Dear Doves,
I hope this gets through, with all my computer problems of late. I wrote this in Microsoft office, then copy and pasted to my emails to send to Five Doves.
As far as the Pharisees go…you had the ruling elites, along with the everyday Pharisees, who sadly were deceived by those ruling elites. Just like today, folks.
Back then, the majority of Pharisees were so unrighteous and deceived by the ruling elite, that they vociferously demanded that Barabbas the thief be spared from death, instead of Jesus Christ. The ruling elite Pharisees got their way after getting the masses to do their bidding…
So…whatever happened to the Pharisees? Just like Jesus predicted, they were vanquished in the sacking/siege of Jerusalem during the Second Temple, circa 70 A.D. Those who didn’t die went into the Diaspora…scattering all over the world. A very *few* chosen faithful were left in Jerusalem. The faithful ‘remnant’ that God lets stay in Jerusalem: poor husbandmen, vine dressers, etc.
Here is a pretty good site to read:
http://www.thorncrownjournal.com/timeofchrist/religiousleaders.html
The Priesthood
In first century Palestine there was no separation between church and state. The priests at the temple in Jerusalem not only officiated over the religious life of the Jews, they were also rulers and judges.
Herod, who was himself a pawn of Rome, had his own pawns installed in the Jewish priesthood. By the first century the election of the High Priest was more political than religious. The Romans wanted the priesthood to support their occupation, and the Herods made sure their desire was carried out. However, it would be unfair to categorize all of the priesthood as sympathetic to Rome. Some did support rebellion against Rome, but those at the highest levels were undoubtedly in Rome's back pocket.
We see evidence of this loyalty to and fear of Rome in the Gospels:
“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, ‘What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.
If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.’”(John 11:45-48)
“But they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!’
Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’
Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.” (John 19:15-16)
Josephus recorded that the priesthood went so far as to authorize a daily sacrifice for Caesar in the temple. This was a source of continual angst for the Jews. In the final Roman/Jewish conflict the cessation of the daily sacrifice for Caesar was considered an act of war that helped lead to the destruction of Jerusalem.
The priesthood lived in luxury well beyond that of the average man. They supported their lavish lifestyles with a temple tax which every Jew was required to pay. Richard Horsley in his book “The Message and the Kingdom” describes what archeologists have discovered about the living conditions of the priesthood.
“…impressive archeological remains of their Jerusalem residences show how elegant their life style had become. In spacious structures unhesitantly dubbed ‘mansions” by the archeologists who uncovered them in the 1970’s, we can get a glimpse of a lavish life in mosaic floored reception rooms and dining rooms with elaborate painted and carved stucco wall decorations and with a wealth of fine tableware, glassware, carved stone table tops, and other interior furnishings and elegant peristyles.”
The priests lived lavish lifestyles while the average Jewish peasant struggled to survive. The temple taxes combined with taxes imposed by Herod and Rome were literally threatening the existence of the Jewish people. The people of the land were carrying a burden they could scarcely bear or tolerate. Palestine had become a powder keg waiting to ignite.
The priesthood was undoubtedly jealous of Jesus’ popularity, but their main motivation for seeking to kill Jesus was fear. When a new king came to power, he would set his version of the priesthood in place. All this talk of Jesus becoming the new king undoubtedly unnerved the priests in Jerusalem. If Jesus came to power, they thought they would be out of a job or killed. And the Romans did not take too kindly to unauthorized kings. In their opinion, Jesus was inviting the wrath of Rome. They did not understand that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world and his priesthood was not according to flesh and blood.
The Pharisees
The Pharisees rose to prominence in what scholars call the second temple period. The Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 587 BC. The time after the Jew’s return from exile is known as the second temple period. It was a time when the gentiles were constantly encroaching upon the Jewish people, their customs, and religion. The Pharisees were a group that set out to preserve the Jews from this perceived threat. The very name “Pharisee” is derived from the Hebrew word that means “to separate.”
The Pharisees were very zealous for the Law of Moses, but they also considered themselves the guardians of the oral traditions that scholars developed over generations. The oral traditions interpreted the Law of Moses. For example, the Law said to keep the Sabbath. They were not to work on God’s holy day. Yet, what was work and what was not? The oral traditions filled in the details that Moses left out. For instance, how far could a person walk on the Sabbath without it being work? The interpreters decided that the distance was 2000 cubits which is about 2/3 of a mile. This was known as a Sabbath’s day journey. Where did they get that number? When the Hebrews carried the Ark of the Covenant in the wilderness, God commanded them to walk 2000 cubits behind the ark. They decided that was God’s way of telling them how far one could walk on the Sabbath.
It is interesting that Jesus deliberately broke the Pharisee’s oral traditions every chance He got. In John chapter nine Jesus healed a blind man by spiting on the ground, making mud, and then rubbing it in the man’s eyes. He then told the fellow to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. According to the Pharisees, Jesus broke the Sabbath not once but three times in healing this man. First, it was considered unlawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus broke this tradition often. In fact, if we read the gospels, we will see that His favorite day to heal was the Sabbath. Second, making the little bit of clay that Jesus put in the man’s eyes would have been considered work. (No, I am not joking.) Third, making the man walk to the pool of Siloam and back would be considered illegal as well. If we read John chapter eight, we see that Jesus was probably in the vicinity of the temple when he performed this miracle. A quick look at a map shows that the journey to the pool and back was well over 2000 cubits.In this we see one of the great ironies of the scriptures. The Pharisees had great zeal for God. The average Pharisee fasted two days a week and paid his tithes to the penny. Yet, their zeal for God did not lead them to God but away from God. They examined the Law to the smallest detail, but they entirely missed what the Law was saying. John tells us that Jesus was God’s word made manifest. In other words He was Torah in the flesh. Yet, the Pharisees stood in the presence of the perfect revelation of Torah, and they did not know Him. In fact, they wanted to kill Him. (To be fair, we cannot say this is true of all the Pharisees. In fact, some later became Jesus’ followers.)
The Law was meant to lead people to love God and their neighbor. Most of all it was meant to lead to Jesus. It is ironic that because the Pharisees came to none of these things, they were the most impure of all. Jesus said that if the people’s righteousness did not exceed that of the Pharisees, they could not enter the Kingdom of God.
Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees should be a lesson to us all. If our zeal for God has led us to contempt for our brother, we aren’t following God at all.
God bless.
~Patty RP