It cannot be the denied that the Pharisees are negatively portrayed in the Gospels. Whether this is an accurate portrayal of the Jewish sect is debatable. As with any text, the Gospels are likely to contain at least an element of bias (especially considering the aims of the evangelists in promoting Christianity) The Pharisees may have been misrepresented in at least some degree in the Gospels, especially in Matthew and John, which reflect the growing antagonism between Christianity and Judaism after 70 A.D (Destruction of the Temple).
Before we begin, you might be wondering:
Who were the Pharisees?
The Pharisees were a major Jewish sect during Jesus' time. In the New Testament, they appear as Jesus' most vocal critics. Their insistence on ritual observance rather than the spirit of the law evoked strong denunciation by Jesus; countless times he calls them "hypocrites". They are portrayed as plotting to destroy Jesus and pressure Pilate to "crucify him". Although Pilate, as the Roman Procurator, had the ultimate authority to pass the death sentence, the Evangelists do not present him in the negative light that the Pharisees are presented.
SO...
Is it any wonder the Pharisees were depicted in this way?
It was in fact the Pharisees of all the Jews that most resisted the influence and ideology of early Christianity. For Jews, the idea of the trinity was irrational in the view of the Pharisees, since it seemed to violate the sacred Jewish teaching that God is 'One'. The Christians ignored many of the ritual observances that the Pharisees felt would bring the Kingdom of God, such as the Sabbath and circumcision.Jews very much believed that God would protect them from foreign intervention in the Holy Land if they followed His law (The Covenant). What the Pharisees attempted to do was bring every area of life into subjection to the law. They had a longing for a righteous Israel and the hope for the Messianic Kingdom in the imminent future. They sought to save people by turning back to the law. This is why they were so harsh with Jesus when he heals on the Sabbath, subsequently breaking the Sabbath law.
What were they really like?
While the Gospels portray the Pharisees as pretentious, they were actually the most egalitarian sect. They allowed anyone to become a Pharisee, provided they studied and knew the Law well. It can be argued that rather than recognising the devout nature of the Pharisees to the Law, the New Testament condemns them as taking part in the Jewish rituals without being spiritually involved. A classic example of this is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where the Pharisee ignores the suffering of a man attacked by bandits, because he would become unclean by touching him. Although this may be true of many Pharisees, the evangelists often make sweeping generalisations condemning all Pharisees to a stereotype (there were in fact two types of Pharisee - each deriving from Shammai or Hillel - Shammai being more strict).Other Jewish sects, less passionate about preserving Judaism, are not indicted in this manner. The Sadducees for example, were far more open to Hellenistic influence and disagreed with any notion of the afterlife, yet are not portrayed nearly as negatively.
Do the Gospels really present them SO negatively that it is impossible to believe the depiction of them?
They Gospels do present the Pharisees very negatively, but this is not to say that it is all bad. As with any person/group/ideology, there are always positive and negative aspects. The Gospels present some positive aspects of Pharisaism, that does suggest the view of the Pharisees in the New Testament is an accurate one. For instance the Pharisee Nicodemus features positively. He says, "for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." There are also various occasions when Pharisees showed Jesus hospitality. In fact, the apostle Paul is meant to have been a Pharisee.
How do the Gospels compare with other sources on the Pharisees?
To discover whether the picture painted by the evangelists of the Pharisees is an accurate one, it will be necessary to cite other sources which mention the Pharisees, including the works of Flavius Josephus and the various compilations of the Rabbis.
Of the three sects that Josephus lists (Pharisees, Essenes & Sadducees), the Pharisees appeal to him most. Josephus presents them generally positively, however the Rabbinic traditions do not. The Talmud lists seven categories of Pharisees, and only the seventh is laudable: there is the shouldering Pharisee, who parades good deeds; there is the delaying Pharisee, who lets business wait in order to do a good deed; there is the bruised Pharisee, who walks into a wall to keep from looking at a woman; there is the pestle Pharisee, who with false humility walks with his head down like a pestle on a mortar; there is the ever-reckoning Pharisee, who asks what good deeds he might do that would be reckoned as canceling out his neglects; there is the fearful Pharisee, who is in terror of God; and there is the loving Pharisee, who like Abraham loves God--he is admirable. Two other expressions are used in the Mishnah to describe the Pharisees: "destroyers of the world" and "Pharisaic plagues," which certainly portray them very critically.
It should be noted here, however, that even the use of the explicit sources is problematic. The Rabbinic traditions are shaped by polemical forces are often anachronistic. The value of Josephus' information, which has traditionally been regarded as the most reliable, is diminished by recent studies which suggest that Josephus was not a Pharisee before all the other sects died out (A.D. 70) and that his eventual conversion to the sect was motivated by political realities.
Overall, it seems that the Pharisees are not wrong identified in the Gospels but are used to support their case. It is one thing to say that the Gospel writers selected cases that best illustrated the Jewish opposition to Jesus; but it is quite another to say that they misrepresented facts or invented stories. The negative depiction of the Pharisees cannot come from no-where, but it is likely that the evangelists exaggerated them. It is conceivable of humans to become self-righteous and proud of their law-keeping, getting too caught up in its minute detail. Whether this was true of all Pharisees, is unlikely.
