[Avodah] O vs pharisee

[Lisa Liel]

On 9/1/2011 3:25 PM, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 1/09/2011 4:00 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>>> ... (The NT's criticisms of "Pharisees" may be seen in the same
>>> > light, as aimed only at the fake ones.)
>
>> Off topic, but I think they really meant us. Part of the justification
>> of the abandonment of the whole concept of Jewish Law (halakhah or some
>> sect's version) is to portray people for whom compliance to law occluded
>> their acting on faith and morality.
>
> I think that's how the later authors of the NT meant it; they had
> probably never seen an actual Parush in the flesh, and they had an
> agenda of justifying the way their community already lived. Also,
> they were mostly antisemitic nochrim. But the original characters
> in these stories were shomrei mitzvos, so there's no reason to believe
> they had an anti-Prushi agenda. And the NT's criticisms of Prushim
> sound very much like the ones in Sotah, which are aimed only at the
> fakes.

I don't know where you get the idea that they were shomer mitzvot.  I'm 
not even convinced they existed at all at that time.

Lisa