Pharisees

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Pharisees
     separatists (Heb. persahin, from parash, "to separate"). They
     were probably the successors of the Assideans (i.e., the
     "pious"), a party that originated in the time of Antiochus
     Epiphanes in revolt against his heathenizing policy. The first
     mention of them is in a description by Josephus of the three


     sects or schools into which the Jews were divided (B.C. 145).
     The other two sects were the Essenes and the Sadducees. In the
     time of our Lord they were the popular party (John 7:48). They
     were extremely accurate and minute in all matters appertaining
     to the law of Moses (Matt. 9:14; 23:15; Luke 11:39; 18:12).
     Paul, when brought before the council of Jerusalem, professed
     himself a Pharisee (Acts 23:6-8; 26:4, 5).
     
       There was much that was sound in their creed, yet their system
     of religion was a form and nothing more. Theirs was a very lax
     morality (Matt. 5:20; 15:4, 8; 23:3, 14, 23, 25; John 8:7). On
     the first notice of them in the New Testament (Matt. 3:7), they
     are ranked by our Lord with the Sadducees as a "generation of
     vipers." They were noted for their self-righteousness and their
     pride (Matt. 9:11; Luke 7:39; 18:11, 12). They were frequently
     rebuked by our Lord (Matt. 12:39; 16:1-4).
     
       From the very beginning of his ministry the Pharisees showed
     themselves bitter and persistent enemies of our Lord. They could
     not bear his doctrines, and they sought by every means to
     destroy his influence among the people.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Pharisees, set apart