During the first century C. The Temple still stood in Jerusalem and it was the center of Jewish life. One of the greatest concerns of Temple rites was purity — that both the people who entered the Temple and the animals sacrificed there, were "pure" enough to satisfy God.
The Torah the first five books of the Hebrew Bible starting with Genesis contains written commandments that explain the proper way to conduct Temple sacrifices, but the Pharisees claimed they had additional divine instructions that had been passed down through centuries of oral tradition.
What was distinctive about the oral tradition of the Pharisees was that it expanded the question of purity to life outside of the Temple. Even if a Jewish person lived far away from Jerusalem in Galilee, for example and wasn't planning to make a pilgrimage to the Temple, they could conduct their lives in such a way as to be pure enough to enter the Temple.
The Pharisees were not, however, the powerful elite of first-century Judaism. Those were the Sadducees, the priestly class that controlled Temple worship and held the most political influence with the Roman Empire, which ruled over Palestine. The Sadducees rejected the oral tradition in favor of the written law Torah. The Pharisees were a working-class movement concerned with establishing a clear and consistent Jewish identity in everyday life.
Interestingly, it was the Pharisees who believed in an afterlife and resurrection of the dead, both of which were rejected by the Sadducees as they were not mentioned in the Torah. Pharisees also believed a messiah would come who would bring peace to the world, though most of them did not think that messiah was Jesus. The Pharisees are portrayed as a monolithic block in the New Testament, but Chilton says that while all Pharisees were concerned with purity, there was fierce debate among the Pharisees about how best to achieve it.
There were certainly Pharisees who believed that purity was obtained from the outside in, and who taught that ritual baths mikvahs and the ritual purification of cups and cooking implements was the only way to achieve purity. In Matthew 23, Jesus lambastes the pharisaic practice of purifying the outside of cups and dishes while "inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
But Chilton says there were other Pharisees who would have agreed with Jesus, that the true work of purification starts with a pure heart and faith in God. If you read the New Testament closely, in fact, you'll see that Jesus won sympathetic supporters and even followers from the ranks of the supposedly hated Pharisees. Nicodemus, who visited Jesus at night to ask him questions, and then provided money and spices to give Jesus a proper Jewish burial after the crucifixion, was a Pharisee see John 3.
And in Luke , a Pharisee comes to warn Jesus that Herod wanted him killed. But perhaps the most interesting and consequential mention of "friendly" Pharisees comes in the book of Acts, when a group of Pharisees is listed among the early followers of Jesus who remained faithful after his death.
As Chilton explains, though, those Pharisees took an ideological stance in opposition to influential apostles like Paul and Peter, which may explain why the Pharisees got such a bad rap in the New Testament.
In Acts 15 , there is a meeting or "council" in Jerusalem attended by Paul, Peter, James, Barnabas and other apostles and followers of Jesus. The agenda of the meeting was to settle an important question among the early church: did non-Jewish men need to be circumcised in order to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit?
Philip the Apostle is only mentioned eight times in the New Testament, four of which are the lists of apostles. However, there are three other people named Philip in the New Testament, too. Two are sons of King Herod, and the other is Philip the Evangelist, who was often mistaken for Philip the Apostle even early on. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.
We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. This proposal pleased the whole group. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. Still, the early church mixed them up, and their mistakes were often passed down, making it difficult to be sure which traditions actually apply to Philip the Apostle.
Later, when some Greek men from Bethsaida want to see Jesus, they come to Philip first, presumably because they knew he was from the same town as them or possibly because he spoke Greek the best.
Nathanael is only mentioned in the Gospel of John, but many assume this is another name for Bartholomew because:. According to Clement of Alexandria, who lived in the second and third century, Philip is also mentioned one other time though not directly. Philip likely died in the first century, possibly around 80 AD, but traditions vary widely as to how he died—at least partially due to the confusion with Philip the Evangelist. One tradition says he died of natural causes.
But others suggest he was stoned to death, beheaded, or crucified upside down. According to this text, he was crucified upside down with Bartholomew.
Philip preached to the crowd while hanging on the cross, and they wanted to release the two disciples, but Philip told them to free Bartholomew and leave him hanging there.
Bartholomew is one of the most obscure apostles. But others argue that Bartholomew is a standalone name, and that the Greek text normally represents patronymic names differently:. It is not necessarily a patronymic. The patronymic is normally expressed in the lists by the Greek genitive, not by the Aramaic bar. If Bartholomew is Nathanael though, John gives us two additional passages to learn about this disciple.
Like most of the apostles, Bartholomew was probably martyred. But there are several explanations of his death. The most popular is also the most gruesome: Bartholomew was allegedly flayed alive and then beheaded. Most art that portrays the apostles includes some iconography related to their death, and so Bartholomew is often portrayed wearing his skin, or in the less grotesque portraits, holding a flaying knife.
Matthew, also known as Levi, was a tax collector—one of the most reviled professions in first-century Judaism. But to make matters worse, tax collectors made their money by saying people owed Caesar more than they did and then skimming the extra off the top—and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
As a result, tax collectors were right up there with prostitutes for the go-to example of the worst sinners. So it was a big deal that Jesus asked Matthew to follow him and be one of his disciples. Matthew is one of the few apostles whose calling is recorded in the gospels. All three synoptic gospels have a version of the same account:.
The Pharisees see Jesus hanging out with the worst of the worst in their estimation , and assume this is a reflection of his character. And it is—just not the way they thought.
Did Matthew write the Gospel of Matthew? While there are credible arguments against his authorship, no alternative writer has been named. Read more about who wrote the Gospel of Matthew here. Traditions disagree on how and where Matthew died. Various accounts say he was beheaded, stoned, burned, or stabbed. One even suggests he died of old age, like John.
Most scholars believe he was probably martyred, though. And while throughout church history people have been happy to fill in the details of his life, few of those details are reliable. And even though he lived 2, years ago, Thomas also serves as a foil for Christians today—those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Didymus is a Greek word which means. For such a minor apostle, church tradition is remarkably consistent about his death. An early church calendar reads:. Syrian Christian tradition specifies that this took place on July 3, 72 AD.
James son of Alphaeus is only mentioned in the four lists of apostles. So all we can say for sure about him is that he had a really common name and he was the son of someone named Alphaeus.
The main question surrounding James son of Alphaeus is can we assume he is the same person as one or two of the other Jameses in the New Testament? Their names appear in the same lists and they have different fathers. But there are two other Jameses mentioned in the New Testament:. The early church most notably, Jerome assumed both of these Jameses were all the same person as James son of Alphaeus.
The strongest link is arguably between James the Less and James, brother of Jesus, so if James son of Alphaeus could be linked to one or the other, it would be reasonable to associate all three.
If it turned out that James son of Alphaeus was the same person as James the brother of Jesus, that would make him one of the most important leaders of the early church Galatians One more thing about James son of Alphaeus. This has led some to assume Matthew and James are brothers. Another tradition says James son of Alphaeus was crucified in Egypt, where he was preaching. Another just says he was stoned to death in Jerusalem. Plus, the Jude who claims to have written the Epistle of Jude says he has a brother named James Jude 1.
No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world. In two of the lists of apostles, Jude appears to be referred to as Thaddeus Matthew , Mark — Since these two names appear in about the same place in the lists, and the other names are consistent, church tradition and most modern scholars have always assumed Thaddeus was a nickname for Jude of James.
Thanks for nothing, guys. But unfortunately, Jude was a super common name, and this relies on assumptions. Read more about who wrote Jude here. Simon the Zealot is only mentioned by name in lists of the apostles Matthew —4, Mark —19, Luke —16, Acts So we know almost nothing about him.
Simon the Zealot may have belonged to a Jewish sect known as the Zealots, who were bent on revolution and looking for a Messiah to violently overthrow Rome. Or he may have simply been zealous for the Mosaic Law. Or zealous for Jesus and his teachings. They assumed he was from Cana—a town within Galilee—or possibly even descended from one of the non-Jewish people groups in the area.
This mistake led to the idea that Simon was present at the wedding in Cana in John 2, where Jesus performed his first miracle and turned water into wine, and that he was the same person as Simon, the brother of Jesus Matthew Matthew had driven out of Ethiopia.
So maybe he was a martyr. And maybe not. Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot is one of the most widely known disciples. Judas appears in several New Testament stories, and while the Gospel writers are in unanimous agreement that he betrayed Jesus, they present various takes on his motives and the circumstances surrounding his death.
This is part of the reason many people believe Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus out of greed. But there may have been several other motivations at play as well. Somehow none of the other disciples picked up on that though. They assumed it had something to do with him being in charge of the money John Each of the gospels gives a slightly different version of the moment Judas betrayed Jesus, but the main thread goes like this:.
While James son of Zebedee was the only apostle to be martyred in the Bible Acts , Judas Iscariot was the first to die. Then he went away and hanged himself. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
Pharisees: They Minister to Jesus. Pharisees: Traditions of, in Regard to Fasting. Pharisees: Traditions of, in Regard to The Sabbath.
The Pharisees by Descent, Especially Esteemed. The Pharisees: A Sect of the Jews. The Pharisees: Believed in the Resurrection. The Pharisees: Character of Active in Proselytising. The Pharisees: Character of Ambitious of Precedence. The Pharisees: Character of Avaricious. The Pharisees: Character of Cruel in Persecuting. The Pharisees: Character of Oppressive. The Pharisees: Character of Outwardly Moral.
The Pharisees: Character of Rigid in Fasting.
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