PHARISEES. - In Greek Φαρισαῖοι, from the Aramaic Ρέντζαϊδ, a plural adjective meaning "divided," "separated." It seems that by this name the Pharisees were designated by their adversaries, since they called themselves "companions" or "saints."
I. HISTORY
Flavius Josephus states that they, together with the Sadducees and the Essenes, have very ancient origins, although he names them for the first time at the time of Jonathan Maccabeus (161-143 B.C.). In reality the origin of the two opposing currents of the Pharisees and the Sadducees must be sought in the period in which Hellenism spread, and therefore one can go back almost to the times of Ezra. Hellenism spread throughout Judaism independence of ideas and laxity of morals, undermining its religious spirit and its fidelity to tradition. The first to yield through opportunism to the new ideas were the aristocratic classes, among which chiefly the families of the high clergy (v. SADDUCEES), while in reaction an opposing current was formed of those "who separated themselves from the 'peoples of the lands' for the law of God... who came forward to promise and swear to walk in the law of God... to observe and to do all the commandments of Yahweh" (Neh. 10:28 ff.). One can see in this testimony the beginning of the Pharisaic current, without however being able to conclude that it was as yet a faction properly so called. As such, on the other hand, the Hasideans (οἱ ἁσιδαῖοι), that is, the "pious" (Heb. ḥāsīdīm), appear in the early times of the Maccabees, and they are in reality substantially identical with the later Pharisees. They constituted the principal force on which the Maccabees could count for the liberation of the people from foreign domination (cf. 1 Macc. 2:42; 7:12; 2 Macc. 14:6). But very soon the Hasmoneans, descendants of the Maccabees, found themselves in opposition to the Pharisees, the continuators of the Hasideans. The tension with the two currents began under Jonathan, when in 153 he obtained the high priesthood from the kings of Syria, Demetrius. John Hyrcanus, son of Simon and formerly a disciple of the Pharisees, broke decisively with them and went over to the Sadducean current. His son, King Alexander Jannaeus, persecuted the Pharisees harshly, but when near death he recommended to his wife, Queen Alexandra (who reigned for 9 years after her husband's death), to come to an agreement with the Pharisees in order to win the goodwill of the people, among whom they had great power. In the struggles between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II the Pharisees took the side of the former. In the subsequent period, until the catastrophe of A.D. 70, the two currents continued their activity, the Sadducees dominating in the Temple and in political life, the Pharisees on the contrary increasingly winning the favor of the people, especially through the work of the doctors of the Law or scribes, who belonged in the vast majority to their sect. The people, in fact, were led to see in the Pharisees the genuine defenders of their traditions, and consequently of their nationality and independence. The Pharisees alone survived the catastrophe of 70, and from then on Judaism was stamped with the canons of Pharisaism.
II. DOCTRINE
Arising in opposition to the spread of Hellenistic innovations, so contrary to the Jewish spirit, the Pharisees understood that the most effective weapon in this struggle was the defense of the tradition and customs of the people: it was necessary to canonize this "tradition," to develop it, to attribute to it a value equal to, perhaps even greater than, the Tōrāh itself, which too readily lent itself to being interpreted in favor of those sympathetic to Hellenism ("it is a worse thing to go against the words of the scribes than against the words of the Tōrāh"; Sanhedrin, XI, 3). This "tradition of the fathers," πατέρων διαδοχή, imposed as an indispensable norm, was to save genuine Judaism from every degeneration, maintaining the Jewish national spirit intact. Pharisaism devoted itself to this task, pushing its normative legislation to extremes, which centered on three main subjects: legal purity, the payment of tithes, and the sabbath rest. The meticulousness to which they arrived in these matters is well known, down to the famous dispute over whether it was lawful or not to eat an egg laid by a hen on the sabbath day. Jesus defined this "tradition" as διδασκαλίας ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων (Mt. 15, 9; Mk. 7, 7) and said to the Pharisees: "You transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition" (Mt. 15, 3, 6; Mk. 7, 9). This attitude won for the Pharisees the goodwill of the people, who even in religious and liturgical controversies always followed their opinion. They dominated the common people, and in the sanhedrin (v.), although they were in the minority, their will often prevailed because it was supported by the favor of the people. From the doctrinal standpoint the Pharisees, in opposition to the Sadducees, upheld the resurrection of the flesh and a certain conciliation between divine and human action, in the sense that the former cooperates with and assists the latter. In judgments they were inclined to clemency, contrary to the severity of the Sadducees. They also dissented from the Sadducees in liturgical matters, for example, in fixing the day of the offering of the sheaf and consequently the day of Pentecost, as well as on certain ceremonies in the feast of the hippōr and of Tabernacles and even on the hour of the sacrifice of the paschal lamb. That the Pharisees constituted a closed class, a kind of corporation, can be inferred from the names by which they are designated: συναγορῆ (used to indicate the Hasideans, I Macc. 2, 42), συντάγμα (Fl. Josephus, Bell. Iud., I, 110); furthermore from the fact that they called one another "companions," ḥābherīm, while "company," ḥābherīth, was the name of their sect. Flavius Josephus sets their number at about 5,000 in the time of King Alexander Jannaeus (Antiq. Iud., XIII, 383) and at over 6,000 in the time of Herod the Great (Antiq. Iud., XVII, 42). Anyone who was not a Pharisee, even if a member of the high clergy or of the lowest common people, belonged to the profane and to the people of the land and was regarded with contempt by the Pharisees, convinced that they were the sole defenders of the Law and of tradition. That not all the Pharisees were in good faith is supposed by the Talmud, which enumerates seven types of Pharisees of which only the last merits praise (Sōpāh, 22 b, bar.). Jesus inveighed severely against the Pharisees, and chapter 23 of Matthew is a formal accusation against them: nevertheless Jesus referred more to their practical conduct than to their doctrines, since he said on the matter: "On the chair of Moses sit the scribes and the Pharisees. Therefore all things whatsoever they say to you, do and observe, but do not do according to their works" (Mt. 23, 2, 3).