In everyday life, a person who is called a Pharisee, as a rule, is treated with some degree of contempt: it is customary in this life to call hypocrites. They are usually disliked for prudish behavior. But the very word "Pharisee" came into modern language from ancient Judea, where it originally had to do with the religious movement, and not with the assessment of personal qualities.
Pharisees as representatives of the religious movement
In the II century BC, a social and religious movement arose and developed over several centuries in Judea, whose representatives were called the Pharisees. Their characteristic feature was literal adherence to the rules of behavior, ostentatious piety and pronounced fanaticism. Often called the Pharisees adherents of one of the philosophical trends that spread among Jews at the turn of the two eras. The teachings of the Pharisees formed the basis of modern Orthodox Judaism.
Three main Hebrew sects are known. The first of these was the Sadducees. Members of the monetary and clan aristocracy belonged to this circle. The Sadducees insisted on the strict fulfillment of divine institutions, not recognizing the additions that believers often brought to religion. The Essenes sect was distinguished by the fact that its representatives, considering the law unchangeable, preferred to live in solitude, for which they went to remote villages and deserts. There they met with particular scrupulousness the laws given by Moses.
The Pharisees formed the third religious branch. In this sect, one could meet those who came out of the masses and managed to rise in society at the expense of their own abilities. The Pharisee movement developed and grew stronger in an irreconcilable struggle against the Sadducees, who sought to take control of temple rituals.
