Reference: Pharisees
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A numerous and dominant sect of the Jews, agreeing on some main points of doctrine and practice, but divided into different parties or schools on minor points; as for instance, the schools or followers of Hillel and Shammai, who were celebrated rabbins or teachers. The name is commonly derived from the Hebrew purash, to separate, as though they were distinguished form the rest of the nation by their superior wisdom and sanctity. They first appeared as a sect after the return of the Jews from captivity. In respect to their tenets, although they esteemed the written books of the old Testament as the sources of the Jewish religion, yet they also attributed great and equal authority to traditional precepts relating principally to external rites: as ablutions, fasting, long prayers, the distribution of alms, the avoiding of all intercourse with Gentiles and publicans, etc. See Mt 6:5; 9:11; 23:5; Mr 7:4; Lu 18:12. In superstitious and self-righteous formalism they strongly resembled the Romish church. They were rigid interpreters of the letter of the Mosaic law, but not infrequently violated the spirit of it by their traditional and philosophical interpretations. See Mt 5:31,43; 12:2; 19:3; 23:23. Their professed sanctity and close adherence to all the external forms of piety gave them great favor and influence with the common people, and especially among the female part of the community. They believed with the Stoics, that all things and events were controlled by fate yet not so absolutely as entirely to destroy the liberty of the human will. They considered the soul as immortal, and held the doctrine of a future resurrection of the body, Ac 23:8. It is also supposed by some that they admitted the doctrine of metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls; but no allusion is made to this in the New Testament, nor does Josephus assert it. In numerous cases Christ denounced the Pharisees for their pride and covetousness, their ostentation in prayers, alms, tithes, and facts, Mt 6:2,5; Lu 18:9, and their hypocrisy in employing the garb of religion to cover the profligacy of their dispositions and conduct; as Mt 23; Lu 16:14; Joh 7:48-49; 8:9. By his faithful reproofs he early incurred their hatred, Mt 12:14; they eagerly sought to destroy him, and his blood was upon them and their children. On the other hand, there appear to have been among them individuals of probity, and even of genuine piety; as in the case of Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, the aged Simeon, etc., Mt 27:57; Lu 2:25; Joh 3:1. Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee of the strictest sect, Ac 26:5; Ga 1:14. The essential features of their character are still common in Christian lands, and are no less odious to Christ than of old.
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Again, it was said, 'Whoever gets rid of his wife has to give her a certificate of divorce.'
You have heard it said, 'You should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' (Leviticus 19:18)
Do not loudly announce it when you give to the poor. The hypocrites do this in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do this to be praised by men. Believe me, they have already been paid in full.
Do not pray like the hypocrites! They want everyone to see them in the houses of worship and on the street corners. I assure you they have been paid in full.
Do not pray like the hypocrites! They want everyone to see them in the houses of worship and on the street corners. I assure you they have been paid in full.
When the Pharisees saw it, they asked his disciples: Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?
The Pharisees saw it and said to him: Your disciples do that which it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees left and took counsel against him, to decide how they might destroy him.
Pharisees came to him. They tested him, asking: Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?
They do everything to be seen by men. For example: they enlarge their scripture cases for their foreheads and lengthen the tassels on their garments.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
A disciple of Jesus named Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea,
When they come from the marketplace they wash themselves before they eat. They follow many other rules. They wash their cups, and brass pots, and other vessels.
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout. He was waiting for God to save Israel. God's Holy Spirit was working in him.
Hearing this the Pharisees made fun of Jesus, because they loved money.
He then spoke this illustration to some who trusted in themselves. They were very self-righteous. They looked down on others:
I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? This crowd does not know the law. It is contemptible
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The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit. The Pharisees believe both.
They knew me from the beginning. They could testify that I was from the strictest sect of our religion and I lived as a Pharisee.
I advanced as a Jew beyond many of my own age among my countrymen. I was more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
Easton
separatists (Heb persahin, from parash, "to separate"). They were probably the successors of the Assideans (i.e., the "pious"), a party that originated in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes in revolt against his heathenizing policy. The first mention of them is in a description by Josephus of the three sects or schools into which the Jews were divided (B.C. 145). The other two sects were the Essenes and the Sadducees. In the time of our Lord they were the popular party (Joh 7:48). They were extremely accurate and minute in all matters appertaining to the law of Moses (Mt 9:14; 23:15; Lu 11:39; 18:12). Paul, when brought before the council of Jerusalem, professed himself a Pharisee (Ac 23:6-8; 26:4-5).
There was much that was sound in their creed, yet their system of religion was a form and nothing more. Theirs was a very lax morality (Mt 5:20; 15:4,8; 23/3/type/nsb'>23:3,14,23,25; Joh 8:7). On the first notice of them in the New Testament (Mt 3:7), they are ranked by our Lord with the Sadducees as a "generation of vipers." They were noted for their self-righteousness and their pride (Mt 9:11; Lu 7:39; 18:11-12). They were frequently rebuked by our Lord (Mt 12:39; 16:1-4).
From the very beginning of his ministry the Pharisees showed themselves bitter and persistent enemies of our Lord. They could not bear his doctrines, and they sought by every means to destroy his influence among the people.
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He saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism. You offspring of vipers, he said, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
I also tell you, your righteousness must be greater than the scribes and Pharisees or you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
When the Pharisees saw it, they asked his disciples: Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?
The disciples of John asked: Why do your disciples not fast? They frequently fasted, and so did the Pharisees.
He answered them: An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign. No sign will be given but the sign of Jonah the prophet.
God said, 'Honor your father and mother.' 'He who says evil of father or mother will be put to death.'
These people honor me with their lips, but their heart (innermost thoughts) is far from me.
The Pharisees and Sadducees tested Jesus by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He said to them, At nightfall you say the weather will be good, for the sky is red. read more. And in the morning, the weather will be bad today for the sky is red and angry. You are able to see the face of heaven, but not the signs of the time. An evil and false generation is searching after a sign. However, no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. Then he left them.
Obey everything they teach you, but do not follow their example. They say one thing and do something else.
[Verse not found in oldest manuscripts.] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel on both sea and land to make one convert. When this happens, you make him twice as deserving of destruction in the trash fires of the valley of Hinnom (Greek: Gehenna).
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, yet the inside is full of extortion and excess.
The Pharisee saw it and thought to himself if this man were a prophet he would know what kind of woman touched him. She is a sinner.
The Lord said: You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter. Yet your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
The Pharisee stood and prayed like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him?
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When Paul saw that part of them were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin: Men! Brothers! I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee! I am being judged because of the hope and resurrection of the dead. When he said this dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The crowd was divided. read more. The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit. The Pharisees believe both.
All the Jews know the way I first lived as a youth among my own nation at Jerusalem. They knew me from the beginning. They could testify that I was from the strictest sect of our religion and I lived as a Pharisee.
Fausets
From perishin Aramaic, perashim, "separated." To which Paul alludes, Ro 1:1; Ga 1:15, "separated unto the gospel of God"; once "separated" unto legal self righteousness. In contrast to "mingling" with Grecian and other heathen customs, which Antiochus Epiphanes partially effected, breaking down the barrier of God's law which separated Israel from pagandom, however refined. The Pharisees were successors of the Assideans or Chasidim, i.e. godly men "voluntarily devoted unto the law." On the return from Babylon the Jews became more exclusive than ever. In Antiochus' time this narrowness became intensified in opposition to the rationalistic compromises of many. The Sadducees succeeded to the latter, the Pharisees to the former (1Ma 1:13-15; 1Ma 1:41-49; 1Ma 1:62-63; 1Ma 2:42; 1Ma 7:13-17; 2Ma 14:6-38). They "resolved fully not to eat any unclean thing, choosing rather to die that they might not be defiled: and profame the holy covenant." in opposition to the Hellenizing faction.
So the beginning of the Pharisees was patriotism and faithfulness to the covenant. Jesus, the meek and loving One, so wholly free from harsh judgments, denounces with unusual severity their hypocrisy as a class. (Mt 15:7-8; 23:5,13-33), their ostentatious phylacteries and hems, their real love of preeminence; their pretended long prayers, while covetously defrauding the widow. They by their "traditions" made God's word of none effect; opposed bitterly the Lord Jesus, compassed His death, provoking Him to some "hasty words" (apostomatizein) which they might catch at and accuse Him; and hired Judas to betray Him; "strained out gnats, while swallowing camels" (image from filtrating wine); painfully punctilious about legal trifles and casuistries, while reckless of truth, righteousness, and the fear of God; cleansing the exterior man while full of iniquity within, like "whited sepulchres" (Mr 7:6-13; Lu 11:42-44,53-54; 16:14-15); lading men with grievous burdens, while themselves not touching them with one of their fingers. (See CORBAN .)
Paul's remembrance of his former bondage as a rigid Pharisee produced that reaction in his mind, upon his embracing the gospel, that led to his uncompromising maintenance, under the Spirit of God, of Christian liberty and justification by faith only, in opposition to the yoke of ceremonialism and the righteousness which is of the law (Galatians 4; 5). The Mishna or "second law," the first portion of the Talmud, is a digest of Jewish traditions and ritual, put in writing by rabbi Jehudah the Holy in the second century. The Gemara is a "supplement," or commentary on it; it is twofold, that of Jerusalem not later than the first half of the fourth century, and that of Babylon A.D. 500. The Mishna has six divisions (on seeds, feasts, women's marriage, etc., decreases and compacts, holy things, clean and unclean), and an introduction on blessings. Hillel and Shammai were leaders of two schools of the Pharisees, differing on slight points; the Mishna refers to both (living before Christ) and to Hillel's grandson, Paul's' teacher, Gamaliel.
An undesigned coincidence confirming genuineness is the fact that throughout the Gospels hostility to Christianity shows itself mainly from the Pharisees; but throughout Acts from the Sadducees. Doubtless because after Christ's resurrection the resurrection of the dead was a leading doctrine of Christians, which it was not before (Mr 9:10; Ac 1:22; 2:32; 4:10; 5:31; 10:40). The Pharisees therefore regarded Christians in this as their allies against the Sadducees, and so the less opposed Christianity (Joh 11:57; 18:3; Ac 4:1; 5:17; 23:6-9). The Mishna lays down the fundamental principle of the Pharisees. "Moses received the oral law from Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and these to the prophets, and these to the men of the great synagogue" (Pirke Aboth ("The Sayings of the [Jewish] Fathers"), 1). The absence of directions for prayer, and of mention of a future life, in the Pentateuch probably gave a pretext for the figment of a traditional oral law.
The great synagogue said, "make a fence for the law," i.e. carry the prohibitions beyond the written law to protect men from temptations to sin; so Ex 23:19 was by oral law made further to mean that no flesh was to be mixed with milk for food. The oral law defined the time before which in the evening a Jew must repeat the Shema, i.e. "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord," etc. (De 6:4-9.) So it defines the kind of wick and oil to be used for lighting the lamps which every Jew must burn on the Sabbath eve. An egg laid on a festival may be eaten according to the school of Shammai, but not according to that of Hillel; for Jehovah says in Ex 16:5, "on the sixth day they shall prepare that which, they bring in," therefore one must not prepare for the Sabbath on a feast day nor for a feast day on the Sabbath. An egg laid on a feast following the Sabbath was "prepared" the day before, and so involves a breach of the Sabbath (!); and though all feasts do not immediately follow the Sabbath yet "as a fence to the law" an egg laid on any feast must not be eaten.
Contrast Mic 6:8. A member of the society of Pharisees was called chaber; those not members were called "the people of the land"; compare Joh 7:49, "this people who knoweth not the law are cursed"; also the Pharisee standing and praying with himself, self righteous and despising the publican (Lu 18:9-14). Isaiah (Isa 65:5) foretells their characteristic formalism, pride of sanctimony, and hypocritical exclusiveness (Jg 1:18). Their scrupulous tithing (Mt 23:23; Lu 18:12) was based on the Mishna, "he who undertakes to be trustworthy (a pharisaic phrase) tithes whatever he eats, sells, buys, and does not eat and drink with the people of the land." The produce (tithes) reserved for the Levites and priests was "holy," and for anyone. else to eat it was deadly sin. So the Pharisee took all pains to know that his purchases had been duly tithed, and therefore shrank from "eating with" (Mt 9:11) those whose food might not be so. The treatise Cholin in the Mishna lays down a regulation as to "clean and unclean" (Le 20:25; 22:4-7; Nu 19:20) which severs the Jews socially from other peoples; "anything slaughtered by a pagan is unfit to be eaten, like the carcass of an animal that died of itself, and pollutes him who carries it."
An orthodox Jew still may not eat meat of any animal unless killed by a Jewish butcher; the latter searches for a blemish, and attaches to the approved a leaden seal stamped kashar, "lawful." (Disraeli, Genius. of Judaism.) The Mishna abounds in precepts illustrating Col 2:21, "touch not, taste not, handle not" (contrast Mt 15:11). Also it (6:480) has a separate treatise on washing of hands (Yadayim). Translated Mr 7:8, "except they wash their hands with the fist" (pugmee); the Mishna ordaining to pour water over the dosed hands raised so that it should flow down to the elbows, and then over the arms so as to flow over the fingers. Jesus, to confute the notion of its having moral value, did not wash before eating (Lu 11:37-40). Josephus (Ant. 18:1, section 3, 13:10, section 5) says the Pharisees lived frugally, like the Stoics, and hence had so much weight with the multitude that if they said aught against the king or the high-priest it was immediately believed, whereas the Sadducees could gain only the rich.
The defect in the Pharisees which Christ stigmatized by the parable of the two debtors was not immorality but want of love, from unconsciousness of forgiveness or of the need of it. Christ recognizes Simon's superiority to the woman in the relative amounts of sin needing forgiveness, but shows both were on a level in inability to cancel their sin as a debt. Had he realized this, he would not have thought Jesus no prophet for suffering her to touch Him with her kisses of adoring love for His forgiveness of her, realized by her (Lu 7:36-50; 15:2). Tradition set aside moral duties, as a child's to his parents by" Corban"; a debtor's to his creditors by the Mishna treatise, Avodah Zarah (1:1) which forbade payment to a pagan three days before any pagan fest
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They are to bring in twice as much as usual and prepare it on the sixth day.
Bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of Jehovah your God. Do not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.
Do not seek revenge. Never hold a grudge against any of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am Jehovah.
That is why you must make a difference between animals and birds that I have said are clean and unclean. This will keep you from becoming disgusting to me.
None of the descendants of Aaron who has a dreaded skin disease or a discharge may eat any of the sacred offerings until he is ritually clean. Any priest is unclean if he touches anything that is unclean through contact with a corpse or if he has an emission of semen or if he has touched an unclean animal or person. read more. Any priest who becomes unclean remains unclean until evening. Even then he may not eat any of the sacred offerings until he has taken a bath. After the sunsets he is clean. Then he may eat the sacred offerings, which are his food.
If the person who becomes unclean does not have his sin taken away, that person must be excluded from the assembly. He has made the holy place of Jehovah unclean. The water to take away uncleanness was not sprinkled on him. He is unclean.
Listen, Israel! JEHOVAH OUR GOD IS ONE GOD! You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with your entire mind and with all your strength. read more. These words that I command you this day must be in your heart. Carefully teach them to your sons. Talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way. Speak about them when you lie down, and when you rise up. Bind them for a sign upon your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.
Judah took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory as well as Ekron with its territory.
But your dead will live. Their bodies will rise. You, who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
They say: 'Keep away! Do not come near me, for I am too sacred for you! Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.'
Behold! I WILL CREATE A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. read more. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. He who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth. The sinner who reaches a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.
He told you, O lowly man, what is good and what Jehovah requires of you. You should display justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God!
You were told in the past, do not murder (kill). Any one who murders will be brought to trial. Now I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother [without cause] shall be guilty before the court. Whoever speaks to his brother with words of contempt shall receive condemnation before the Sanhedrin [Supreme Court]. Curse your brother and you will be guilty enough to be destroyed by fire, with the burning trash, at the Valley of Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem (Greek: Gehenna).
You have heard it was said, 'You should not commit adultery.'
Again, it was said, 'Whoever gets rid of his wife has to give her a certificate of divorce.' I say to you that everyone divorcing his wife, except for the reason of fornication, makes her liable to commit adultery. And if she marries again, the man she marries also commits adultery.
You have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink. And do not worry about your body, what you will wear. Is life worth more than food? And is the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds of the sky, they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you worth more than they? read more. Can you live longer by worrying about it? Why are you worried about clothing? Look at how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil. They do not spin. I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like these. If God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, won't he care for you even more? You of little faith! Do not worry! Do not say: 'What shall we eat?' or, 'What shall we drink?' or, 'What shall we wear?' All people go in search of these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Seek (desire) (require) (serve) first the kingdom of God and his righteousness [continuously] and all these things will be added to you. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have its own worries. Sufficient for each day is its own badness.
When the Pharisees saw it, they asked his disciples: Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?
Do two sparrows sell for a penny? Not one of them will fall on the ground without your Father knowing. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
He told his servants: This is John the Baptist, raised from the dead. That explains the power working in him.
You hypocrites (liars)! Isaiah's prophecy was right about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their heart (innermost thoughts) is far from me.
That which comes out of the mouth makes a man unclean, not that which goes into the mouth.
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, he said. Obey everything they teach you, but do not follow their example. They say one thing and do something else.
They do everything to be seen by men. For example: they enlarge their scripture cases for their foreheads and lengthen the tassels on their garments.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You close the kingdom of heaven to people. You do not invite others to enter nor do you enter. [Verse not found in oldest manuscripts.] read more. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel on both sea and land to make one convert. When this happens, you make him twice as deserving of destruction in the trash fires of the valley of Hinnom (Greek: Gehenna).
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel on both sea and land to make one convert. When this happens, you make him twice as deserving of destruction in the trash fires of the valley of Hinnom (Greek: Gehenna). Woe to you, you blind guides! You say, 'When you swear by the temple, it is nothing.' Then you say, 'When you swear by the gold of the temple, you are obligated.' read more. You fools! You blind men! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? When you swear by an altar, you owe nothing. When you swear by the gift left on the altar, you are obligated. You blind men! What is more important, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He who swears by the altar, swears by it and everything on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him that dwells within it. Thus, he who swears by heaven also swears by the throne of God and him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone. You blind guides! You strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! read more. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, yet the inside is full of extortion and excess. You are blind. Clean the inside of the cup and platter first. Then clean the outside. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that appear beautiful on the outside. They are full of dead men's bones and uncleanness on the inside. You appear righteous to men. However, inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs for the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous. You claim that you would not have been involved with your fathers when they spilled the blood of the prophets. You witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up the (guilt) measure of your fathers. You serpents! You offspring of vipers! How will you escape from being destroyed in the ever-burning fires of the Valley of Hinnom? (Greek: Gehenna, the trash fires in the valley just outside of Jerusalem)
He told them: Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites. It is written: 'This people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain teaching as doctrines the commands of men.' read more. Speaking to the Pharisees and scribes He said: You abandon the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.
Speaking to the Pharisees and scribes He said: You abandon the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. You totally reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. read more. Moses said: 'Honor your father and your mother. He also said: 'He that speaks evil of father or mother must die.' But you say: 'If a man says to his father or his mother that which would benefit you is a gift to God, he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.' You make the word of God invalid by your tradition.
They kept questioning among themselves what the rising from the dead means.
will receive a hundred times as much now in this time, and in the age to come everlasting life.
One of the Pharisees asked him to dine with him. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. A sinful woman went to the Pharisee's house. She brought an alabaster vase filled with ointment. read more. Standing by his feet weeping, she wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with the hair of her head. Then she kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. The Pharisee saw it and thought to himself if this man were a prophet he would know what kind of woman touched him. She is a sinner. Jesus said to Simon: I have something to tell you. He replied: What teacher? A certain lender had two debtors. One owed five hundred shillings and the other fifty. They did not have money to pay the debt so he forgave them both. Which of them did he love the most? Simon answered: I suppose it was the one whom he forgave the most. Jesus said: Your judgment is correct. Turning to the woman, he said to Simon: See this woman? I entered into your house and you gave me no water for my feet. She watered my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You did not kiss me. Since the time I came in she has not ceased kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. She anointed my feet with ointment. She loved much! She has many sins and they are forgiven. When little is forgiven, little love is shown. He said to her: Your sins are forgiven! Those who ate with him said within themselves: Who is this who even forgives sins? He said to the woman: You are saved because of your faith. Go in peace.
He answered: Love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your life, with all your strength and with all your mind. (Feelings and total existence) (Might and total thinking capacity) And you should love your neighbor as yourself. (Deuteronomy 6:5) (Leviticus 19:18) He told him: You answered correctly, do this and you will live. read more. Desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus: Who is my neighbor?
As he spoke a Pharisee invited him to dine with him. He accepted the invitation and went to eat. The Pharisee wondered about Jesus not bathing before dinner. read more. The Lord said: You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter. Yet your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. You foolish ones. Did he that made the outside also make the inside?
Woe to you Pharisees! You tithe mint and rue and every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God. You should have done these but you leave them undone. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the prominent seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces. read more. Woe to you! You are as the tombs that do not appear and men walk over them and do not know it.
When he left there the scribes and the Pharisees became hostile with him. They tried to quarrel with him about many things. They plotted against him and tried to catch him in something he might say.
Pharisees and teachers of the Law complained: This man welcomes sinners and even eats with them!
Hearing this the Pharisees made fun of Jesus, because they loved money. Jesus said: You make yourselves look righteous to other people. God knows your hearts. The things considered of great value by people are worth nothing in God's sight.
He then spoke this illustration to some who trusted in themselves. They were very self-righteous. They looked down on others: Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. read more. The Pharisee stood and prayed like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector stood far away and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner. read more. I tell you the tax collector and not the Pharisee was right with God when he went home. He who exalts himself will be humbled! He who humbles himself will be exalted!
who shall not receive manifold more now and in the age to come everlasting life.
This crowd does not know the law. It is contemptible
His disciples asked him: Rabbi he was born blind. Who sinned, this man or his parents?
They answered: You were born in sin and you teach us? Then they threw him out.
Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that, if any man knew where he was, he should report it that they might seize him.
Many of the rulers believed in him, although they did not confess their faith because of the Pharisees, for they would be expelled from the synagogue.
Judas brought a band of armed men and police from the chief priests and Pharisees there with lights and with weapons.
One who was with us from the baptism of John, to the day that he was received up from us must become a witness with us of his resurrection.
God resurrected Jesus and we all witnessed this!
As they spoke to the people, the chief priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them.
Let it be known to you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you impaled and whom God raised from the dead, even by him this man stands before you healed.
Then the high priest rose up, and all those of the sect of the Sadducees who were with him were filled with zeal (indignation).
God exalted him to his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
The believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stated: It is needed to circumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses.
When Paul saw that part of them were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin: Men! Brothers! I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee! I am being judged because of the hope and resurrection of the dead.
When Paul saw that part of them were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin: Men! Brothers! I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee! I am being judged because of the hope and resurrection of the dead. When he said this dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The crowd was divided.
When he said this dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The crowd was divided. The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit. The Pharisees believe both.
The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit. The Pharisees believe both. There arose a great cry. The scribes who were on the Pharisees' side arose and spoke, We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, appointed (set apart) for the good news of God,
It pleased God to separate me even from my mother's womb and call me through his grace.
Do not handle. Do not taste. Do not touch.
Hastings
A study of the four centuries before Christ supplies a striking illustration of the law that the deepest movements of history advance without the men, who in God's plan are their agents, being clearly aware of what is going on. The answer to the question
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Give praise to Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the strange women.
He saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism. You offspring of vipers, he said, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, he said.
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, he said. Obey everything they teach you, but do not follow their example. They say one thing and do something else. read more. They chain heavy burdens on your shoulders. Yet they are unwilling to lift even a finger to carry these same burdens.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
John gave his witness even as Jewish authorities sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem. They asked him: Who are you?
He ate with the people of the nations until some men James sent arrived. When they arrived, he drew back and separated himself. He feared those who were of the circumcised people.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one (united) in Christ Jesus. (John 17:21) (Ephesians 4:4-6)
There is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all and in all.
Morish
This name was given to a religious school among the Jews; it is supposed to have been derived from the Hebrew word parash, signifying 'to separate'; it was given to them by others, their chosen name being chasidim, 'pious ones.' Josephus speaks of them as early as the reign of Jonathan (B.C. 161-144). They prided themselves on their superior sanctity of life, devotion to God, and their study of the law. The Pharisee in the parable thanked God that he was 'not as other men.' Lu 18:11. Paul, when before Agrippa, spoke of them as 'the most straitest sect.' The Pharisees included all classes of men, rich and poor: they were numerous, and at times had great influence. In the council before which Paul was arraigned they were well represented. Ac 23:6-9. They were the great advocates of tradition, and were punctilious in paying tithes. In many respects the ritualists of modern days resemble them.
The Lord severely rebuked all their pretensions, and laid bare their wickedness as well as their hypocrisy. It may have been that because of the great laxity of the Jews generally, some at first devoutly sought for greater sanctity. Others, not sincere, may have joined themselves to the sect, and it thus degenerated from its original design, until its moral state became such as was exposed and denounced by the Lord. The very name has become a synonym for bigotry and formalism. Probably such men as Gamaliel, Nicodemus, and Saul were men of a different stamp, though all needed the regenerating power of grace to give them what they professed to seek.
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The Pharisee stood and prayed like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
When Paul saw that part of them were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin: Men! Brothers! I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee! I am being judged because of the hope and resurrection of the dead. When he said this dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The crowd was divided. read more. The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit. The Pharisees believe both. There arose a great cry. The scribes who were on the Pharisees' side arose and spoke, We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
Smith
Phar'isees,
a religious party or school among the Jews at the time of Christ, so called from perishin, the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word perushim, "separated." The chief sects among the Jews were the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes, who may be described respectively as the Formalists, the Freethinkers and the Puritans. A knowledge of the opinions and practices of the Pharisees at the time of Christ is of great importance for entering deeply into the genius of the Christian religion. A cursory perusal of the Gospels is sufficient to show that Christ's teaching was in some respects thoroughly antagonistic to theirs. He denounced them in the bitterest language; see
15/7/type/nsb'>Mt 15:7-8; 23/5/type/nsb'>23:5,13-14,15,23; Mr 7:6; Lu 11:42-44
and compare
Mr 7:1-5; 11:29; 12:19-20; Lu 6:28,37-42
To understand the Pharisees is by contrast an aid toward understanding the spirit of uncorrupted Christianity.
1. The fundamental principle all of the of the Pharisees, common to them with all orthodox modern Jews, is that by the side of the written law regarded as a summary of the principles and general laws of the Hebrew people there was on oral law to complete and to explain the written law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted by him by word of mouth. The first portion of the Talmud, called the Mishna or "second law," contains this oral law. It is a digest of the Jewish traditions and a compendium of the whole ritual law, and it came at length to be esteemed far above the sacred text.
2. While it was the aim of Jesus to call men to the law of God itself as the supreme guide of life, the Pharisees, upon the Pretence of maintaining it intact, multiplied minute precepts and distinctions to such an extent that the whole life of the Israelite was hemmed in and burdened on every side by instructions so numerous and trifling that the law was almost if not wholly lost sight of. These "traditions" as they were called, had long been gradually accumulating. Of the trifling character of these regulations innumerable instances are to be found in the Mishna. Such were their washings before they could eat bread, and the special minuteness with which the forms of this washing were prescribed; their bathing when they returned from the market; their washing of cups, pots, brazen vessels, etc.; their fastings twice in the week,
Lu 18:12
were their tithing;
and such, finally, were those minute and vexatious extensions of the law of the Sabbath, which must have converted God's gracious ordinance of the Sabbath's rest into a burden and a pain.
Mt 12:1-13; Mr 3:1-6; Lu 18:10-17
3. It was a leading aim of the Redeemer to teach men that true piety consisted not in forms, but in substance, not in outward observances, but in an inward spirit. The whole system of Pharisaic piety led to exactly opposite conclusions. The lowliness of piety was, according to the teaching of Jesus, an inseparable concomitant of its reality; but the Pharisees sought mainly to attract the attention and to excite the admiration of men.
6/2/type/nsb'>Mt 6:2,6,16; 23:5-6; Lu 14:7
Indeed the whole spirit of their religion was summed up not in confession of sin and in humility, but in a proud self righteousness at variance with any true conception of man's relation to either God or his fellow creatures.
4. With all their pretences to piety they were in reality avaricious, sensual and dissolute.
Mt 23:25; Joh 13:7
They looked with contempt upon every nation but their own.
Lu 10:29
Finally, instead of endeavoring to fulfill the great end of the dispensation whose truths they professed to teach, and thus bringing men to the Hope of Israel, they devoted their energies to making converts to their own narrow views, who with all the zeal of proselytes were more exclusive and more bitterly opposed to the truth than they were themselves.
5. The Pharisees at an early day secured the popular favor and thereby acquired considerable political influence. This influence was greatly increased by the extension of the Pharisees over the whole land and the majority which they obtained in the Sanhedrin. Their number reached more than six thousand under the Herods. Many of them must have suffered death for political agitation. In the time of Christ they were divided doctrinally into several schools, among which those of Hillel and Shammai were most noted. --McClintock and Strong.
6. One of the fundamental doctrines of the Pharisees was a belief in a future state. They appear to have believed in a resurrection of the dead, very much in the same sense: as the early Christians. They also believed in "a divine Providence acting side by side with the free will of man." --Schaff.
7. It is proper to add that it would be a great mistake to suppose that the Pharisees were wealthy and luxurious much more that they had degenerated into the vices which were imputed to some of the Roman popes and cardinals during the two hundred years preceding the Reformation. Josephus compared the Pharisees to the sect of the Stoics. He says that they lived frugally, in no respect giving in to luxury. We are not to suppose that there were not many individuals among them who were upright and pure, for there were such men as Nicodemus, Gamaliel, Joseph of Arimathea and Paul.
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Do not loudly announce it when you give to the poor. The hypocrites do this in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do this to be praised by men. Believe me, they have already been paid in full.
Go to your room and close the door. Privately pray to your Father. When your Father sees you he will reward you.
When you abstain from food, do not be like the hypocrites, with sad faces to be seen by men. They have received their reward.
Jesus' disciples were hungry. It was Sabbath day and yet Jesus and his disciples went through the grain fields plucking ears and eating them. The Pharisees saw it and said to him: Your disciples do that which it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. read more. He replied to them: Have you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered into the house of God, and he and his companions ate the showbread (holy bread), which it was not lawful for them to eat. It was only lawful for the priests. Have you read the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless? I say to you, one greater than the Temple is here. If you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. He left and went into their synagogue. There he saw a man who had a withered hand. They asked him if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? They wanted to accuse him. He said to them: Which of you having one sheep, if this sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath day, will not get it and lift it out. How much more value is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day! Then he said to the man: Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and it was restored whole like the other.
You hypocrites (liars)! Isaiah's prophecy was right about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their heart (innermost thoughts) is far from me.
The Pharisees took counsel how they might trap him in his talk.
They do everything to be seen by men. For example: they enlarge their scripture cases for their foreheads and lengthen the tassels on their garments.
They do everything to be seen by men. For example: they enlarge their scripture cases for their foreheads and lengthen the tassels on their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the prominent seats in the synagogues.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You close the kingdom of heaven to people. You do not invite others to enter nor do you enter. [Verse not found in oldest manuscripts.] read more. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel on both sea and land to make one convert. When this happens, you make him twice as deserving of destruction in the trash fires of the valley of Hinnom (Greek: Gehenna).
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, yet the inside is full of extortion and excess.
He entered the Synagogue again. There was a man there whose hand was withered. They watched to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath day. Then they might have something against him. read more. He said to the man: Get up and come forward. Then he asked the Pharisees, Is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? Is it right to give life or to put to death? But they said nothing. He looked at them and was angry. He was also sad on account of their hard hearts. He said to the man: Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was healed. The Pharisees went away and immediately conspired with the Herodians. They tried to decide how they might destroy him.
The Pharisees and some of the scribes came from Jerusalem to gather around Jesus. They saw that some of his disciples ate their bread with unwashed defiled hands. read more. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat until they wash their hands. They practice the tradition of the elders.) When they come from the marketplace they wash themselves before they eat. They follow many other rules. They wash their cups, and brass pots, and other vessels. The Pharisees and the scribes asked: Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders. Instead they eat their bread with defiled hands? He told them: Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites. It is written: 'This people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me.
Jesus said: I will ask you one question. Give me an answer, and I will say by what authority I do these things.
Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man's brother die, and leave a wife behind him, and leave no child, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed for his brother. There were seven brothers the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who despitefully use you.
Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it shall be given to you. You will receive a good measure. It will be pressed down, shaken together, running over and they will give it to you. For with the measure that you measure out it will be measured to you also. read more. He told them an illustration: Can the blind guide the blind? Would they both fall into a pit? The disciple is not above his teacher. Every one will be like his teacher when he is fully trained. Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye? Yet you do not consider the beam in your own eye. How can you say to your brother: 'Let me remove the speck in your eye when you do not notice the beam in your own eye?' You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus: Who is my neighbor?
Woe to you Pharisees! You tithe mint and rue and every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God. You should have done these but you leave them undone. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the prominent seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces. read more. Woe to you! You are as the tombs that do not appear and men walk over them and do not know it.
He spoke an illustration to the invited guests. He noticed they chose from the most important seats. So he said to them:
Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. read more. I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector stood far away and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner. read more. I tell you the tax collector and not the Pharisee was right with God when he went home. He who exalts himself will be humbled! He who humbles himself will be exalted! They brought all their babes to him that he should touch them. When the disciples saw it they rebuked them. Jesus said: Invite the little children to come to me, and do not forbid them for the kingdom of God belongs to them. Truly I tell you he who does not receive the kingdom of God like little child, shall in no wise enter it.
You do not know what I do now, Jesus said: but you will understand later.
Watsons
PHARISEES, 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, Lu 11:52;
18:9, 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 cooperate in every action, Ac 5:38-39. They also believed in the existence of angels and spirits, and in the resurrection of the dead; Ac 23:8. 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 right 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 he combats the erroneous suppositions of the Jews, Romans 1-11.
The Pharisees were the strictest of the three principal sects that divided the Jewish nation, Ac 26:5, 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, Mt 5:31, &c; 19:3-12. (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, Mt 5:43; Lu 10:31-33. 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, Mt 5:33; 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, Mt 12; Lu 6:6, &c; 14. Many moral rules they accounted inferior to the ceremonial laws, to the total neglect of mercy and fidelity, Mt 5:19; 15:4; 23:23. Hence they accounted causeless anger and impure desires as trifles of no moment, Mt 5:21-22,27-30; 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, Mt 23:15. Esteeming temporal happiness and riches as the highest good, they scrupled not to accumulate wealth by every means, legal or illegal, Mt 5:1-12; 23:5; Lu 16:14; Jas 2:1-8; vain and ambitious of popular applause, they offered up long prayers in public places, but not without self-complacency in their own holiness, Mt 6:2-5; Lu 18:11; under a sanctimonious appearance of respect for the memories of the prophets whom their ancestors had slain, they repaired and beautified their sepulchres, Mt 23:29; 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, Lu 7:39; 15:1.
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, Mt 15:2; Mr 7:3; 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, Mr 7:4; for which purpose the six large water pots mentioned by St. Joh 2:6, were destined: their fasting twice a week with great appearance of austerity, Lu 18:12; Mt 6:16; 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, Lu 18:12; Mt 23:23. And their wearing broader phylacteries and larger fringes to their garments than the rest of the Jews, Mt 23:5. 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, Joh 7:49. 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,
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Seeing great masses of people, he went up to the mountain. When he was seated his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and taught them: read more. Blessed (Greek: makarios: happy, blessed) are those conscious of their spiritual need, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek (gentle) (mild) (humble), for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful and compassionate, for they will receive mercy and compassion. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be filled with joy, for great is your reward in heaven. The prophets, who came before you, were also persecuted.
Whoever disobeys even the least of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand whoever obeys and teaches others to obey the Law will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
You were told in the past, do not murder (kill). Any one who murders will be brought to trial. Now I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother [without cause] shall be guilty before the court. Whoever speaks to his brother with words of contempt shall receive condemnation before the Sanhedrin [Supreme Court]. Curse your brother and you will be guilty enough to be destroyed by fire, with the burning trash, at the Valley of Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem (Greek: Gehenna).
You have heard it was said, 'You should not commit adultery.' However, I tell you that whoever looks at a woman with lustful thoughts commits adultery with her in his heart. read more. If your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is better to lose a part of your body then to have your whole body destroyed in the ever-burning fires of the Valley of Hinnom. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better to lose part of your body, than for your whole body to be destroyed in the ever-burning fire. (Figuratively: lose prospect for everlasting life; ever-burning fire means total destruction.) Again, it was said, 'Whoever gets rid of his wife has to give her a certificate of divorce.'
You were also told that you should keep a promise (oath). Always keep your promises (vows) to Jehovah.
You have heard it said, 'You should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' (Leviticus 19:18)
Do not loudly announce it when you give to the poor. The hypocrites do this in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do this to be praised by men. Believe me, they have already been paid in full. When you give gifts, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. read more. Your giving will be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not pray like the hypocrites! They want everyone to see them in the houses of worship and on the street corners. I assure you they have been paid in full.
When you abstain from food, do not be like the hypocrites, with sad faces to be seen by men. They have received their reward.
They questioned him: Why do your disciples go against the teaching of the fathers? They eat food with unwashed hands.
God said, 'Honor your father and mother.' 'He who says evil of father or mother will be put to death.'
They do everything to be seen by men. For example: they enlarge their scripture cases for their foreheads and lengthen the tassels on their garments.
They do everything to be seen by men. For example: they enlarge their scripture cases for their foreheads and lengthen the tassels on their garments.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel on both sea and land to make one convert. When this happens, you make him twice as deserving of destruction in the trash fires of the valley of Hinnom (Greek: Gehenna).
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. You should do both and leave nothing undone.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs for the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous.
(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat until they wash their hands. They practice the tradition of the elders.) When they come from the marketplace they wash themselves before they eat. They follow many other rules. They wash their cups, and brass pots, and other vessels.
He entered into the synagogue on the Sabbath and taught. There was a man there whose right hand was withered.
The Pharisee saw it and thought to himself if this man were a prophet he would know what kind of woman touched him. She is a sinner.
A priest traveled on that road. When he saw him he passed by on the other side. When a Levite came to the place he saw the man and passed by on the other side. read more. Then a Samaritan arrived where he was. He was moved with compassion when he saw him.
Woe to you lawyers, for you took away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves and you hindered those entering.
One day a large number of tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus.
Hearing this the Pharisees made fun of Jesus, because they loved money.
He then spoke this illustration to some who trusted in themselves. They were very self-righteous. They looked down on others:
The Pharisee stood and prayed like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
I fast twice per week. I give tithes of all that I get.
Six stone water jars were placed there to honor purification rules of the Jews. Each contained more than twenty gallons.
This crowd does not know the law. It is contemptible
I tell you: Leave these men alone. If this message and this work are from men it will come to nothing. But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it; otherwise you may find yourselves fighting against God.
The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit. The Pharisees believe both.
They knew me from the beginning. They could testify that I was from the strictest sect of our religion and I lived as a Pharisee.
My brothers, keep the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Do not favor one person over the other. A man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes comes into your synagogue. read more. You pay special attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say: Sit here in a good place. Then you say to the poor man: Stand there, or Sit under my footstool. Do not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts. Listen, my dearly beloved brothers! Did God choose poor people in the world to be rich in faith and to receive the kingdom he promised to those who love him? You have dishonored the poor man. Do the rich oppress you, and personally drag you into court? Do they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? When you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.