Who Were The Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes?
A religious society, chiefly of laymen, frequently mentioned in the New Testament . . . a movement toward religious puritanism, marked by the Priestly and Holiness codes and stimulated by the reformation of Ezra and Nehemiah. (Ezra 6:21 and Neh 10:29). Where it characterizes one ‘who separated himself from the spiritual uncleanness of the gentiles of the land’ and from Jewish ‘people of the land’ to follow the law of God. The Pharisees drew their following from all sections of the people irrespective of economic, social, and hereditary distinctions. They included priests and even members of the high priestly families. Their influence radiated not from the market place, but from the synagogue as the center of the threefold activity of study, worship, and works of charity. Their chief distinction derived from their attitude toward the Law. As the word of God, the Torah, they believed, must be adequate for all times and circumstances. Accordingly, they devoted themselves to the interpreta
