Israelites, Pharisees & Sadducees In The 21st Century Church

In Neusner's view, the rabbinic project, as acted out in the Talmud, reflected not the
world as it was but the world as rabbis dreamed it should be.
According to S. Baron however, there existed "a general willingness of the people to
follow its self imposed Rabbinic rulership". Although the Rabbis lacked authority to
impose capital punishment "Flagellation and heavy fines, combined with an extensive
system of excommunication were more than enough to uphold the authority of the
courts." In fact, the Rabbis took over more and more power from the Reish Galuta until
eventually R' Ashi assumed the title Rabbana, heretofore assumed by the exilarch, and
appeared together with two other Rabbis as an official delegation "at the gate of King
Yazdegard's court." The Amorah (and Tanna) Rav was a personal friend of the last
Parthian king Artabenus and Shmuel was close to Shapur I, King of Persia. Thus, the
Rabbis had significant means of "coercion" and the people seem to have followed the
Rabbinic rulership.
Pharisees and Christianity
The Pharisees appear in the New Testament, engaging in conflicts between themselves
and John the Baptist and with Jesus, and because Nicodemus the Pharisee (John 3:1)
with Joseph of Arimathea entombed Jesus' body at great personal risk. Gamaliel, the
highly respected rabbi and defender of the apostles, was also a Pharisee, and
according to some Christian traditions secretly converted to Christianity.
There are several references in the New Testament to Paul the Apostle being a
Pharisee before converting to Christianity, and other members of the Pharisee sect are
known from Acts 15:5 to have become Christian believers. It was some members of his
group who argued that gentile converts must be circumcised and obliged to follow the
Mosaic law, leading to a dispute within the early Church addressed at the Apostolic
Council in Jerusalem, in 50 CE.
The New Testament, particularly the Synoptic Gospels, presents especially the
leadership of the Pharisees as obsessed with man-made rules (especially concerning
purity) whereas Jesus is more concerned with God's love; the Pharisees scorn sinners
whereas Jesus seeks them out. (The Gospel of John, which is the only gospel where
Nicodemus is mentioned, particularly portrays the sect as divided and willing to debate.)
Because of the New Testament's frequent depictions of Pharisees as self-righteous
rule-followers (see also Woes of the Pharisees and Legalism (theology)), the word
"pharisee" (and its derivatives: "pharisaical", etc.) has come into semi-common usage in
English to describe a hypocritical and arrogant person who places the letter of the law
above its spirit. Jews today typically find this insulting and some consider the use of the
word to be anti-Semitic.
Some have speculated that Jesus was himself a Pharisee and that his arguments with
Pharisees is a sign of inclusion rather than fundamental conflict (disputation being the
dominant narrative mode employed in the Talmud as a search for truth, and not
necessarily a sign of opposition). Jesus' emphasis on loving one's neighbor (see Great
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