4- Origin, development, and classes of the Phari sees.—After the return from the Babylonish cap tivity the priesthood formed the centre of the new religious life, and the pious in Israel who were anxious to practise the commandments of the Lord naturally attached themselves to the divinely-ap pointed and time-honoured tribe of Levi. Besides the keeping pure from intermarriage with heathen, great and vital importance 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 ; I Maccab. iii. 49), to the due observance of the Sabbath (Neh. x.31; xiii. 19), the three pilgrim festivals, viz., the Paswyer (2 Chron. xxx. xxxv. ; Ezra vi. 19-22), Pentecost (Tobit ii. I), and Tabernacles (Neh. viii. 14), as well as the Sab batic year (Neh. x. 31 ; I Maccab. vi. 49, 53), and the abstinence from unclean food. He who allied himself to the national party with the solemn re solve 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' (ni+i{ "1) riNnnn Ezra vi.
21), or one who had separated himself for the law of the Lord from the country people' 041)n n-on 5N Ezra ix. I ; x. I1 ; Neh.
ix. 2 ; x. 28). Hence the phrase in 9.-= obtained during this period a Party signification. This name became the standing appellation for those who had thus separated themselves for the service of God, and continued 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 Awl:4,7517 atirc3p, the translation of 911)) many evils have come upon us' (I Maccab. i. I I). Those who yielded to the temptation, and, relinquishing the national party, joined the antinational portion, were denominated (z-vir) the mixed (Ezra ix. I) or (Z137) the mixture (Neh. xiii. 3). Hence the period before Alcimus was afterwards regarded as the non mixture (dbsLEia), whilst his own was looked upon as the mixture (lryhtE, 2 Maccab. 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 spiritual and temporal wants of the people, but only sought their own aggrandisement and preser vation, allying themselves for this purpose with foreign nations, and espousing antinational senti ments, the real national portion of the people united themselves more firmly than ever, indepen dently of the priests, to keep the law, and to prac tise their ancestral customs ; and it is this party whom the opposite section called by the Aramaic name ronn=rDapzo-aioz, instead of its original Hebrew equivalent in+••=, the separated (Ezra vi. 21 ; ix. 1 ; X. II ; Neh. ix. 2 ; X. 2S).
With the definitions and explanations of such an extensive and gorgeous ritual as that of the Mosaic law, with the application and adaptation thereof to all the vicissitudes of the commonwealth, with the different degrees of holiness and uncleanness at tached to the performance or neglect of each pre cept and rite, with the diverse dispositions and idiosyncrasies of the multitude about the respective merits of outward observances and a corresponding inward feeling, the Pharisees would have been superhuman if they had escaped the extravagances which in the course of time have more or less de veloped themselves in the established religions based upon a more spiritual code and a less formal ritual. To quote the enactment that the flesh of quadrupeds must not be cooked or in any way mixed with milk for food,' deduced from injunc tions in Exod. xxiii. 19 ; xxxiv. 26 ; Dent. xiv. 21 ; or the enactment about the compulsory recitation of the Shenza twice a day,' i, e., the declaration about the unity of the Deity (Deut. vi. 4-9) at a stated time ; or the discussion on the lighting candles on the eve of the Sabbath,' which is the auty of every Jew ; or the interdict to eat an egg which had been laid on any feast day, whether such day was or was not the day after the Sab bath,' and to draw the conclusion therefrom, as is done by Mr. Plumptre in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, s, v , Pharisees, that ' it certainly seems a degradation of human intelligence to exercise it on matters so trifling and petty,' and that viewed as a whole the Pharisees treated men like children, formalizing and defining the minutest particulars of ritual observance,' is not only unfair to the synagogue, but to ignore the acts and monuments of our own church. The Christian church, without any basis for it in the N. T., has a casuistry which may fairly compete with that of the Pharisees, who had to define an inspired code of minute rites and ceremonies. From Peter Lombard to Gabriel Biel the question was warmly discussed among all the Christian casuists, What is to be done with a mouse which has eaten of the consecrated wafer ?* Our own established church, which in excellency surpasses any other national church, has deduced from the words, Let all things be done decently and according to order' (I Cor. xiv. 4o), that ' no man shall cover his head in the church or chapel in the time of divine service, except he have some infirmity, in which case let him wear a nightcap or coif' (Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, xvfii.); has enacted that 'no minister, when he celebrateth the communion, shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel, under pain of suspension' (ibid. xxvii.); that upon Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, though they be not holy-days, the minister, at the accus tomed hours of service, shall resort to the church or chapel, and, warning being given to the people by tolling of a bell, shall say the litany prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer : whereunto we wish eve))) householder dwelling within half a mile of the church to come or send one at the least of his household, fit to join with the minister in prayers' (xv.); and that no ecclesiastical person shall wear any coif or wrought nightcap, but only plain night caps of black silk, satin, or velvet . .. in private houses and in their studies, the said persons eccle siastical may use any comely and scholar-like ap parel, provided that it he not cut or pinkt ; and that in public they go not in their doublet and hose, without coats or cassocks ; and that they wear not any light-coloured stockings' (body.) If,
in the absence of the Levitical law, such enactments were judged necessary, how much more might the Pharisees, who lived under that law, and whose business it was to see it obeyed, he absolved from all intention to degrade the human intellect by their minute requisitions ? That the multitudinous and minute rites and ceremonies imposed by the Mosaic law, and amplified by the requirements of time, should have given rise among many Pharisees to formalism, outward religiousness, self-com placency, ostentation, superstition, and hypocrisy, was to be expected, judging from the general ten dency of gorgeous ritualism in more modern days. We are therefore not surprised that our Saviour found these pernicious features in the ranks of Phartsaism, and that he found occasion to expose and to reprove most unsparingly their externalism (Matt. xxiii. 27; Luke vii. 39) and hypocrisy (Matt. xxiii. 13). But to conclude from this that all the Pharisees, or that the majority of them, were either self-righteous and superstitious, or a set of hypocrites, is as unjust as it is base to brand every section in our own church with the infirmities and extravagances of which individual members are guilty, and which are either denounced by their own more enlightened and spiritually-minded brethren, or exposed by the opposing sections. The language which the Pharisees themselves em ployed to denounce the proud, the formalists, the self-righteous, and the hypocrites in their own sect, is, to say the least, quite as strong as that which our Saviour used. In confirmation of this, we need only give the poignant Talmudic classification of the Pharisees. There are seven kinds of Pha risees,' says the Talmud ; The Sheehenzite Pha risee (=V who simply keeps the law for what he can profit thereby, just as Shechem sub mitted to the rite of circumcision that he might thereby obtain Dinah, the daughter of Jacob (Gen. xxxiv. 19); ii. The Tumbling Pharisee (+DP V11D), who, in order to appear humble before men, al ways hangs down his head, and scarcely lifts up his feet when he walks, so that he constantly Jumbles ; iii. The Bleeding Pharisee Nov rriD), who, in order not to look at a woman, walks about with his eyes closed, and hence injures his head frequently, so that he has bleeding wounds ; iv. The Mortar Pharisee (tlIVIID MID), who wears a cap in the form of a mortar to cover his eyes, that he may not see any impurities and indecencies ; v. The What-am-I-yet-to-do Pharisee VIM C.11D nib), who, not knowing much about the law, as soon as he has done one thing, asks, what is my duty now ? and I will do it (comp. Mark x. 17-22) ; vi. The Pharisee from Fear (MD rINVO), who keeps the law because he is afraid of a future judgment ; and vii. The Pharisee from Love (Mil= GVIID), who obeys the Lord because he loves him with all his heart' (Babylon Sota, 22 b, with 7erusaleon Berachoth, cap. ix.) Such stinging exposure of their own fanatics, worldly. minded, and hypocrites, assuredly shows that the Pharisees themselves would by no means tolerate outward sanctity, or a hollow profession of holi ness. Besides, it was among the Pharisees that the glorious ideas were developed about the Mes siah, the kingdom of heaven, the immortality of the soul, the world to come, etc. etc. It was the Pharisees who trained such men as the immortal Hillel, the just and devout Simeon, who waited for the consolation of Israel,' and who, taking up the infant Saviour into his arms, offered up thanks to God (Luke ii. 25-35) ; Zacharias, who was righteous before God' (Luke i. 6) ; Gartland, the teacher of Saul of Tarshish ; St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, etc. Our Saviour himself occupied Pharisaic ground, and used the argu ments of the Pharisees in vindication of his con duct and doctrines. Thus, when Jesus was charged by the Pharisees with allowing his disciples to break the Sabbath by plucking ears of corn in the field on this holy day, he quoted the very maxim of the Pharisees that the Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath' (Mark ii. 27 with ,oma, 85 b) ; and his proof is deduced ac cording to the Pharisaic exegetical rule denomi nated analogy [HILLEL, rule i.] When David was hungry, he ate of the priestly bread, and also gave some to those who were with him. Ac cordingly one who is hungry may satisfy his hunger with that which is otherwise only allowed to the priests. Now the priests perform all manner of work on the Sabbath without incurring the guilt of transgression ; why, then, should one who is hungry not be allowed to do the same ? (Matt. xii. 1-7.) We only add, in conclusion, that the Apostle Paul, who must have known all the denunciations of Christ against the Pharisees, never uttered a disrespectful word against this sect, hut, on the contrary, made it a matter of boast that he belonged to them (Acts xxiii. 6 ; xxvi. 5 ; Phil. iii. 5). Now, it would be surpassing strange that, if the apostle entertained anything like the modern sentiments of Christians about the Phari sees, he should never have uttered a single word against them.
5. Literature.—Besides the illishna, the Talmud, and the Midrashinz, which embody the sentiments of the Pharisees, we must refer to the articles on EDUCATION, ESSENES, HAPHTARA, THE FEASTS and THE FASTS, HILLEL, GAMALIEL, MARRIAGE, MIDRASH, etc. etc., in this Cyclopxdia ; to Herz feld, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, ii. 258, etc., Nordhausen 1857 ; Jost, Geschichte des 7:tam /hums nand seiner Secten, i. 197, etc., Leipzig 1857 ; Graetz, Geschichte der yzeden, iii. 72, etc. 454, etc., 2d ed., Leipzig 1863 ; and above all to the elaborate and masterly treatise of the erudite Geiger, Urschrift and Uebersetzungen der Bibel, p. 103, etc., Breslau 1857. Geiger, who has created a new era in the history of the Jewish sects, shows what influence the Pharisees exercised on the for mation and redaction of the Hebrew text, as well as on the ancient versions. He has supplemented his Urschrift by a treatise which appeared in the Zeitschrift der deft/schen niorgenRindischen Gesell schaft, vol. xvi., p. 714, etc., Leipzig 1862 ; and by an article in his own idische Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaft and Leben, vol. ii. p. II, etc., Bres lau 1863, which has also been reprinted separately, Breslau 1863.—C. D. G.