40 Fun Facts About Pharisees

Which word, from the Greek for a stage actor, did Jesus repeatedly call the scribes and Pharisees?

Hypocrites began as a Greek theatre term for an actor playing a part on stage. In Matthew 23 it opens almost every charge Jesus lays against the group.

In Matthew 23, Jesus said the Pharisees strain out a gnat but swallow which much larger animal?

A camel was as forbidden to eat as the gnat under the food laws of Leviticus. The joke pictures someone filtering a drink for tiny insects while gulping down something enormous.

Jesus compared the scribes and Pharisees to which objects that look beautiful on the outside?

Whitewashed tombs were a familiar sight: graves around Jerusalem were painted white before Passover so that pilgrims would not step on one and become ritually unclean.

In a parable in Luke 18, a proud Pharisee prays in the temple beside which humbler man?

A tax collector, despised for working with Rome, only begs for mercy and goes home forgiven. The Pharisee, who lists his own fasting and tithing, does not.

Which apostle and letter writer called himself a Pharisee and the son of Pharisees?

Paul said it to a Jerusalem council made up of both parties, and it worked: the Pharisees and Sadducees in the room began arguing with each other instead of with him.

Which Pharisee visited Jesus by night and later brought spices to help bury him?

Nicodemus brought about 33 kilograms of myrrh and aloes, an amount fit for a royal burial. He appears only in the Gospel of John.

Which belief about the afterlife did the Pharisees hold but their Sadducee rivals reject?

Resurrection of the dead split the two parties so sharply that the Book of Acts shows a council hearing collapse into uproar the moment it was mentioned.

The Pharisees objected when Jesus's hungry disciples plucked heads of grain on which day?

The Sabbath was the weekly day of rest, when work was banned. Jesus replied with the story of David, who once ate the priests' consecrated bread when he was hungry.

When scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman accused of adultery, Jesus bent down and did what?

Wrote on the ground is all the Gospel says, twice, without ever revealing the words. Artists including Bruegel and Rembrandt have imagined the scene.

When Pharisees told Jesus to silence his cheering disciples, he said what would cry out instead?

The stones would cry out, he answered, as crowds hailed him on the road down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem.

Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking whether it was lawful to pay taxes to whom?

Caesar was the answer stamped on the money: Jesus asked whose image a denarius carried, then told them to give the emperor what was his and God what was God's.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus told a Pharisee that nobody sees God's kingdom unless they are what?

Born again can also be read as 'born from above' in the original Greek. The puzzled visitor took it literally and asked how an old man could be born a second time.

When scribes and Pharisees demanded a miraculous sign, Jesus offered only the sign of which prophet?

Jonah spent three days and three nights inside a sea creature, and Jesus said the Son of Man would spend just as long in the heart of the earth.

In Luke 15, Pharisees grumbling that Jesus ate with sinners prompted a parable about which animal?

A sheep, one of a flock of a hundred, is the first of three lost things in the chapter. The stories of a woman's missing coin and a father's runaway son follow it.

John the Baptist likened the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism to which creatures?

Vipers was his greeting when he saw them at the river, along with a demand to know who had warned them to flee the coming wrath. Jesus reuses the insult in Matthew 23.

Jesus warned his disciples to beware of which baking ingredient 'of the Pharisees and Sadducees'?

Yeast confused the disciples, who thought he was scolding them for bringing no bread. Matthew explains that he meant the teaching of the two groups.

In Mark 7, Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples ate bread without first doing what?

Washing their hands before meals was a 'tradition of the elders', not a rule written in the Torah. Mark adds that cups, pitchers and bronze vessels got the same treatment.

The name 'Pharisee' comes through Greek from an Aramaic word with which meaning?

Set apart, or separated, is the usual reading, though nobody is sure what from. Suggestions include Gentiles, less observant Jews and the priestly elite.

Which Jewish tradition, mainstream ever since Roman times, grew out of the Pharisees' teachings?

Rabbinic Judaism took shape after the Temple fell in 70 CE. The sages of the Talmud saw a direct link between themselves and the Pharisees.

Unlike their Sadducee rivals, the Pharisees were said to have the backing of which group?

The common people trusted them so much, one ancient historian wrote, that anything they said against a king or a high priest was believed.

Which first-century Jewish historian said he began living by the Pharisees' rules at nineteen?

Josephus wrote that before choosing he had tried each of the Jewish schools and spent three years in the desert with a hermit named Banus, who wore only what grew on trees.

Which respected Pharisee, in the Book of Acts, urged the council to leave the apostles alone?

Gamaliel argued that a movement of human origin would be overthrown anyway, while one from God could not be. The council agreed, then had the apostles beaten before freeing them.

Which Pharisaic sage is said to have summed up the whole Torah for a man standing on one foot?

Hillel told the man not to do to another what he himself found hateful, and that the rest was interpretation. A rival sage had simply driven the questioner away.

Which sect, known for celibacy and shared property, was ranked beside the Pharisees and Sadducees?

Essenes are commonly believed to have owned the library now called the Dead Sea Scrolls, found at Qumran, where one of their communities is thought to have lived.

Which teaching, accepted by the Pharisees alongside Scripture, did the Sadducees reject?

The Oral Torah was held to have been passed down by word of mouth since Mount Sinai. The Pharisees' heirs only committed it to writing centuries later.

In Matthew 23, which worn items did Jesus say the Pharisees made broad so that people would notice?

Phylacteries, or tefillin, are small black leather boxes holding parchment scrolls of Torah verses, worn on the arm and the head. The complaint was about showy size, not the practice.

Jesus said the Pharisees tithed even which garden produce while neglecting justice, mercy and faith?

Mint, dill and cumin were kitchen herbs, about the smallest crop a person could give a tenth of. Jesus said the tithing was right but the weightier matters should have come first.

What was the name of the Pharisee who hosted Jesus when a woman anointed his feet?

Simon invited Jesus to eat but skipped the usual courtesies: no greeting kiss, no water for his feet and no oil for his head. No male name was more common among Jews of that time and place.

Which law code, edited around 200 CE by Judah the Prince, records rulings of the Pharisees' heirs?

The Mishnah is arranged in six 'orders' with names such as Seeds, Festival and Damages. Some of the sages it quotes were Pharisees who lived while the Temple still stood.

The Pharisees accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of which 'prince of demons'?

Beelzebul echoes Baal-zebub, 'lord of the flies', a god of the Philistine city of Ekron. Jesus answered that a kingdom divided against itself could not stand.

Pharisees tested Jesus by asking whether it was lawful for a man to do what to his wife?

Divorce her 'for any reason' was the question, because Deuteronomy let a husband end a marriage with a written notice. Jesus answered from Genesis that the two had become one flesh.

In Luke 13, some Pharisees warned Jesus that which ruler of Galilee wanted to kill him?

Herod Antipas had already had John the Baptist executed. Jesus sent the Pharisees back with a message for 'that fox', saying he would carry on and finish his work in Jerusalem.

In Mark 7, Jesus attacked a vow called Corban because it let people stop supporting whom?

Their parents lost out when a son declared his money 'given to God'. Jesus said the custom cancelled the commandment to honour father and mother.

A first-century historian put the number of Pharisees at roughly what figure?

About 6,000 members was all, yet their teaching became the basis of Jewish religious life after the loss of the Temple in 70 CE.

The Talmud mocks a 'bruised' Pharisee who hurt himself doing what to avoid looking at women?

Walking into walls puts him in an ancient list of seven kinds of Pharisee. It also teases the 'shoulder' Pharisee, who carries his good deeds where everyone can see them.

Which queen of Judea, widow of a king who persecuted the Pharisees, let them dominate her council?

Salome Alexandra was urged by her dying husband to make peace with the Pharisees. Tradition counts her among only three women to rule the country, with Deborah and Athaliah.

A festival crowd at the Temple pelted the Hasmonean king Jannaeus with which fruit?

Citrons were in every hand because it was the festival of Sukkot, when worshippers carry one. The king, a bitter enemy of the Pharisees, was serving as high priest at the altar when the crowd turned on him.

Which leading Pharisee sage is said to have escaped besieged Jerusalem hidden inside a coffin?

Yohanan ben Zakkai had himself carried out past the gates as a corpse, then told the Roman commander Vespasian that he would become emperor and won leave to open a school.

Which Judean ruler joined the Sadducees after a Pharisee told him to give up the high priesthood?

John Hyrcanus was insulted at his own feast by a guest named Eleazar, who repeated a rumour that the ruler's mother had once been held captive by a foreign king.

A first-century Jewish historian called the Pharisees 'of kin' to which school of Greek philosophy?

The Stoics were the comparison he reached for in his autobiography when describing the party he joined as a young man, after three years with a hermit in the desert.