IV. Oriyin, Development, Classes, and general char- acter of the Pharisees. — The name does not occur either in the O. T. or in the Apocrypha ; but it is usually con- sidered that the Pharisees were essentially the same with the Assidaeans (i. e. chasidim = godly men, saints) mentioned in 1 Mace, ii, 42; vii, 13-17; and in 2 Mace, xiv, 6. Those who admit the existence of Maccabiean Psalms find allusion to the Assidneans in Psa. lxxix, 2 ; xcvii, 10; exxxii, 9, 16; cxlix, 9, where ehasidim is translated "saints" in the A. V. (see Fiirst, Handworter- buch, i, 420 6). After the return from the Babylonian captivity the priesthood formed the centre of the new religious life, and the pious in Israel who were anxious to practice the commandments of the Lord naturally attached themselves to the divinely -appointed and time-honored tribe of Levi. Besides the keeping pure from intermarriage with heathen, great and vital im- portance was attached to the setting aside of the soil and Temple taxes (Neh. x, 33, 36, etc.; Ecclus. vii, 31 ; xlv, 20; Tobit i, 6; v, 13; Judith xi, 13; 1 Mace, i ii, 49), to the due observance of the Sabbath (Neh. x, 31; xiii, 19), the three pilgrim festivals, viz. the Passover (2 Chron. xxx; xxxv; Ezra vi, 19-22), Pentecost (To- bit ii, 1), and Tabernacles (Neh. viii, 14), as well as the Sabbatic year (Neh. x, 31 ; 1 Mace, vi, 49, 53), and to the abstinence from unclean food. He who allied himself to the national party with the solemn resolve to keep those ancestral laws divinely given to the nation was called "one who had separated himself unto them from the impurity of the country people" (Ezra vi, 21), or "one who had separated himself for the law of the Lord from the country people" (ix. 1; x, 1 1 ; Neh. ix, 2; x, 28). Hence the phrase "73 ^23, "separated from," obtained during this period apart;/ signification. This name became the standing appellation for those who had thus separated themselves for the service of God, and continued to be the conservators of their ancestral religion, as may be seen from the taunt of the anti- national party, who warned them to join the Greek party, telling them in the days of the Maccabees that "since we have separated from them (txwpirrSi]iJtv aw avruJv, the translation of ^SS) many evils have come upon us" (1 Maec. i, 11). Those who yielded to the temptation, and. relinquishing the national party, joined the antinational portion, were denominated CZ~]V~f\) the mixed (Ezra ix, 1), or (2 j3>) the mixture (Neh. xiii, 3). Hence the period before Alcimus was afterwards regarded as the non-mixture (dfji'£ia), while his own was looked upon as the mixture (t7rt/<i£, 2 Mace, xiv, 3, 38). Afterwards, when the priestly party, or the Sad- ducees, who were at first the centre of the national movement, assumed a haughty position, stood upon their sacerdotal dignity, cared little for the real spirit-
ual and temporal wants of the people, but only sought their own aggrandizement and preservation, allying themselves for this purpose with foreign nations, and espousing antinational sentiments, the real national portion of the people united themselves more firmly than ever, independently of the priests, to keep the law, and to practice their ancestral customs; and it is this party whom the opposite section called by the Aramaic name "puJ^IS — 4>«pic7«to(, instead of its original He- brew equivalent DTS'TCS, the separated (Ezra vi. 2] ; i\. 1; x, 11: Neh. ix, 2 ;' x, 28).
In the time of queen Alexandra (q. v.) the Pharisees attained almost supreme power. By the appearance of piety and thorough knowledge of the law, which they well knew how to affect (so as even to pass for prophets, Josephus, Ant. xvii, 2, 4), the Pharisees at an early day secured the popular favor (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 10, 5; xiii, 15, 5; xviii, 1,3; War, i, 5, 2; comp. Luke xi, 43), and that of the women (Josephus. .1 nf. xvii, 2, 1, where, however, only the wives of king Herod are spoken of; but comp. Lightfoot. Hor. Ilebr. p. 230 sq. ). ami thereby acquired considerable political influence, which became very manifest even during the history of the Jewish dynasty (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 10, 6; xiii, 16, 2; War, i, 5, 2). This influence became greatly increased by the extension of the Pharisees over the whole land ( Luke v, 17), and the majority which they composed in the San- hedrim (comp. Acts v, 34; xxiii. 6 sq.). In political conflicts they generally followed democratic principles, and sometimes carried them to an extreme, trusting to their combined influence for success. (Their number reached more than six thousand under the llerods, Jo- sephus. Ant. xvii, 2.4.) Many of them must have suf- fered death for political agitation (Josephus, Ant. xvii, 2, 4). Iu the time of Christ they were divided doctri- nally into several schools, among which those of Hillel and Shammai were most noted, the former being more moderate, the latter more strict, in their observances. Of the history of the Pharisees alter the resurrection of Christ and the foundation of the Christian Church little need be said. Their opposition to the Gospel continued as eager as before, and, though they are seldom men- tioned by name in the Acts of the Apostles, that opposi- tion is frequently brought before us when "the council'' is spoken of (Acts iv, 15 ; v, 27 ; vi. 12; xxii, 30; comp. xxiii, 6). That "council" is the Sanhedrim, and of the seventy-two doctors of which it was composed, the more influential part appears to have consisted of Pharisees. We see then the same spirit of enmity to Christian truth manifested by it as had been displayed during the life of the liedeemer; and the history of Paul before Ids con- version is only a more marked illustration than ordinary of the manner in which the whole body would have "persecuted the Church of God and wasted it." It is not to be imagined that this enmity would abate as the infant Church grew stronger. Everything that we know of human nature and religious bigotry leads to the opposite conclusion; and in the terrible fanaticism with which, when Titus besieged Jerusalem, the Jewish people rushed upon their fate, in the unflinching zeal which they displayed, in the desperate efforts which they made to avert the destruction which was "the wrath come upon them to the uttermost," and in the awful frenzy with which they sacrificed themselves amid their falling palaces and burning Temple, it is impossi- ble not to recognise the last convulsive outburst of Phar- isaic heroism and despair.