Pharisees - Sources

Sources

The first surviving historical mention of the Pharisees is from the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus (37–100 CE), in a description of the "four schools of thought," or "four sects," into which the Jews were divided in the 1st century CE; the other schools were the Essenes, who were generally apolitical and who may have emerged as a sect of dissident priests who rejected either the Seleucid-appointed or the Hasmonean high priests as illegitimate; the Sadducees, who were the main antagonists of the Pharisees; and the "fourth philosophy" possibly associated with the anti-Roman revolutionary groups such as the Sicarii and the Zealots. Other sects emerged at this time, such as the Early Christians in Jerusalem and the Therapeutae in Egypt.

The book 2 Maccabees (which in the Catholic tradition is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible) focuses on the Jews' revolt against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of his general, Nicanor, in 161 BCE by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. It was likely written by a Pharisee or someone sympathetic toward Pharisees, as it includes several theological innovations: propitiatory prayer for the dead, judgment day, intercession of saints, and merits of the martyrs.

The Mishnah is an authoritative codification of Pharisaic law, edited by Judah haNasi around 200 CE. Most of the authorities quoted in the Mishnah lived after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE; it thus marks the beginning of the transition from Pharisaic to Rabbinic (i.e. modern normative) Judaism.