The Pharisees, like most Jews in that period, hoped for the kingdom to be restored by a messiah who bore godlike qualities. The Pharisees may have disputed and rejected Jesus’ self-identification as ...

The Sadducees were also highly clerical, whereas the Pharisees were, in our terms, “lay.” The Sadducees resisted any theological developments in Judaism.

The Pharisees tracks hateful portrayals of Jews “not only in scholarly works but also in the arts, including Passion plays and cinema, as well as in textbooks and in preaching,” Sievers says.

For they preach but they do not practice.” (Mt 23:3) No one wants to be like the scribes and Pharisees. When Jesus talks about these people in the Gospels, it’s almost never in a positive light.