Do Jews have a different idea about the Pharisees from Christians?
Yes. Modern Judaism is Pharisaic in character, and Jews do not use the word as a synonym for “hypocrite.” It is probable that this latter meaning arose in the conflict between those who chose to follow Jesus and Paul and those who remained in the mainstream of the Jewish faith; by that time, the Pharisees dominated Jewish thinking and practice, and it seemed better to denounce Pharisaism as a deviation from Jewish thought, rather than to denounce the Jews themselves, since the early Christians sought to convert the Jews. The message was, “You are being misled by the Pharisees, who are no good anyway; we want you Jews to join us.” The Pharisees and the Saduccees were the primary competitors for primacy in Jewish thought and religious practice, although there were other groups, such as the Essenes, also offering different ideas. The Saduccees were the party of the priestly class and held the position that only the written Law was binding in force. The Pharisees were more broadly based an
