The Life of Christ
Historical Introduction, Part 2
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
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The Pharisees
The word "Pharisee" is the Greek translation from
the Aramaic, and it means to be separated. To the Pharisee, this
meant a separation from the influences of the Gentiles on their
religion and culture.
We have a very similar thing occurring in our nation today. The
Pagan influences in our society are waging war against the marvelous
culture and vital relationship with God that our forefathers
enjoyed. It is a natural and good response to do what you can
to protect what is good; to defend it from those who so zealously
attempt to destroy it.
Every time that the nation of Israel fell under the rule of another
nation - whether Babylon or Persia or Greece or Rome, they felt
like they were losing a little bit more of themselves. The foreign
nationals would come in with their foreign Gods and foreign customs
and foreign games, and away would go just a little bit more of
what was truly Jewish.
The emphasis of the Pharisees was in the area of the Mosaic Law.
It was their aim to protect and uphold the Law of Moses, so that
the pollution of foreigners and their foreign Gods would not
destroy what made the nation of Israel so distinct, and so great
in their time. This is why they came to hate Herod so very much.
For some four hundred years before the birth of Christ they strove
to fulfill their mission as they saw it. Such an aim was not
so bad, but in carrying out that aim they became so extreme as
to be parody of the Law.
Their undue attention to detail, and especially their imagination
in creating details which did not exist resulted in their missing
the point of the Law entirely.
The Law was designed to bring the people of Israel to a relationship
with the living God through the provision of knowledge essential
to the maintenance of that relationship. It was not designed
to be carried out just for the sake of accomplishment and preservation.
The very best way for the Pharisees to have accomplished their
aim would have been to perpetuate the Law through having a relationship
with God by it.
Their teachings about religious matters are quite a revelation
of their character.
They tried ardently to avoid all physical contact with the Pagan
Gentiles. Even touching one would make them ceremonially unclean.
This is why the Pharisees took such great offense at Christ's
close association with the tax-collectors and sinners.
They always stuck to the letter of the Law, without a hint of
flexibility. They defined exactly many things that were not set
forth in the Law. They were obsessed with the Sabbath, and were
constantly specifying and clarifying what could and could not
be done; how far one could travel; exactly how much could be
lifted; what the precise exceptions were. Of course, the point
that the Sabbath was designed for concentration on God was lost
on them.
The Pharisees were consumed with the idea of appearance. They
would pray long and loud in public. They would contrive special
hats to cover their eyes, so that they might not see a woman
(these were called the bloody Pharisees, because they were always
running into things).
Their motivation is equally revealing. They did what they did
at the time of Christ for two reasons: to gain power, and to
avoid judgment. The latter is especially interesting in the light
of 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love
drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The
one who fears is not made perfect in love."
They were fervent in their legalism lest they offend God, and
thus come under His judgement in the eternal state. But you cannot
have a true relationship with one you fear. You must have confidence
before God, and that was one thing the Pharisee did not have.
Another motivation, the lust for power, had been hanging around
the Pharisees for quite some time. Their mission, though warped
in its execution, was quite a noble one. They looked at their
mission, and decided that they needed power, political power
in order to carry it out. Much like their association with the
Law, their attempts to gain power led to their addiction to it,
and its rule over them.
Perhaps the best characterization of their addiction to power
was their success in the Maccabaean Revolt, which occurred a
couple of centuries before the birth of Christ.
In the intermediate period between the death of Alexander in
323 B.C. and the establishment of Roman control from 63 B.C.
onward, Israel remained under the nominal control of Greece and
even Syria.
The Sadducees
This religious group known as Sadducees came into being about
300 years before Christ. They are characterized by their aristocracy,
their cultural surrender to the Greeks and others, and their
opposition to everything the Pharisees stood for.
Their name comes from the Aramaic Sadduqim, which meant 'righteousness'.
However, those who were in opposition to them called them saddiqim,
which meant 'destruction'.
They came from the ranks of the priests and high priests of Israel,
during the time of the Greek occupation. Their desire was to
give in to the Hellenizing influences of the Greeks, and thus
retain their favor.
The Sadducees had a lot to lose to the occupation forces of the
Greeks, because they were mostly prosperous, aristocratic people.
In order to maintain their lifestyles and possessions, they placated
the Greeks, giving in to their cultural and even religious influences.
During the Maccabaean revolt, they stayed in the background.
They were in fact very unpopular. When Jonathan Maccabee was
appointed high priest by popular demand, it looked like the Sadducees
would be gone forever. At the time, almost all of the people
in the land were willing to sacrifice anything for their freedom.
The strong oppression of the Syrians drove them to this sacrificial
attitude.
After about 40 years of on and off civil war, the Jews became
tired of the bloodshed, and popular opinion tended toward peace.
In this case, peace meant compromise, and compromise was the
game of the Sadducees. John Hyrcanus, of the Maccabees, was really
very close to the Sadducee way of thinking.
However, the compromising policy of Hyrcanus became unpopular
in a few years, and so the Pharisees came into power. Due to
the double tyrrany of the Pharisees and king Herod, the Sadducees
had made a great comeback not long before the birth of Christ.
Let's face it: the Pharisees were no fun at all.
The religious beliefs of the Sadducees can be summed up in a
single thought: they were always opposed to what the Pharisees
believed. They believed that only the written Law is binding,
whereas the Pharisees believed that the body of tradition and
written interpretation were just as important as the Law itself.
The Sadducees punished breaches of the Law severely, but the
Pharisees often interpreted their way around the written Law,
and thus got out of the proscribed punishment.
They had a strong belief in human free will, while the Pharisees
believed in predestination to the point of being fatalistic.
They denied the resurrection, and any kind of continued existence
of the soul after physical death. This led to their inordinate
value of private property and possessions. The Pharisees, however,
believed that the soul continued after death, and that there
would be a severe judgement in eternity.
The Sadducees did not believe in angelic beings, or demons, and
any reference to such in Scripture was converted to a manifestation
of God Himself. The Pharisees did believe in angels.
The Sadducees always reserved the right of private opinion about
Scripture and the Law, while the Pharisees rejected that right,
tyrranically imposing their opinions on all.
The Sadducees were a mixture of both the conservative and the
liberal from today's American society. The pressures of history
and their religious beliefs worked together to make them what
they were. Although they had some good elements to their philosophy,
they were just as spiritually and morally bankrupt as the Pharisees.
They are a good example of wrong reaction for the right reason.
It was a good thing to be opposed to the religious tyrrany of
the Pharisees, but the motives of the Sadducees were wrong, and
thus their beliefs went in the wrong direction. Although religion
was important to them, relationship with God was not, and so
they destroyed themselves. They left the pages of history forever
after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
The Essenes
The Essenes were a widespread movement in the ancient world.
They appeared on the scene not long before the Maccabaean revolt,
about 175 B.C.
Their decision was to withdraw from the evils of the world around
them, and they were the prototype of the monastic movement of
the dark and middle ages. Because of the destruction of the Jewish
nation, and their deportatiion to points all over the ancient
world, this movement was widespread.
These are the people who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, and who
lived in the caves of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were
found. In a sense, these were the ostriches of the time, sticking
their heads in the sand, and hoping that others would leave them
alone.
They were widely admired, especially by the intelligentsia of
the day. Both Josephus and Philo are full of praise for them
(but notice that neither wanted to be one).
Their group was strictly organized, and enforced strict obedience
to their leadership. They had a system of double initiation.
First, they had to undergo a probation period of one year, and
after this time they would undergo an initiation ceremony of
ritual purification.
After two more years of probation they gained their full membership
in the community. At this time an oath was taken in which the
new member would swear himself to complete truthfulness to other
members of the community, and complete secrecy on the doctrines
of the community to those outside (this is one reason why Christ
forbade swearing).
Only adults were admitted into the Essene order, but they did
have a childrens' recruiting and introduction program.
The Essene community was dedicated to total community of goods
and labor.
o They had a common purse.
o They had common clothes.
o They had common food at a common table.
o Trading of any kind was prohibited.
They had a strictly regulated daily labor plan.
They were total pacifists. They were not even allowed to make
weapons or anything that might hurt someone.
They observed the sabbath with strict adherence. The read and
explained Scripture in their daily worship schedule.
They were extremely ascetic in many ways.
They abstained from sex and marriage; their ranks were only increased through outside recruiting. It is a testimony to their popularity that they have continued in one form or another until even today.
They were prohibited from profanity, make-up (or anything that might enhance their physical appearance), bathed only in cold water, wore only white, and were greatly modest about all bodily functions.
They substituted their own ritual system for God's, and they thought their own to be superior. They did not sacrifice any animals.
The Essene movement was a reaction to the incursions of the
evil outside world. They were not much different from the other
utopian movements of history. They depended very much on strong
and virtuous leadership, and when their leadership failed them,
they disappeared from the pages of history.
Unlike their Pharisee and Sadducee counterparts, they seemed
to have a more vital, daily relationship with God. However, distortions
were inevitable due to their rejection of God's ritual system,
and some of them even went so far as to engage in sun worship.
They were most like the Pharisees, and could even be considered
a radical Pharisee sect.
They were the pattern which the early church (mistakenly) patterned
themselves. Since they lived such sequestered lives, Christ would
have little to say about them, because He never ran across them.
John the Baptist was considered to be like the Essenes because
of his ascetic life in the desert, but he really wasn't.
The Zealots
The Zealots were almost purely a political party. They called
for the violent overthrow of the Roman rule. They carried on
the tradition of the Maccabees - they were militant, and full
of zeal and purpose. They were the cause of the Jewish wars and
the destruction of Jerusalem.
They fought with complete fanaticism to the very end. They were
extremely patriotic, but not many were Godly. They took their
patriotism to great excess, and vowed to strike down all the
enemies of Israel. Although they were politically correct (not
in the modern sense), they were morally wrong, and in this they
were most similar to the southern U.S. in the early 1800's.
Transition
o The nation of Israel at the time of the birth of Christ was an unhappy nation.
o For hundreds of years, they had battled for their freedom and lost. They had been under the crushing rule of foreign nations.
o For hundreds of years, a great destiny had been before them, taunting them.
o Because of this, they chafed under the yoke of Roman rule through Herod.
o Without a national relationship with God, the nation could not be free.
o Without a national relationship with God, the nation could not enjoy the blessings of the unconditional covenants.
o Without a national relationship with God, they would reject the greatest of all world leaders of all time: Jesus Christ. One and all, they would reject Him.
o Therefore, we will now turn to our first major principle in our study of the life of Christ, which is the doctrine of civil disobedience.
o Nobody liked the Pharisees except the Pharisees, though most pretended to like them.
o Everyone hated the Zealots except the Zealots.
o Most people tolerated the Sadducees.
o Everyone liked the Essenes, though few people wanted to be one.
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