Comments on: Jesus as Rabbi 5: Jesus and the Pharisees

By: Henry (Rick) Frueh

Henry (Rick) Frueh — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:25:51 +0000

“how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

This, of course, was before Brother Calvin straightened the Lord out about free will.

By: Chris L

Chris L — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:46:20 +0000

“liberal” in terms of strict literal interpretation of the law (conservative) vs. intent of the law (liberal), yes – in the modern, sense, not quite so much…

By: Joe C

Joe C — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:21:48 +0000

So….Jesus was a liberal…?

By: Chris L

Chris L — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:58:14 +0000

A couple of other notes – the primary “Pharisee” presence in Judea, after the death of Hillel was the House of Shammai, the most conservative view. The areas which accepted Jesus’ message during his ministry were primarily in northern Galilee, and considered to be the most lenient in their interpretation of scripture.

Believe it or not, Jesus was actually Jewish beyond simple ethnicity, and the theology he held (his beliefs about and teaching about God) were from that stream, not made up. Their uniqueness was not in their “newness”, but rather from their interpretation of scripture based upon the two greatest commandments, the second of which was more encompassing than even the most lenient interpretations…

By: Chris L

Chris L — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:51:51 +0000

Inq,

Actually, it was primarily the Sadducee party (which controlled the Temple and its rites) and the Herodians behind Jesus’ death (often translated as “the Jews”, though it is more accurately “the Judeans” – which is an ethnically different distinction).

Also, Jesus’ theology was based first and foremost upon God, the Father – not himself. Theologically speaking, Jesus was of the tradition of the hasidim, and his teaching and emphases are very similar to those of Hillel (d. 10 A.D.), taken entirely from the Hebrew scriptures and not made up out of whole cloth…

I’d suggest you start by reading the previous articles, though I can point you toward a number of other Bible-based resources.

By: inquisitor

inquisitor — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:44:41 +0000

“These were the folks who had theology almost exactly in line with Jesus”

Umm… You know that they killed him right? You know that the Bible is all about Him right? If they didn’t know HIM, they didn’t know theology. If they didn’t have HIM, they didn’t have theology.
He IS theology. ALL scripture is about HIM.

By: merry

merry — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:43:43 +0000

Yep, Christians today definately can be compared to Pharisees of the Bible. Some are hyprcrites, and some genuinely love God.

We tend to stereotype Pharisees as all being hypocrites, which isn’t exactly fair, and how many people tend to stereotype all Christians as being hypocrites?

We tend to see Pharisees as the villians in the gospels, but really, they are just regular human beings. God gave very specific rules to follow in the law of Moses, and they were just trying to obey it– and getting carried away!! Reminds me of Christians I know!!