Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

QUARTERLY REVIEW, WINTER 1984
the Zealots, and the Essenes) who are sufficiently popular with the
people to survive. All the rest, except for the followers of Jesus,
disappear.
The problem of reconstructing a historical picture of the Pharisees is
much the same as that of retrieving the historical Jesus. We have to
work backwards from later sources, sources motivated by other than
historical concerns. Nonetheless, a battery of scholars has devoted
much attention to this quest and within the confines of historical
probability we can make the following points. 9
The Pharisee method of teaching, called the "oral Torah," teaches
by way of interpreting the written Torah; "it is written, but the
meaning is . . . ." Matthew regularly attributes this method to Jesus:
"You have heard it said, but I say unto you," a technical Pharisee
expression. The Pharisees also created the role of the rabbi, the one
who so teaches and who interprets, specifies, and transforms
In the new scholarship the image of the Pharisees is
drastically improved.
inherited teachings and obligations. All in all, the Gospels contain
forty-two references to Jesus as teacher/rabbi and he teaches not only
by oral Torah but by telling stories, also a favorite rabbinic approach.
We are frequently told by the Synoptics that it was Jesus' custom to go
to the synagogue (Luke 4:16), the institution that embodied the
Pharisee type of faith.
As to content, the teachings attributed to Jesus are so remarkably
parallel to those of the liberal Pharisees, followers of Hillel (the
conservative Pharisees were of the school of Shammai) that Jacob
Neusner declares: "Some of his [Hillel's] teachings are in spirit and
even in exact wording close to the teachings of Jesus." 10
Jesus'
proclamation that "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath" (Mark 2:27) reflects the Hillelite saying attributed to Rabbi
Jonathan ben Joseph: "Scripture says, 'The Sabbath is holy for you'
(Exodus 31:14). This means it is given to you (man) not you to the
Sabbath." 11
Jesus' simplification of all the commandments into two is
similar to what is found both in Hillel and Philo; his use of the Shema
("hear, O Israel") and his teachings on prayer (both the Lord's Prayer
and the parable of the Pharisee and the publican) are in the Pharisee
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