How to Pronounce Pharisees

What does Pharisees mean?

Pharisees means “set apart”.

Hitchcock’s Bible Names (1869), public domain.

What is Pharisees?

Separatists (Heb. persahin, from parash, “to separate”). They were probably the successors of the Assideans (i.e., the “pious”), a party that originated in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes in revolt against his heathenizing policy. The first mention of them is in a description by Josephus of the three sects or schools into which the Jews were divided (B.C. 145). The other two sects were the Essenes and the Sadducees. In the time of our Lord they were the popular party (John 7:48). They were extremely accurate and minute in all matters appertaining to the law of Moses (Matt. 9:14; 23:15; Luke 11:39; 18:12).

Adapted from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain.

Found in Scripture

Other names from Matthew