Religion:Pharisees question and their impact on jewish life

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Kayleigh-Anne Revagliatte

12A4

Miss Povedano

Explain the religious ideas of the Pharisees and their influence on Jewish life. (25)

At the times of Jesus there were three main Jewish religious groups. These were called the Sadducees, the Pharisee’s and the Zealots. These groups were all mentioned in the New Testament. In this essay I am going to explain the religious ideas of the Pharisees and their influence on Jewish life.

The Pharisee’s name means the “separate ones”. I believe that it means that they would not associate themselves with people whom they believed were to be unclean such as prostitutes and people with leprosy. However, some scholars consider that their name means “the saints”. This shows their importance because only people who did very good deeds and followed the laws very well became saints.

The Pharisee’s movement began around the second century BCE but their origin is uncertain. Many scholars have asked the question how did the Pharisees survive the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem when the Zealots had died out? The answer is simply that the beliefs of the Pharisees could be adapted into new religious life. After the destruction of the temple, the Jewish race carried on and continued with their religious lives.

 In the times of Jesus there were around 6,000 Pharisees. This shows that they were followed and were very influential at the time. Ordinary men could join the Pharisee’s and any person could join the national organisation as long as they were committed and studied the law in detail. Many people looked up to them.

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They were experts on Jewish law and helped to create the Mishnah, which is also known as the Oral Torah. It has six Sedarim (sections) and contains chapters called “Zedarim” (“Seeds"), Moed ("Festival"), Nashim ("Women"), Nezikin ("Damages"), Kodashim ("Holy things") and finally Tohorot ("Purities"). These laws may have been attractive to Jews during Roman occupation because it showed social cohesion despite who was running the country at the time. It also showed security while being oppressed at.

They also believed that the Pentateuch  (First five books of the Torah) was written by Moses and these books, which are Genesis, Exodus Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers are the ...

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