Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
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. (Matthew 22:15)
•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 .
•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.
•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.
Pharosh
(Ezra 8:3) [See PAROSH]
Pharpar
(swift), the second of the “two rivers of Damascus”—Abana and Pharpar—alluded to by
Naaman. (2 Kings 5:18) The two principal streams in the district of Damascus are the Barada and
the Awaj, the former being the Abana and the latter the Pharpur. The Awaj rises on the southeast
slopes of Hermon, and flows into the most southerly of the three lakes or swamps of Damascus.
Pharzites. The
the descendants of Parez the son of Judah. (Numbers 26:20)
Phaseah
(Nehemiah 7:51) [Paseah, 2]
Phaselis
a town on the coast of Asia Minor, on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia, and consequently
ascribed by the ancient writers sometimes to one and sometimes to the other. 1 Macc. 15:23.
Phebe
[Phoebe]
Phenice
(Acts 27:12) (more properly Phoenix, as it is translated in the Revised Version), the name of a
haven in Crete on the south coast. The name was no doubt derived from the Greek word for the
palm tree, which Theophrastus says was indigenous in the island. It is the modern Lutro . [See
Phoenice, Phoenicia; PHOENICIA]
Phichol
(strong), chief captain of the army of Abimelech, king of the Philistines of Gerar in the days of
both Abraham, (Genesis 21:22,32) and Isaac. (Genesis 28:26) (B.C. 1900.)
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William Smith