The Pharisees

[MrMacSon]

The Pharisees, a book
Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, editors

https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7929/ ... isees.aspx:
... (currently $40 https://eerdmans.christianbook.com/Chri ... quantity=1)

DESCRIPTION

A multidisciplinary appraisal of the Pharisees: who they were, what they taught, and how they’ve been understood and depicted throughout history

For centuries, Pharisees have been well known but little understood—due at least in part to their outsized role in the Christian imagination arising from select negative stereotypes based in part on the Gospels. Yet historians see Pharisees as respected teachers and forward-thinking innovators who helped make the Jewish tradition more adaptable to changing circumstances and more egalitarian in practice. Seeking to bridge this gap, the contributors to this volume provide a multidisciplinary appraisal of who the Pharisees actually were, what they believed and taught, and how they have been depicted throughout history.

The topics explored within this authoritative resource include:

• the origins of the Pharisees
• the meaning of the name “Pharisee”
• Pharisaic leniency, relative to the temple priesthood, in judicial matters
• Pharisaic concerns for the Jewish laity
• Pharisaic purity practices and why they became popular
• the varying depictions of Pharisaic practices and beliefs in the New Testament
• Jesus’s relationship to the Pharisees
• the apostle Paul and his situation within the Pharisaic tradition
• the question of continuity between the Pharisaic tradition and Rabbinic Judaism
• the reception history of the Pharisees, including among the rabbis, the church fathers, Rashi, Maimonides, Luther, and Calvin
• the failures of past scholarship to deal justly with the Pharisees
• the representations, both positive and negative, of the Pharisees in art, film, passion plays, and Christian educational resources
• how Christian leaders can and should address the Pharisees in sermons and in Bible studies

Following the exploration of these and other topics by a team of internationally renowned scholars, this volume concludes with an address by Pope Francis on correcting the negative stereotypes of Pharisees that have led to antisemitic prejudices and finding resources that “will positively contribute to the relationship between Jews and Christians, in view of an ever more profound and fraternal dialogue.”

Contributors:

Luca Angelelli, Harold W. Attridge, Vasile Babota, Shaye J. D. Cohen, Philip A. Cunningham, Deborah Forger, Paula Fredriksen, Yair Furstenburg, Massimo Grilli, Susannah Heschel, Angela La Delfa, Amy-Jill Levine, Hermut Löhr, Steve Mason, Eric M. Meyers, Craig E. Morrison, Vered Noam, Henry Pattarumadathil, Adele Reinhartz, Jens Schröter, Joseph Sievers, Matthias Skeb, Abraham Skorka, Günter Stemberger, Christian Stückl, Adela Yarbro Collins, and Randall Zachman.

.Table of Contents

.Prelude: What’s in a Name?
... 1. Interpreting the Name “Pharisee”
....... Craig E. Morrison

.Part One: Historical Reconstruction
... 2. In Search of the Origins of the Pharisees
....... Vasile Babota
... 3. Purity Concerns and Common Judaism in Light of Archaeology
....... Eric M. Meyers
... 4. Pharisaic Halakah as Emerging from 4QMMT
....... Vered Noam
... 5. Josephus’s Pharisees
....... Steve Mason
... 6. Paul, the Perfectly Righteous Pharisee
....... Paula Fredriksen
... 7. Pharisees and Sadducees Together in Matthew
....... Henry Pattarumadathil
... 8. Polemic against the Pharisees in Matthew 23
....... Adela Yarbro Collins
... 9. Luke/Acts as a Source for the History of the Pharisees
....... Hermut Löhr
.. 10. Pharisees in the Fourth Gospel and One Special Pharisee
....... Harold W. Attridge
.. 11. The Shared Image of Pharisaic Law between the Gospels and Rabbinic Tradition
....... Yair Furstenberg
.. 12. How Close Were Jesus and the Pharisees?
....... Jens Schröter
.. 13. The Pharisees and the Rabbis: How Much Continuity?
....... Günter Stemberger

.Part Two: Reception History
.. 14. “Pharisees” and Early Christian Heresiology
....... Matthias Skeb
.. 15. A Statistical Approach to Pharisaios and Pharisaikos in the Greek Fathers
....... Luca Angelelli
.. 16. The Forgotten Pharisees
....... Shaye J. D. Cohen
.. 17. The Perushim in the Understanding of the Medieval Jewish Sages
....... Abraham Skorka
.. 18. The Pharisees in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin
....... Randall Zachman
.. 19. The Pharisees in Art
....... Angela La Delfa
.. 20. A Brief, Personal History of the Oberammergau Passion Play
....... Christian Stückl
.. 21. The Pharisees on Film
....... Adele Reinhartz
.. 22. The Pharisees in Modern Scholarship
....... Susannah Heschel and Deborah Forger
.. 23. A Textbook Case—the Pharisees in Catholic Religion Textbooks
....... Philip A. Cunningham

.Part Three: Looking To the Future
.. 24. Preaching and Teaching the Pharisees
....... Amy-Jill Levine
.. 25. What Future for the Pharisees?
....... Massimo Grilli and Joseph Sievers

. Appendix: Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Pontifical Biblical Institute

also available via https://www.amazon.com/Pharisees-Joseph ... 0802879292

[MrMacSon]

This video is a discussion of the book and, of course, the Pharisees
(the discussion proper does not start until 15 minutes in)

[MrMacSon]

Also recently published is

The Pharisees: Their History, Character, and New Testament Portrait
by Kent L. Yinger (forward by Craig A. Evans)

https://wipfandstock.com/9781666731361/the-pharisees/
https://www.amazon.com/Pharisees-Histor ... 0B3JSR4PL/

• "Here at last is a book that lays out for the non-specialist the evidence for the origin and true nature of the Pharisees"

---

And
The Pharisees and the Temple-State of Judea
by Richard A. Horsley

https://wipfandstock.com/9781666748659/ ... -of-judea/
https://www.amazon.com/Pharisees-Temple ... 0BHCCLGNF/

• from the Introduction
  "Far from being a stable situation, the historical context in the late Second Temple Era was full of conflict at the level of the empires and that of the rulers in Palestine. Ordinary people, including both Jerusalemites and villagers, periodically mounted resistance and even revolts against exploitative and/or domineering rulers. Pharisees and scribes, sometimes as retainers of the temple-state but sometimes as dissident retainers, usually attempted to mediate tensions and conflicts but also offered resistance at certain crisis points. With broader critical assessment of the sources and a clearer sense of the changing social-political context, it is possible to construct a (provisional) history of the Pharisees' political position and role in, or in opposition to, the temple-state in Judea under imperial rule"