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That's a really nice post Fenris. For the Christian, the context of some of the situations you mentioned could be discussed, but I'd rather leave it as a contrasting viewpoint since you did such a good job.

Thank you! These are the discussions that I'm here for.

Why do you see it as a mischaracterization?

So, a few thoughts.

First of all, Jesus himself characterizes the Pharisees in a positive way.

Matthew 23: Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So practice and observe everything they tell you."


Matthew 5: For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Anecdotally, When Paul describes himself as a "Pharisee of the Pharisees", he isn't doing it to make himself look bad. He's saying it because the Pharisees are looked up to by the people.

Most of Jesus's statements that are not found in the bible itself can be found in the Talmud, which was written by the Pharisees.  For example, almost every verse from the Sermon at the Mount that isn't in the Jewish bible can be found in the Talmud.

The Pharisee writings themselves emphasize kindness and humility and respect for one's fellow man.

Jesus has almost nothing to say about the Sadducees, whose theology and practice and humility were much farther from what he preached than the Pharisees, which suggests that he felt they were so wrong as to not waste his time with them; while the Pharisees were so close to what he was saying that perhaps he felt they were "nearly there".

And finally, we have to contrast Judaism with Christianity. Judaism is about upholding the Sinai covenant. This covenant consists of laws that God gave us to be followed. God loves us so that He gave us these perfect set of rules to live by; can we love Him any less by not trying to keep them as perfectly as is possible?

I know the general accusations, etc. and don't want to take it there. But I guess Pharisees carried their religion on into the Synagogue era of the Jewish religion after the destruction of the Temple, and that seems to be what exists today. So at least from the perspective of contemporary Jews, I would guess Pharisees are seen as kind of founders of the current practice of the religion?

Precisely so.

Pharisees for example were described in the New Testament as legalistic to a point of absurdity

I feel that this is a mischaracterization.

It sounds a little like you are saying it is a "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling" kind of thing within norms.

Judaism is not about salvation. It's about upholding a covenant with God. He gave us responsibilities and we try to do them to the best of our abilities. 

We've been the thankful victim of divine intervention!

We've been installing a new door between our entryway and (attached) garage so that we don't have to go outside whenever we want to access the garage. Well, as "luck" would have it, while the frame was being cut out of the wall we discovered signs of a water leak. £90 later it's fixed, but it would have been so much worse had we not found it at all.

"Luck", huh.

TON 618....better known as: your mom