• What did the Pharisees believe? (continued)
  • High degree of dedication to law and prophets
  • Held oral traditions as equally important
    • Interpretations by noted rabbis
    • Given and relayed by word of mouth
    • Committed to writing around 70 AD and after
    • Pharisees developed many purity rituals that went far beyond the law. They taught that purity rituals the law required of priests must be followed by all in case a priest ate with someone who had not purified themselves and became unclean.
      • Matthew 15:1-11; 23:25-26
      • I Peter 2:4-5 – The priesthood is no longer physical. Holiness is not outward but inward.
  • Positions developed in schools of law
    • Hillel – humane and lenient
    • Shammai – strict and severe
  • Good motivation, misguided methods
    • Talmud: seven kinds of Pharisees
      • Shouldering Pharisee – wears good deeds on shoulder (Matthew 6:5)
      • Delaying Pharisee – makes everyone wait while he does a good deed
      • Bruised Pharisee – walks into a wall to keep from looking at a woman
      • Pestle Pharisee – walks head down in false humility
      • Ever-reckoning Pharisee – keeps mental balance sheet of good and bad deeds he has done
      • Fearful Pharisee – in constant fear of God
      • Loving Pharisee – loves God and seeks to keep His commandments
• Some specific beliefs
  • Purification applies to all – Mark 7:1
  • Interpretation
  • Resurrection of the dead
  • Divine intervention
  • Hellenism
  • Free will of man
  • Inspiration of oral Torah, Talmud, Mishnah
  • Spiritual beings – Colossians 2:18-19
• Essenes
  • Pharisees on steroids
  • Believed in spiritual afterlife, but no resurrection
  • Considered temple eternally impure – did not eat meat
  • Most lived communally – I Timothy 4:1-5 could be referring to Essenes
  • Best-known community was by Red Sea
    • Dead Sea Scrolls believed to have been written by Essenes
  • Refused to recognize proselytes and descendants
  • Marriage
    • Some groups practiced celibacy
    • Some required 3-year engagement before marriage
• Communal life
  • No ownership or property or servants
  • Three-year probation period for new members
  • Shared many beliefs with the Pharisees
    • More meticulous about purification rituals
    • Held to the Torah, Talmud, and Mishnah
  • Similar groups in behavior, but not in belief
    • Nazareans – law and prophets were fraudulent
    • Ossaeans – much like Nazareans
• Sadducees
  • Probably named for Zadok
  • Upper-tier priests – Acts 4:1-2; 5:17-18; John 1:19-24
  • Ruling class
• First appearance as political force
  • Supporters for Onias III
  • Much of the priesthood joined in
• Pharisees often prevailed in public matters

• Introduction
  • Ecclesiastes 7:29
  • Hebrews 2:14
  • Romans 5:12
• Divine
  • God, the Father – John 3:16; Romans 5:8
  • Christ – John 19:10; Ephesians 1:7
  • Holy Spirit – John 14:26; 16:13
  • Grace – Ephesians 2:8; Titus 3:7
  • Gospel – Romans 1:16; I Corinthians 15:1-4
  • Church – Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:23
    • Christ bought the church with His blood, which puts the church on the divine side. Any other church besides the one Christ bought with his blood is not Christ’s church!
• Human
  • Hear – Romans 10:17; John 6:44
  • Believe – Acts 16:31; Hebrews 11:6
  • Repent – Acts 17:30
  • Confess – Romans 10:10
  • Baptized – Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16
  • Study – II Timothy 2:15; Ezra 7:10
  • Serve – Philippians 3:14-15; I John 1:7
  • Teach – Acts 8:4; Matthew 28:20
  • Be faithful – I Corinthians 15:18

• Jeremiah 25:11; 29:8-10
• II Chronicles 36:19-21

1st Deportation

Jeremiah 25:11-12

605 BC

2nd Deportation

Jeremiah 29:10

597 BC

3rd Deportation

II Chronicles 36:21

586 BC

1st Return

Ezra 1:1-3; Large group led by Zerubbabel; Ezra 1-6; Temple rebuilt

538-535 BC

2nd Return

Ezra 7:28; Large group led by Ezra; Ezra 7-10; Reforms

458 BC

3rd Return

Nehemiah 2:5-11; Nehemiah (group unknown); Book of Nehemiah; Wall rebuilt

445 BC

• How to make a comeback:
  • Get back to God (read and pray)!
    • Ezra 7:10 – Set your heart to study, do, and teach.
    • Ezra 8:15-17 – How did Ezra know he needed Levites? By studying God’s word!
    • Ezra 8:21; 9:6 – Ezra prayed for help from God and confessed their sins.
    • Acts 8:34, 22 – Read God’s word and pray!
  • Deal with your enemies!
    • Ezra 4:4-7; Nehemiah 4:1-6; 6:15-16 – Nehemiah and the people were demoralized by enemies, but they built the wall anyway.
    • Nehemiah 4:4; 5:19; 6:11-14; 13:14, 22, 29-31 – Nehemiah was looking to the future.

• Psalms 55-63
• Psalms 55:12-15 – The companion in this psalm could be referring to Ahithophel, who had been David’s advisor, but left to conspire with Absalom.
• Psalms 58:3 – This is hyperbole. We now from Ezekiel 18 and other passages that this is not literally true.

[Sorry, no audio available for this lesson due to technical difficulties. -MRW]

• First persecution of the church
  • Happened soon after Pentecost
  • Result of Stephen’s stoning
  • Saul eager participant
  • Church was scattered
  • Went everywhere preaching Christ
  • Acts 8:1-8
• Conversion of Saul
  • Completes the circuit on the Diaspora
  • Paul appointed apostle to the Gentiles
  • Jews are everywhere
  • Paul not first to teach the Gentiles
  • Followed by Christians in some places
  • Paul comes with apostolic authority
  • Acts 11:19-26
  • Acts 13:13-52 – Paul preaches to the Gentiles
• The religious sects of the Jews
  • A Jew is not a Jew is not a Jew is not …
    • Just being a Jew was not the complete picture
    • Different divisions of beliefs and practices
    • The two major divisions were at odds
    • Unity was only attained via outside pressure
• The Pharisees
  • “Separated ones”
    • Possibly derogatory term
    • Called themselves “great”
    • Embraced the name “Pharisees” after a time
• Began in the early Hasmonean Dynasty
  • John Hyrcanus was a Pharisee
  • Lead to the civil war under Alexander Jannaeus
  • Pharisees made gains under Alexandra Salome
• What did the Pharisees believe?
  • High degree of dedication to law and prophets
  • Held oral traditions as equally important
    • Matthew 15:1-20 – Jesus rebukes their tradition
    • Matthew 23:25-26
    • I Peter 2:4-5 – Our purity is internal, not external.
    • Interpretations by noted rabbis
    • Given and relayed by word of mouth
    • Committed to writing around 70 AD and after