PHARISEES (vvrim, Aramaic form Mit ; N. T. and Joseph. Pharisai, more properly Pernshinz or Perushin), one of the three sects or orders of Judaism in the time of Christ, the other two being the Essenes and the Sadducees.
1. Name of the Sect, and its signification. —The name is the Greek form of the Hebrew C'IlD (passive of e'lD, to separate, plur. Aramaic and properly denotes one who is separated, i. e., by special practices ; or, as the Aruch (s. v.) defines it, 'one who separated himself from Levitical impurity and Levitically impure food' (comp. also Talmud, Chagiga, IS b ; Sabbath, 13 a). The derivation of it from Wit, to separate, to unfold, to explain, and the asser tion that the followers of this sect were called Pharisees=interpreters of the Bible, in contradis tinction to the Sadducees, who adhered to the letter of the Scriptures, as well as the more gene rally received notion that they were so called because they separated from the rest of the people, believing themselves to be more holy, are at vari ance with the most ancient and most authentic authorities upon this subject. Besides, to take LlID as interpreter is contrary to its grammatical form, which, as transitive, ought to be Of course the separation from that which was Levitically impure necessarily implied separation from those who were defiled by Levitically impure objects. It must be observed that the name Phari sees is given to them in the Mishna (7"ebamoth, iv. 6, etc.) by their opponents the Sadducees, and that the names by which they were designated among themselves are n+nzri, sages, or more modestly n=n 4-14n.9n, disciples of the sages, but more generally c?-lzrl, associates. By the term Pharisees, Wil'IlD, or its equivalent Chaberinz, associates, is therefore meant all those Jews who separated themselves from every kind of Levitical impurity, and united together to keep the Mosaic laws of purity. As it was natural that all the students of the law would, as a matter of course, be the first to join this association, the appellation 111, member, associate, or V1ID, Pharisee, became synonymous with student, disciple, lawyer, scribe, whilst those who refused to unite to keep the laws were regarded as country people, common people, illiterates, irreligious.
2. The qualifications for membership of the Phari saic association. —The most essential conditions which were exacted from every one who wished to become a Chaber or member of the Pharisaic asso ciation were two. Each candidate was required to
promise in the presence of three members that (i.) He would set apart all the sacred tithes on the produce of the land, and refrain from eating any thing which had not been tithed, or about the tithing of which there was any doubt ; and (ii.) He would scrupulously observe the most essential laws of purity which so materially affected the eating of food, and all family affairs. To understand these laws, which may seem trivial and arbitrary, as well as to see the extraordinary influence which they exercised upon the whole religious and social life of the Jewish nation in all its ramifications, the fol lowing facts must be borne in mind :—The Mosaic law enjoins that besides the (ncrin) priestly heave offering every Israelite is annually to give to the Levites a tithe of all the produce (Num. xviii. 21-24), which the Jewish canons call the first tithe (-Inn nnst-1) ; that a second tithe nt.,”3.in), as it is termed in the same canons, is to be taken annually from the produce to Jerusalem, either in kind or specie, and consumed by the owner in the metro polis in festive celebration (Deut. xii. 5.18), and that every third year this second tithe is to be given to the poor (Deut. xiv. 28, 29), whence it is de nominated the poor tithe CV "I MO) in the ancient canons. Moreover, as each seventh year was a Sabbatic or furrow year, which yielded no harvest, it was fixed that in the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the septennial cycle the second tithe is to be eaten by the owner in Jerusalem, whilst in the third and sixth years it is to be distributed among the poor, and be the poor tithe. When it is remembered that these tithal laws, which were originally enacted for Palestine, were in the post exile period extended to Egypt, Ammon, Moab, and to every land in which the Jews had posses sions, that they had more of a religious than civil import, that the portion of produce reserved as tithes was holy, that the eating of holy things was a deadly sin, and that the non-separation of the tithes rendered the whole produce unlawful, thus affect every article of food, the paramount importance of the first condition which the Pharisees, who were the conservators of the divine law, exacted from the candidates for fellowship will readily be understood (comp. Bechoroth, 30 b).