Editing Pharisees (section)

===Emergence of the Pharisees===
[[File:John Hyrcanus medal.svg|thumb|right|John Hyrcanus from [[Guillaume Rouillé]]'s ''[[Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum]]'' (1553)]]
After defeating the Seleucid forces, [[Judas Maccabaeus]]'s nephew, [[John Hyrcanus]], established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean dynasty in 152&nbsp;BC, thus establishing priests as both political and religious authorities. Although the Hasmoneans were considered heroes for resisting the Seleucids, their reign lacked the legitimacy conferred by descent from the [[Davidic line|Davidic dynasty]] of the [[First Temple]] era.<ref>{{cite book |last=Catherwood |first=Christopher |title=A Brief History of the Middle East |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krKeBAAAQBAJ |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |year=2011 |isbn=978-1849018074 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

The Pharisees emerged{{when|date=April 2024}} largely out of the group of scribes and sages.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} Some scholars observe some [[Idumean]] influences in the development of Pharisaical Judaism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levin |first=Yigal |date=2020 |title=The Religion of Idumea and Its Relationship to Early Judaism |journal=Religions |volume=11 |issue=10 |page=487 |doi=10.3390/rel11100487 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The Pharisees, among other Jewish sects, were active from the middle of the 2nd century BC until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.<ref name="Shaye" />{{rp|143}} Josephus first mentions them in connection with [[Jonathan Apphus]], the successor of Judas Maccabeus.<ref>Josephus, ''Antiquities'', 13:5 § 9</ref> One of the factors that distinguished the Pharisees from other groups prior to the destruction of the Temple was their belief that all Jews had to observe the purity laws (which applied to the Temple service) outside the Temple. The major difference, however, was the continued adherence of the Pharisees to the laws and traditions of the Jewish people in the face of assimilation. As Josephus notes, the Pharisees were considered the most expert and accurate expositors of Jewish law.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Josephus indicates that the Pharisees received the backing and good-will of the common people,<ref>Josephus, ''Antiquities'', 13:10 § 6</ref> apparently in contrast to the more elite Sadducees associated with the ruling classes. In general, whereas the Sadducees were aristocratic monarchists, the Pharisees were eclectic, popular, and more democratic.<ref>Roth, Cecil ''A History of the Jews: From Earliest Times Through the Six Day War'' 1970 {{ISBN|0-8052-0009-6}}, p. 84</ref> The Pharisaic position is exemplified by the assertion that "A learned {{transliteration|he|[[mamzer]]}} takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest." (A {{transliteration|he|mamzer}}—literally "bastard," according to the Pharisaic definition—is an outcast child born of a forbidden relationship, such as adultery or incest, in which marriage of the parents could not lawfully occur. The word is often but incorrectly translated as "illegitimate.")<ref>{{cite book |title=Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People |editor-first=Leo Walden |editor-last=Schwartz |first=Salo Wittmayer |last=Baron |url=https://archive.org/details/greatagesideasof00schw |url-access=registration |publisher=Random House |year=1956 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

Sadducees rejected the Pharisaic tenet of an Oral Torah, creating two Jewish understandings of the Torah. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of "[[eye for an eye|an eye in place of an eye]]." The Pharisaic understanding was that the value of an eye was to be paid by the perpetrator.<ref>Babylonian Talmud tractate Bava Kamma Ch. 8</ref> In the Sadducees' view, the words were given a more literal interpretation, in which the offender's eye would be removed.<ref>''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' s.v. "Sadducees"</ref>

The sages of the [[Talmud]] saw a direct link between themselves and the Pharisees, and historians generally consider Pharisaic Judaism to be the progenitor of Rabbinic Judaism, that is normative, mainstream Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple. All mainstream forms of Judaism today consider themselves heirs of Rabbinic Judaism and, ultimately, the Pharisees.