Pharisaios (4523 in Strong's Concordance) is a noun in Ancient Greek that refers to a 'Pharisee'; a member of this specific sect of Judaism and the aristocratic class.
While the four gospels portray Pharisees often as an opposition to the ministry of Jesus, it is worth noting they are neither a vague religious party nor the real enemy.
On the matter of their religion, the Pharisees were Jewish. They believed in a single God: The Lord the God of Israel. This differs dramatically from surrounding nations who worshipped many gods, as evidence by Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus—which is a group of men who defended the plurality of the greek gods. Therefore we should not treat the term 'Pharisee' as though it simply meant religious men in opposition to Jesus, but acknowledge and incorporate their unique beliefs into our understanding of their opposition.
Furthermore, within the Jewish faith the Pharisees also differed from the Sadducees. Their main differences centred around angels, spirits, and the resurrection of the dead. We find their differences laid out perfectly out in three verses; the Sadducees questioned Jesus about resurrection because they did not believe it (Matthew 22:23), the Pharisees and Sadducees were divided because of Paul (Acts 23:7), and some of the Pharisees believed Paul to be innocent on account he may have spoken to a spirit or angel (Acts 23:9). Therefore, not only are they not a generic religious entity, they're not even a generic Jewish religious entity.
Lastly, while the Pharisees provide much of the theological scrutiny during the gospels, this seems in part due to the nature of Jesus' ministry. The gospel first came to the Jews and then to the Greeks. However, ultimately the phrase is almost entirely absent from the epistles and is notably not used in the book of Revelation. The real enemy is not any particular religious sect, but the Prince of Darkness, the Father of Lies. He stands in opposition to the gospel and at every chance deceives.
Related Terms
The following terms are often used in connection with Pharisaios:
Saddoukaios - a sect of Judaism
Nazóraios - a native from Nazarene
Usage
Pharisaios is used 99 times across 94 verses. Below is a list of all references to Pharisaios in the New Testament.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7 ESV
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20 ESV
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Matthew 9:11 ESV
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
Matthew 9:14 ESV
But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”
Matthew 9:34 ESV
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:2 ESV
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Matthew 12:14 ESV
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
Matthew 12:24 ESV
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
Matthew 12:38 ESV
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said...
Matthew 15:1 ESV
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”
Matthew 15:12 ESV
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
Matthew 16:1 ESV
Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:6 ESV
How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:11 ESV
Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Matthew 16:12 ESV
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?”
Matthew 19:3 ESV
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.
Matthew 21:45 ESV
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.
Matthew 22:15 ESV
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
Matthew 22:34 ESV
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question...
Matthew 22:41 ESV
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat...
Matthew 23:2 ESV
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Matthew 23:13 ESV
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation
Matthew 23:14 ESV
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Matthew 23:15 ESV
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Matthew 23:23 ESV
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Matthew 23:25 ESV
You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Matthew 23:26 ESV
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
Matthew 23:27 ESV
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous...
Matthew 23:29 ESV
The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate...
Matthew 27:62 ESV
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Mark 2:16 ESV
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
Mark 2:18 ESV
And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Mark 2:24 ESV
The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Mark 3:6 ESV
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem...
Mark 7:1 ESV
For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders...
Mark 7:3 ESV
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Mark 7:5 ESV
The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
Mark 8:11 ESV
And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
Mark 8:15 ESV
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
Mark 10:2 ESV
And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.
Mark 12:13 ESV
On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
Luke 5:17 ESV
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Luke 5:21 ESV
And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Luke 5:30 ESV
And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”
Luke 5:33 ESV
But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
Luke 6:2 ESV
And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
Luke 6:7 ESV
but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
Luke 7:30 ESV
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.
Luke 7:36 ESV
And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment,
Luke 7:37 ESV
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”
Luke 7:39 ESV
While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table.
Luke 11:37 ESV
The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.
Luke 11:38 ESV
And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
Luke 11:39 ESV
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Luke 11:42 ESV
Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Luke 11:43 ESV
As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things,
Luke 11:53 ESV
In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Luke 12:1 ESV
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
Luke 13:31 ESV
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
Luke 14:1 ESV
And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
Luke 14:3 ESV
And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Luke 15:2 ESV
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.
Luke 16:14 ESV
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
Luke 17:20 ESV
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Luke 18:10 ESV
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Luke 18:11 ESV
And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
Luke 19:39 ESV
(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)
John 1:24 ESV
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
John 3:1 ESV
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
John 4:1 ESV
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
John 7:32 ESV
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”
John 7:45 ESV
The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
John 7:47 ESV
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
John 7:48 ESV
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
John 8:3 ESV
So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”
John 8:13 ESV
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.
John 9:13 ESV
So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
John 9:15 ESV
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.
John 9:16 ESV
Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”
John 9:40 ESV
but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
John 11:46 ESV
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
John 11:47 ESV
Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
John 11:57 ESV
So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
John 12:19 ESV
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;
John 12:42 ESV
So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
John 18:3 ESV
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.
Acts 5:34 ESV
But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
Acts 15:5 ESV
Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
Acts 23:6 ESV
And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
Acts 23:7 ESV
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
Acts 23:8 ESV
Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”
Acts 23:9 ESV
They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.
Acts 26:5 ESV
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
Philippians 3:5 ESV
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