Pharisee
Φαρισαῖος · Pharisaios · G533096 mentions in 6 books, most in Matthew (31)
Who they were
The Pharisees were a prominent Jewish sect active during the Second Temple period and in the time of Jesus Christ. They were known for their strict observance of the Mosaic law and the oral traditions of the elders (Mrk.7.3-5). The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels and spirits, and the importance of following legal traditions (Act.23.6-8).
Throughout the Gospels, the Pharisees are often portrayed as legalistic, hypocritical, and self-righteous (Matthew 23). They frequently confronted Jesus about His teachings, practices, and claims to divine authority (Matthew 12:2, 14, 24; 15:1-12; 19:3; 22:15-46). Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy, legalism, and neglect of justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23-28; Luke 11:37-54).
Despite this general characterization, some Pharisees are presented positively, such as Nicodemus, who sought Jesus's teaching (Jhn.3.1-21), and those who warned Jesus of Herod's plot to kill Him (Luke 13:31). Some Pharisees even became followers of Christ, like the apostle Paul, who described himself as a Pharisee (Php.3.5; Act.23.6).
After Jesus's death and resurrection, the Pharisees continued to oppose the early Christian church (Act.5.34; 15:5). Paul's testimony about his former life as a Pharisee underscored the transformative power of his encounter with the risen Christ (Act.26.5; Php.3.5-11). Despite their knowledge of Scripture, many Pharisees failed to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises and the Messiah (Jhn.9.13-41).
Article: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0
Every mention
96 references, counted from STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0 · verse text: World English Bible (public domain)
Matthew31 mentions
Matthew 3:7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?Matthew 5:20For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.Matthew 9:11When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”Matthew 9:14Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”Matthew 9:34But the Pharisees said, “By the prince of the demons, he casts out demons.”Matthew 12:2But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”Matthew 12:14But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.Matthew 12:24But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”Matthew 12:38Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”Matthew 15:1Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,Matthew 15:12Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”Matthew 16:1The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.Matthew 16:6Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”Matthew 16:11How is it that you don’t perceive that I didn’t speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”Matthew 16:12Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.Matthew 19:3Pharisees came to him, testing him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”Matthew 21:45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them.Matthew 22:15Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk.Matthew 22:34But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.Matthew 22:41Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,Matthew 23:2saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.Matthew 23:13“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.Matthew 23:14“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in…Matthew 23:15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as…Matthew 23:23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have…Matthew 23:25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.Matthew 23:26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.Matthew 23:27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.Matthew 23:29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous,Matthew 27:41Likewise the chief priests also mocking with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said,Matthew 27:62Now on the next day, which was the day after the Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together to Pilate,
Mark11 mentions
Mark 2:16The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and…Mark 2:18John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”Mark 2:24The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”Mark 3:6The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.Mark 7:1Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.Mark 7:3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.Mark 7:5The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?”Mark 8:11The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven and testing him.Mark 8:15He warned them, saying, “Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”Mark 10:2Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”Mark 12:13They sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him, that they might trap him with words.
Luke27 mentions
Luke 5:17On one of those days, he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord…Luke 5:21The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”Luke 5:30Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”Luke 5:33They said to him, “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?”Luke 6:2But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”Luke 6:7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him.Luke 7:30But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God, not being baptized by him themselves.Luke 7:36One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table.Luke 7:37Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.Luke 7:39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is…Luke 11:37Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in and sat at the table.Luke 11:38When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.Luke 11:39The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.Luke 11:42But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.Luke 11:43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.Luke 11:44Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”Luke 11:53As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him,Luke 12:1Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, “Beware of the yeast of the…Luke 13:31On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”Luke 14:1When he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him.Luke 14:3Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”Luke 15:2The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”Luke 16:14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.Luke 17:20Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation;Luke 18:10“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.Luke 18:11The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men: extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.Luke 19:39Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
John19 mentions
John 1:24The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees.John 3:1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.John 4:1Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than JohnJohn 7:32The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.John 7:45The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”John 7:47The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?John 7:48Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him?John 8:3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle,John 8:13The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”John 9:13They brought him who had been blind to the Pharisees.John 9:15Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see.”John 9:16Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division…John 9:40Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”John 11:46But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.John 11:47The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.John 11:57Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had commanded that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they might seize him.John 12:19The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “See how you accomplish nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him.”John 12:42Nevertheless, even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue,John 18:3Judas then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Acts7 mentions
Acts 5:34But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to put the apostles out for a little while.Acts 15:5But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”Acts 23:6But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Concerning the hope…Acts 23:7When he had said this, an argument arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the crowd was divided.Acts 23:8For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.Acts 23:9A great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ part stood up, and contended, saying, “We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let’s not…Acts 26:5having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
Sources
- STEPBible TIPNR · Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References · CC BY 4.0 · github.com/STEPBible/STEPBible-Data