Hi all,
When I was an Associate Pastor, the parents of their married daughter came to me, asking if I would talk to her daughter and her husband about their marriage. The husband had become involved with the church his brother went to, and his involvement was putting a strain on their marriage.
It begins with seemingly godly decisions…
The brother told her husband their church did baptism the right way, so if they wanted to be sure of their salvation, they would be baptized in that church.
The wife’s opinion soon did not matter as much as her brother-in-law’s opinion. The church became more and more legalistic. By the time I talked to her, the husband had removed the TV from their home. All magazines, even Christian ones, were not allowed in the house. He canceled their gym membership because the church said he might lust after a woman in a bathing suit or gym clothing. Small decision by small decision, their lives were being trapped by unseen rules.
Her husband had become a Pharisee
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, oh my! The Pharisees focused on the Mosaic Law and the oral traditions, of which they had created over 800 by the time of Jesus. The Sadducees rejected the oral traditions and controlled the temple and ruling body, the Sanhedrin, but did not believe in the resurrection or angels. The Herodians were similar to Pharisees, though they supported the family line of Herod rather than the line of David as to who should rule Israel.
How the Pharisees were formed
In about 165 BC, about 200 years before the ministry of Jesus, Israel was dominated by Greek culture. Alexander the Great had conquered Israel in 332BC, but left the High Priest as the head of Israel and did not disturb their internal religion or politics.
The reason for this is worth knowing. According to Josephus, the Jewish historian who wrote a history of Israel for the Romans, the high priest at the time was a man name Juddua. As Alexander approached Jerusalem with his armies, Jaddua opened the gates of the city and, in full priestly clothing, led a procession of priests out of the city to greet the Greek King.
Upon seeing this, Alexander got off his horse and bowed low to the priest, honoring the God of Israel, sparing the city and nation completely. Alexander’s chief general, Parmenion, asked why he did this. Alexander told him that in a dream while still in Greece and thinking about crossing into the Middle East and fighting the Persian empire, he had seen a man dressed exactly like Jaddua telling him to come, for he would certainly conquer the Persian empire. Alexander even accompanied Jaddua to the temple and offered a sacrifice to the Lord.
As a result, Alexander let them rule themselves, and Jew and Greek lived largely in peace from that time, 332BC, until about 165BC. During that time, Greek culture completely saturated Israeli culture. Art, gymnasiums, sporting events, Greek language, Greek thought and their gods and goddesses began to dominate Jewish culture.
In the law of Moses, God only required…
…that they come to temple 3 times a year. Deuteronomy 16: 16 states those 3 times were Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s it, 3 times a year.
The Friday night (Shabbat) service so many ‘Messianic Believers’ attend, thinking they are obeying God – didn’t exist. It was an invention of the Pharisees. The gathering in a synagogue on Friday nights or Saturdays to keep the Sabbath – was an invention of the Pharisees.
Greek culture had become so much a part of Jewish life that it was becoming difficult to distinguish a Jew from a Greek. A holiness movement arose, a group who called themselves ‘separated ones’ rose up to define what it was to be Jewish and revive the Mosaic Law in the nation. The Hebrew word ‘separated one’ is ‘Pharisee.’
They realized they needed to teach the people the law of Moses, and the only time to do that was on the Sabbath. They made a rule that they would gather in homes on Friday nights. Meeting in homes they realized they needed a minimum quorum, setting it at 10 adult males, counting ‘adult males’ from age 13 and up.
With all those homes in a community each gathering families in close proximity, they invented the ‘Sabbath’s Day Walk’, which was about 1 kilometer, or a bit over half a mile. On Friday nights all over the nation, families gathered in homes, 10 males at least present, to read the Old Testament. (for they had canonized it into its current form by 200BC)
Copies of the Mosaic Law and Old Testament would be made and Pharisees, the separated ones, would go to the gatherings and read the Law. The Hebrew word ‘gathering’ is ‘synagogue’. When you read in the Gospels that Jesus was in the gathering, or synagogue, it was a home.
Abandoned homes or specifically built buildings designated ‘synagogue’ began after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, but weren’t widely used until around the same time Christians were called out of homes into buildings designated ‘church’; the 3rd century AD.
By the time of Jesus…
…the Pharisees had made over 800 laws in addition to the 613 laws of Moses. They still met in homes on Friday nights, but over that roughly 200 years between the revival of Jewish law around 160BC and Jesus, they had elevated their 800 laws/traditions above the law of Moses. Every single conflict Jesus had with the religious leaders in the gospels was about their elevation of their traditions above God’s Word.
When you see for instance in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Jesus saying: ‘You have heard it said’, He is referencing one of their man-made traditions. When you see phrases like ‘the traditions of the elders’, it is talking about their man-made traditions, NOT the law of Moses.
We see this conflict clearly in Matthew 15: 1-6:
“Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’
But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
(Mark 7: 1-13 explains in detail this conflict as well.)
The Pharisees had seen the law of Moses in Exodus 30: 17-21, which required the priests to wash their hands before starting service in the temple. So they thought if God wants hands washed for the priests, He must want us to expand that lest we offend Him. So they added their own hand washing laws for everyone before meals that included washing hands, pots and pans and pitchers. All God said was priests must wash before serving in the temple. THEY added to God’s law, then honored their rule/tradition above the Word.
The Pharisees tradition said if you had a tithe or offering, but your parents were in need of that money (or grain or meat) they were to pay their tithe and offering to the temple and leave their parents in need. Jesus said that was wrong. Family comes first, as the Law of Moses made so abundantly clear. But the Pharisees said you had to give to the temple 1st.
Jesus said in Mark 7:1-3 and Matthew 15: 1-6 that they elevate their law above the law of Moses, ‘making the law of God of no effect by your traditions.’
And that friends, is how people become Pharisees: They honor man-made traditions above the Word, thinking what they believe and do is from God, when in fact they make the Word and Ways of God of no effect by their tradition.
And we will pick it up there next week. You might be a Pharisee if….
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
