This article was originally published by The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry on January 31, 2020
The curtain falls as the tragic scene ends. Moments later, as it rises for the next scene, we find that the set has been rearranged and everything—from the characters to their clothing and language—is different. Such is the case with the closing of the Old Testament curtain and the opening of the New Testament. Although the testaments are two scenes of the same “play,” the set, over a 400-year period, changed dramatically. During this period, two new groups of characters appeared: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. While the Gospel writers describe Jesus’ interactions with both of these groups, most Christians know little about them. The more we know about these groups and their origin, the better we can understand Jesus’ discussions with them. But in order to understand where these groups came from and who they were, we need some historical background on what took place in the 400 years between the testaments. A CHANGING WORLD When Malachi wrote the last of the Old Testament books, the Persians were the globe’s superpower. But in 333 BC, they were defeated by Alexander the Great, ushering in a period of Greek (Hellenistic) dominance. Tutored by Aristotle, Alexander believed fiercely in Greek thought and culture and sought to spread it to the lands he conquered, including Judea. Although Hellenism, with its pagan deities and immodest cultural practices, is incongruous with biblical teachings, Alexander is portrayed positively in Jewish traditions.1 Hellenism, however, soon became the arch enemy of many pious Jews. When Alexander died in 323 BC, his kingdom was divided by four of his generals—Cassander, Antigonus, Seleucusy, and Ptolemy, the latter of whom took control of Judea.2 In 200 BC, the southern part of the Jewish homeland was won from the Ptolemaic dynasty by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III. After Antiochus III’s death, the throne was ascended by Seleucus IV, who was assassinated 12 years later. It was then that the infamous Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (God manifest) rose to power. Though he considered himself to be divine, the king was referred to by the Jews as Antiochus “Epimamese” (The Madman),3 and for good reason. He began an aggressive and violent campaign of compulsory Hellenization of the Jewish people. When his efforts met opposition, he persecuted the Jewish people, throwing circumcised infants and their mothers from Jerusalem’s walls4, murdering 40,000 Jews, and enslaving another 40,000 over a three-day period.5 He also forbade the Jewish people from keeping the Sabbath or observing the feasts of Israel,6 and he sacrificed a pig in the Temple, desecrating it.7 While many Jews were captivated by the Hellenistic frenzy, changing their names to Greek ones and adopting Greek practices, one group refused to adapt. The Maccabees, later known as the Hasmoneans, a priestly family zealous for the Law of God, with other Jewish rebels, launched guerilla warfare against Antiochus’ powerful forces, eventually wresting back control of Jerusalem in 164 BC.8 This victory and the subsequent purification of the Temple in 165 BC is remembered each year by the Jewish people in the festival of Hanukkah. THE SADDUCEES Culturally Liberal, Religiously Conservative Although the nation rededicated their Temple to the God of Israel, many among the Jewish people had already imbibed Hellenism. Chief among these “Hellenizers” were the Sadducees. The Sadducees (a name probably derived from the Hebrew word for “righteous”) were aristocrats, members of the high priesthood whose interests revolved almost exclusively around the Temple. They were members, together with the Pharisees, of the Great Sanhedrin, “a kind of Jewish Supreme Court made up of 71 members whose responsibility was to interpret civil and religious laws.”9 While liberal in their tolerance for and acceptance of Hellenism, the Sadducees were strangely conservative when it came to the interpretation of the Law. They held to a strict, literal interpretation of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and accepted only the authority of the Torah, even to the exclusion of the Writings and the Prophets. This position resulted in their denial of certain doctrines, such as the existence of spirits and angels and of the resurrection, since they saw no reference to such teachings in the Torah.10 Viewed as elitist, aloof, and corrupt, the Sadducees were not popular with the common people. While the Temple and the service of God were their official concerns, in truth they were highly political, a fact that did not sit well with commoners. Jesus and the Sadducees Jesus regularly interacted with the Sadducees during His earthly ministry. One of the most famous incidents occurred when they came to Him with a question concerning marriage and the resurrection. Of course, their question was a ruse, because the Sadducees denied that a resurrection would ever happen. Knowing their hearts, Jesus answered their question by telling them that they were ignorant of the Scriptures and God’s power, and by affirming that the resurrection will indeed take place (Mt. 22:30). Although Jesus’ response shut the mouths of the Sadducees, it didn’t keep them from persecuting the followers of Jesus. Later, they put Peter and John in jail for their proclamation of the gospel and the resurrection (Acts 4:1-3). In AD 70, following a Jewish revolt, the Romans destroyed the Temple and took control of Jerusalem, leading “to the total loss of Jewish political authority in Israel until 1948.”11 For the Sadducees and Pharisees, this was a watershed moment. With the Temple went the Sadducees’ position and purpose as the priestly aristocratic class, and they quickly disappeared from the pages of Jewish history.12 The theological positions of the Sadducees went with them into extinction. Judaism today upholds many of the doctrines the Sadducees denied, including the resurrection, angels, and spirits. Modern Judaism, then, takes its theological cues not from the Sadducees, but from their opponents, the Pharisees. THE PHARISEES The People’s Scholars Christians meet the Pharisees on the pages of the New Testament, usually as the antagonists of the Gospel narratives. The apostle Paul was a Pharisee before he became a believer in Jesus. But who were these men? The Pharisees stood in stark contrast to their aloof, Temple-focused Sadducean counterparts. Whereas Sadducees were aristocratic and removed from the people, the Pharisees were the common man’s scholars. While the Sadducees were Hellenistic, the Pharisees were staunchly opposed to Greek influence. In fact, the term Pharisee is derived from the Hebrew word parush, meaning “separated,” or “isolated,”13 because they sought separation from the worldly influences of Hellenism and separation unto God and His Law.14 While the ideological predecessors of the Pharisees (the Hasideans) originally joined the Maccabees in their efforts to rid Judea of Hellenistic influence, the Pharisees, a generation later, separated from this group for a couple of reasons. First, from the events of Hanukkah emerged the Hasmonean dynasty. This was a succession of rulers over Judea who combined the offices of king and high priest, a violation of the Hebrew Scriptures.15 Second, contrary to the original aims of the Maccabean Revolt to rid Judea of Hellenism, the Hasmonean Dynasty “declined into worldly pomp and Grecian ways,”16 corrupting Judaism and Jewish culture. Theologically, the Pharisees believed in spirits, angels, the resurrection, and the coming Messiah and His kingdom on Earth, which put them in opposition to the Sadducees.17 Additionally, in contrast to the Sadducees, their evident love of the Torah, disciplined lives, and the passion with which they taught their fellow Jews the precepts of the Word of God in the synagogue earned them the respect and admiration of their fellow Jews.18 As students of the Law, particularly the commands surrounding tithing and purification rites, the Pharisees debated how to apply various passages of Scripture in a rapidly changing world. The traditional interpretations and applications of ancient sages, then, became increasingly important to the Pharisees, and, “beginning with Scripture itself, the Pharisees quoted the ‘case decisions’ of famous rabbis who had been consulted concerning the application of Scripture to individual problems.”19 Their charge soon became, “make a fence round the Torah” in order to keep the people from transgressing the Law of God. The Pharisees’ desire to keep Israel separate from the corrupting influences of Hellenism was good. But whenever man adds to the Word of God, problems ensue, and such was the case with the Pharisees. Inevitably, the Jewish people would ask why they should follow the teachings of mere men, no matter how outwardly religious they were. In response, the Pharisees taught that God not only gave Moses the Torah (the Written Law) at Mt. Sinai, He also gave him “a divine commentary on the written code.”20 Later, this “Oral Law” was written down and given equality with, and even supremacy over, the Scriptures. In fact, the Mishnah (the first written form of the Oral Law) says, “There is greater stringency in respect to the teachings of the scribes than in respect to the torah.”21 In their quest to keep Israel from violating God’s Law, they had become a law unto themselves. Jesus and the Pharisees Jesus had numerous interactions with the Pharisees, most of them centered on the disparity between their Oral Law and God’s Word. He charged them with taking “Moses’ seat” (Mt. 23:2), granting themselves authority as God’s spokesmen, though God never gave it to them. The Lord denounced them numerous times as hypocrites, who bound “heavy burdens” on the people, used their self-imposed position to get “the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,” took advantage of widows for their own financial gain, and paid inordinate attention to the minutiae of the Law and its interpretations while neglecting “justice and mercy and faith” (vv. 4-30). Jesus’ message largely fell on deaf ears among the Pharisees, but there were some who placed their trust in Him. Besides Paul, one of the most notable examples of a Pharisee who believed in Jesus is Nicodemus, who came secretly to Jesus by night and asked how a man could be born again (Jn. 3). He, together with Joseph of Arimathea, a fellow member of the Sanhedrin, took Jesus’ body to the tomb following His death (Jn. 19:38-39). WHERE ARE THEY NOW? When the Temple was destroyed in AD 70, the world of the Sadducees and Pharisees was greatly shaken. But the Pharisees fared far better than their Sadducean counterparts. Whereas the Sadducees went extinct soon after the Temple’s destruction, the Pharisees thrived. One of the reasons for their success was that their teachings were not centered on the Temple, but on the Oral Law, which was not limited to the land of Israel. Additionally, the Pharisees were more in touch with the needs of the common people. Therefore, their focus was on holy living for all Israel, not just the few, which meant the further development of Judaism without the Temple. This new Judaism was one of replacements. Whereas the Temple was once the center of holiness, the Pharisees taught that the people of Israel were the dwelling place of God. Instead of a high priest, the sage or rabbi was the spiritual leader of the community; and the blood sacrifices of the Temple were replaced by fulfilling commandments (mitzvot) and doing good works (maasim tovim).22 This new religious system became known as Rabbinic Judaism, because it was rooted in the Oral Law, the ancient sages’ teachings on the Torah. Since it revolved around the Oral Law, not the Temple, Rabbinic Judaism was mobile, going with the Jewish people wherever they were forced to settle throughout the Diaspora. Today, synagogues can be found all over the world, including surprising locations, like China, South Korea, and India, due in large part to the work of the Pharisees 2,000 years ago. Endnotes 1 Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 69. 2 Joshua J. Mark, “Alexander the Great,” https://www.ancient.eu/Alexander_the_Great/, (November 14, 2013). 3 Rabbi Paul Steinberg, “Antiochus the Madman: An in-depth view of the Greco-Syrian emperor in the story of Hanukkah,” myjewishlearning.com/article/antiochus-the-madman/. 4 Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC–1492 AD, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013), 88. 5 Ibid., 113. 6 2 Macc. 6:1, 6. 7 Jewish Virtual Library, “The Maccabees/Hasmoneans: History & Overview (166 – 129 BCE),” jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-maccabees. 8 Ibid. 9 Jewish Virtual Library, “Ancient Jewish History: Pharisees, Sadducees & Essenes,” jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pharisees-sadducees-and-essenes. 10 Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 115. 11 Jewish Virtual Library, “Ancient Jewish History: The Great Revolt (66 – 70 CE),” jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-great-revolt-66-70-ce. 12 H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 325. 13 W.D. Davies, Introduction to Pharisaism, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), 6. 14 Ibid., 9. 15 Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC–1492 AD, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013), 115. 16 Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, (Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 206. 17 Charles Guignebert, The Jewish World in the time of Jesus, (Hyde Park: University Books, 1965), 167. 18Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 58. 19 Ibid., 113. 20 Louis Finkelstein, The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of their Faith, (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1962), 266. 21 Mishnah Sanhedrin 11:3. 22 Jacob Neusner, A Short History of Judaism: Three Meals, Three Epochs, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1992), 53. This article was originally published by The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
Soon after his meeting with Newton, Wilberforce wrote in his journal, “God Almighty has placed before me two great objects: the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners”.1 Wilberforce was indeed successful in his first “great object”. After a lifetime spent educating an apathetic public, largely ignorant of the plight of African slaves, and repeated defeats in the House of Commons to pass anti-Slavery legislation, the momentous day arrived on July 26, 1833: slavery was finally abolished in the British Empire. Just three days later, Wilberforce died, his earthly battle won. Understandably, much is written about Wilberforce’s campaign against the traffic of human beings. But perhaps even more interesting is his “Reformation of Manners”, a 19th century term for meaning “to change the moral climate of the culture”. Fueled by his love for the Lord and His Word, Wilberforce was instrumental in bringing great societal change to the British Empire, including aiding the poor, taking the gospel to India, and establishing the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. What few people know, however, is that William Wilberforce’s faith inspired a great love for God’s chosen people. He believed in the biblical mandate to take the gospel to all the world, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, and he believed that God would one day bring the Jewish people back into their homeland. Wilberforce biographer Rev. Dr. Clifford Hill says, “[Wilberforce] longed to see the gospel going out throughout the world, and he believed that it was in God’s purposes that the Jewish people have a home back in Israel”. In 1809, a Jewish believer in Jesus named Joseph Frey established the London Jews’ Society. Its first vice-president was none other than Wilberforce. Dr. Paul Wilkinson says that Wilberforce and the other early members of this organization were united by their belief in the authority of Scripture. “They had the same understanding of the Word of God,” he says. “They believed in the inspiration of the Scriptures. They believed in the literal fulfillment of prophecy. And within that, the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the restoration of the Jews to the land.”2 In 1813, the London Jews’ Society laid the foundation stone for “Palestine Place”, a campus composed of a ministry training college, boys’ and girls’ schools, and a church, where the service was conducted in both English and Hebrew, the first place of worship in England specifically for Jewish believers.3 Wilberforce attended the foundation-laying ceremony, an event that drew more than 20,000 spectators, and spoke at the reception that followed.4 It would be easy to think that a busy politician, such as Wilberforce, concerned as he was with the affairs of the British government, would be merely a figurehead of such an organization, dedicated to sharing biblical truth and raising awareness about the plight of the Jewish people. After all, he was already waging an all-out war on the British Slave Trade at the time—an arduous and unpopular cause in itself. But that was not how Wilberforce operated. Once he committed himself to a cause, he was one of its hardest workers and greatest champions. Kevin Belmonte, in his work William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity, writes about the Christian statesman’s biblically-rooted work ethic: “Wilberforce’s Great Change also manifested itself in a very practical and conscientious way. He took greater care to be present for every debate in the Commons. He agreed to serve on countless committees, always a thankless task. His regularity in the House and service on its committees was all the more unique in an age when the chamber was seldom filled. He was there unless sick or obliged to be more than twenty miles from London”.5 This ethic translated to much involvement with the London Jews’ Society. It required him to be intimately acquainted with the workings of the organization, as he presided over, attended, and spoke at at least eight of the Society’s annual meetings.6 In the history of the organization, the authors write of Wilberforce, “He was one of the most loving and prominent personages of his day. It speaks volumes for the character of the Society’s work that it could command from such a man, affection patronage, time, and advocacy, all of which he ungrudgingly bestowed upon it from its foundation.”7 William Wilberforce died in 1833, at the age of 74. His passing was mourned, not only by his own nation, but by those of nations around the world. He was a man whose relationship with Jesus Christ was no private matter. On the contrary, it was a faith that compelled him to advocate for the rights of African slaves, to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and to be a friend of Israel. Today, in Westminster Abbey, among the memorials to famed men and women of British history, there stands a statue of a bent-over, elderly Wilberforce, whose features would not endear him to anyone. But engraved on this stone is a fitting tribute to the all-but-forgotten Christian Zionist: To the memory of William Wilberforce: …In an age and country fertile in great and good men, He was among the foremost of those who fixed the character of their times Because to high and various talents To warm benevolence, and to universal candour, He added the abiding eloquence of a Christian life. …He died not unnoticed or forgotten by his country: The Peers and Commons of England, With the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker, at their head, Carried him to his fitting place among the mighty dead around, Here to repose: till, through the merits of Jesus Christ, His only Redeemer and Saviour, (Whom, in his life and in his writings he had desired to glorify,) He shall rise in the resurrection of the just.8 ENDNOTES 1 Curtis, Ken. “William Wilberforce.” Christianity.com 2007,christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/william-wilberforce-11630357.html. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Gidney, William Thomas. The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, from 1809 to 1908, 1908, p. 41. 5 Belmonte, Kevin. William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity. Zondervan, 2007. p. 91 6 Gidney, William Thomas. The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, from 1809 to 1908, 1908. p. 147. 7 Ibid. 8 Metaxas, Eric. Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. Harper One, 2007. p. 278. |
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