the siege, and obtained from the romans for permission to found a school in Yavne (Jamnia).
• There is reconstituted by the Sanhedrin under the leadership of the wise guidance farisea.
• It redefines judaism without a Temple:
  • Sacrifices → prayer.
  • Pilgrimages → life sinagogal local.
  • Tithes and offerings → charity and support to teachers and poor.
• This process arises the rabbinical judaism, direct heir of the line farisea.

11.3. Change of name

• The term “pharisees” almost disappears from the rabbinic literature later.
• In their place are listed:
  • Tanaítas and amoraítas, “rabbis”, “wise” (jajamim).
• But historical studies show a continuity of the doctrinal and social clear between the pharisees and the early rabbis.

In summary: self-righteousness is the seed rabbinical judaism classic.

12. Internal image and self-criticism

The rabbinic literature preserves:

• Great respect to the learned pharisees (Hillel, Shamai, Gamaliel, etc).
• But also self-criticism:
  • Texts that speak of “pharisees, hypocrites” or “pharisees by interest”, showing that within the movement itself is recognized deviations are possible.
• This contrasts with the cartoon purely negative, showing a reality more complex and nuanced.

13. The essential thing you must withhold on the pharisees

In summary, to have a complete picture:

1. Time and place
   • Jewish movement of the Second Temple (s. II. C. – s. I d. C.), very influential in Judea under asmoneos and romans.
2. Core identity
   • Wise men, and scribes linked to the people.
   • Advocates of a Oral torah along with the written Torah.
   • Promoters of a piety which penetrates the daily life (mesa, trade, agriculture, family).
3. Key doctrine
   • Oral torah as authoritative interpretation.
   • Resurrection, angels, afterlife.
   • Balance between divine providence and human responsibility.
4. Religious practice
   • Emphasis on purity daily, tithes, Sabbaths, festivals.
   • Centrality of synagogue, prayer and study, which will replace the Temple after 70.
5. Relations with other groups
   • In tension with the sadducees (elite priestly without the oral Torah or resurrection).
   • Different essenes (which is physically separate) and zealots (who opted for armed struggle).
6. Relation with early christianity
   • Partners and opponents of Jesus in the Gospels, but at the same time very close to them in theological framework.
   • Paul is formed as pharisee.
7. Historical legacy
   • After the destruction of the Temple, the self-righteousness evolves into the rabbinical judaism, which is still the main form of judaism today.