Jesus and the Pharisees – by Randy Ingermanson, April 16, 2025
Randy’s article is very interesting and explains a lot about Jesus’ alternating views of the Pharisees as well as the social role of the Sadducees. A few extracts are below to jog my memory.
But less than twenty years after he published The Jewish War, [where he said there are three sects in Judaism], Josephus published Antiquities of the Jews (about the year AD 93 or so). There, he tells us with a completely straight face that there were four philosophical sects within Judaism:
- The Essenes
- The Sadducees
- The Pharisees
- The “Fourth Philosophy“
…
The two schools of the Pharisees
But the School of Shammai probably did not get on very well with Jesus. The problem was that Jesus preached a radical new idea—enemy love. That would not have flown well with people who promoted violent resistance against Rome.
When I read the gospel stories of the numerous conflicts Jesus had with “the Pharisees,” I find it helpful to mentally translate that into “Pharisees from the School of Shammai”—the majority party.
When I read the gospel stories of Pharisees occasionally acting in a friendly way to Jesus, I find it helpful to mentally translate that into “Pharisees from the School of Hillel”—the minority party.
Randy believes that Josephus created the “Fourth Philosophy” as a cover for his having been a Pharisee but then living in Rome with a stipend from the Emperor. His argument sounds plausible.
According to Josephus, the fourth philosophy are the real bad guys, the “innovators” who caused the war. He does this, in my view, to put a lot of daylight between himself and them.
And what are the religious beliefs of this fourth philosophy? Josephus tells us, again with a completely straight face, that they are just like the Pharisees only different. The only difference is that they accept “no lord but God”—that they believed in armed resistance to Rome.
My opinion is that this is splitting hairs, that the fourth philosophy is nothing more nor less than the School of Shammai. The fourth philosophy is just the more militant branch of the Pharisees, and in fact, they were the majority wing of the Pharisees after Hillel died (around the year AD 10).
Josephus can’t admit that some Pharisees were militants, because he’s undeniably a Pharisee. So he simply creates a fourth philosophy out of thin air. It’s a common technique that we’ve all seen many times—create an enemy who has all your own faults, and make them the fall guy.
From his post: The Violent World of Jesus of Nazareth
In the first century historical sources, we find three major ways that Jewish people responded to Rome’s violence:
Apocalyptic fantasy—many Jews began preaching that God himself would rescue his people from Rome. The Angel of the Lord/Son of Man would come down from heaven, armed with a flaming sword, and destroy the enemies of God’s people. The people who lived in Qumran were in this camp, and also the minority wing of the Pharisees (the School of Hillel).
Collaboration—a few Jewish aristocrats collaborated with Rome to hold their countrymen in bondage to Rome. Herod the Great and his descendants were in this camp. So were the chief priests in Jerusalem, who belonged to a small party called the Sadducees. So were the infamous tax-farmers. [tax collectors]
Armed resistance—many Jewish revolutionaries sprang up in the first century, calling for armed resistance against Rome. The majority wing of the Pharisees was in this camp (the School of Shammai). Around the year AD 68, one branch of this group formed the Zealot party. But long before there was an official Zealot party, wannabe revolutionaries called themselves “zealous” for God.
