The Pharisees were the religious group that Jesus came into conflict with most often. On the surface this does not make sense as the Pharisees would seem like one of the better schools of thought with more correct teachings than the others. They believed in angels and a resurrection, unlike their rivals the liberal Sadducees who had more faith in the Romans and the secular world system than in God.
Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
The Sadducees were almost like atheists, for the most part disbelieving in the supernatural. Why didn’t Jesus spend more time attacking the Sadducees, since they seemed to be the ones farther from the truth?
The problem Jesus had with the Pharisees could not have been their strictness to the law.
Jesus said:
Matthew 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
By specifying “one of the least of these commandments” Jesus shows that the problem with the Pharisees was not their strictness. What then was the Pharisees problem and why was Jesus so set against them? When looking at all the passages there are a few major these that seems to repeat:
Washing the Outside:
A few of of Jesus’ disciples that did not wash their hands before eating. The Pharisees quickly took it upon themselves to denigrate these “lower class” characters.
Mark 7:2-3 Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.
We should note that Jesus himself did set an example by washing his hands before eating. It was “some” of his disciples who did not practice this. We can clearly see the reason why. Jesus did not choose the elite to follow him. Jesus had chosen his disciples from a variety of walks in life. Although some like Matthew were higher class, most were common men; at least four of the disciples were fishermen. The Pharisees rushed at this opportunity to humiliate Jesus by pointing out the low status of his followers.
The original Greek phrase translated as washing “in a special way” was to wash “with the fist.” The Pharisees thought that washing the outside of their hands made them clean and made them superior to some of Jesus disciples who did not wash. Washing with a closed fist would not properly clean the part of the hand that actually contacts the food when eating though. It just made the most visible outside surface of the hand look nice and presentable for those watching.
The Pharisees did the same thing in washing vessels. They would focus their effort on washing the outside to make them shiny for presentation to visitors and guests or for adoring the temple, while not paying attention to cleaning the inside in between uses. Jesus uses this as a metaphor for how the Pharisee put meticulous attention on outwardly appearing noble and honourable while internally being full of darkness.
Matthew 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
Hypocrisy means “being an actor.” Outwardly displaying a different identity than who you truly are inside. This is the second problem the Pharisees had, which Jesus calls their leaven.
The Leaven of the Pharisees:
Exodus 12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Luke 12:1-2 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
Leaven means yeast and is something that is “hidden” internally in a batch of ingredients and only appears externally after the baking process has had some time. Leaven causes dough to puff up and rise and thus God often specifies flat “unleavened” bread to be used in religious rituals. This symbolizes the lack of pride and self-will that God desires his worshippers to have so that we can worship him as a unified community, not as individuals in conflict with each other as each strives for supremacy and looks to their own needs as paramount.
The Bible calls satan the “prince of the power of the air.” Just as leaven fills bread with air, satan “works in the sons of disobedience” by sowing pride into the human heart. The Pharisees were corrupted in this way. Externally they seemed to be the most noble righteous characters, while their inner heart was full of self-worship. In the end the Pharisee arranged Jesus betrayal and murder just so they could keep their positions of earthly power.
Ephesians 2:2 “....in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,”
Failing to Walk the Walk:
Matthew 23:1-3 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
The problem with the Pharisees was not that they had legalistic beliefs and teachings. Jesus said they were teaching generally correctly and their words should be followed. The problem was their practice. The Pharisees had an intellectual knowledge of scripture, but would make any excuse not to follow it; especially when they were not being watched.
Luke 11:42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
The Pharisees were so strict that they would not only tithe from their harvest of standard crops, but they would also tithe additional things like spices, just to make sure they were not missing anything. Jesus does not mock their strictness in this. He confirms this was good and correct. The problem was in what the Pharisees left out. The Pharisees, who thought of themselves as the topmost in religion, were not doing enough and were still failing God’s standard. This is the danger in trusting in your own righteousness. God’s standard is too high for a human to consistently reach. If the Pharisees would have had more humility, God could have looked past some of their mistakes. By thinking they were perfect, these people were judged by the full strictness of God’s law and found failures.
John 9:41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
The Pharisees had created exemptions for certain parts of the law they did not like. If one did not get along with their parents, an exemption was made to avoid having to support the parents financially in old age. Instead, you could just declare that those funds would be given as a temple offering instead. The word “honor” in the Greek is timao (Strong’s #5091) and has the meaning of “to assign a price/value to.” It is derived from the root word meaning “costly.” To honour parents did not just mean to show respect. The true meaning of this commandment is to support your parents in old age. The Pharisees had invented a bypass to get around having to do this obligation.
Mark 7:9-13 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban” -(that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
At the heart of it, the Pharisees teachings on the core of the Bible were mostly correct. Their problem was in failing to walk the walk and live what they preached. Also, when the Pharisees did not want to follow a particular biblical rule, they would create an “exception” for how to get around it without being considered to have sinned, such as the ‘corban’ rule we looked at above.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
There is a saying “good is the enemy of best.” When Solomon’s gold vessels were stolen after an invasion, his son replaced them with brass “fools gold,” and had his servants pretend not to notice. The Pharisees had created a “fools gold” type of religion which was just close enough to imitate the real thing. The Bible teaches satan’s ministers come with a halo, not with horns and hoofs:
The Pharisee Within:
God did not put the Pharisees in scripture so that we could just talk about how foolish they are in our Bible studies, and let ourselves feel superior as modern day “enlightened” Christians. God put these verses there so we could examine ourselves in light of these mistakes and search for the Pharisee within ourselves. Today we find a false understanding of virtue is common and “virtue signalling” is a form of modern day Pharisaism. The Pharisees were strict on the minor things and totally missed some of the most important things to God’s heart. Being strict can give a false sense of security and has caused many Christians groups to feel they are superior while they miss out on