It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming

into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all

around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or

feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a

power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most

influential, the most zealous, and the most closely -connected religions fraternity, which

in the pursuit of its objects spared neither time nor trouble, feared no danger, and

shrunk from no consequences. Familiar as the name sounds to readers of the New

Testament and students of Jewish history, there is no subject on which more crude or

inaccurate notions prevail than that of Pharisaism, nor yet any which, rightly

understood, gives fuller insight into the state of Judaism at the time of our Lord, or

better illustrates His words and His deeds. Let us first view the Pharisee as, himself

seemingly unmoved, he moves about among the crowd, which either respectfully gives

way or curiously looks after him.

There was probably no town or village inhabited by Jews which had not its Pharisees,

although they would, of course, gather in preference about Jerusalem with its Temple,

and what, perhaps would have been even dearer to the heart of a genuine Pharisee--its

four hundred and eighty synagogues, its Sanhedrims (great and small), and its schools

of study. There could be no difficulty in recognising such an one. Walking behind him,

the chances were, he would soon halt to say his prescribed prayers. If the fixed time for

them had come, he would stop short in the middle of the road, perhaps say one section

of them, move on, again say another part, and so on, till, whatever else might be

doubted, there could be no question of the conspicuousness of his devotions in market-

place or corners of streets. There he would stand, as taught by the traditional law, would

draw his feet well together, compose his body and clothes, and bend so low "that every

vertebra in his back would stand out separate," or, at least, till "the skin over his heart

would fall into folds" (Ber. 28 b). The workman would drop his tools, the burden-bearer

his load; if a man had already one foot in the stirrup, he would withdraw it. The hour had

come, and nothing could be suffered to interrupt or disturb him. The very salutation of a

king, it was said, must remain unreturned; nay, the twisting of a serpent around one's

heel must remain unheeded. Nor was it merely the prescribed daily seasons of prayer

which so claimed his devotions. On entering a village, and again on leaving it, he must

say one or two benedictions; the same in passing through a fortress, in encountering

any danger, in meeting with anything new, strange, beautiful, or unexpected. And the

longer he prayed the better. In the view of the Rabbis this had a twofold advantage; for

"much prayer is sure to be heard," and "prolix prayer prolongeth life." At the same time,

as each prayer expressed, and closed with a benediction of the Divine Name, there

would be special religious merit attaching to mere number, and a hundred

"benedictions" said in one day was a kind of measure of great piety.

But on meeting a Pharisee face to face his identity could still less be doubted. His self-

satisfied, or else mock-modest or ostentatiously meek bearing would betray him, even

irrespective of his superciliousness towards others, his avoidance of every touch of

persons or things which he held unclean, and his extravagant religious displays. We are,

of course, speaking of the class, or, rather, the party, as such, and of its tendencies, and

not of all the individuals who composed it. Besides, there were, as we shall by-and-by

see, various degrees among them, from the humblest Pharisee, who was simply a

member of the fraternity, only initiated in its lowest degree, or perhaps even a novice, to

the most advanced chasid, or "pietist." The latter would, for example, bring every day a

trespass-offering, in case he had committed some offence of which he was doubtful.

How far the punctiliousness of that class, in observing the laws of Levitical purity,