Welcome to the Investigators Guide to the Bible. We are still hanging out in Bad Guy Central, this time, to learn about the Pharisees. Let’s see if I can dredge up a detail or two you didn’t know about them. I'm Tony, I'm the author, and the narrator. Like and subscribe for new episodes. Sharing the episode with a friend or twelve would be kind of cool, too. Let’s go: The Pharisees – The OG Deep State.
Resources and References so I can pretend I’m really smart:
* Most Bible quotes I used come from the New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2010 This is just my working Bible for most of these episodes. Any Bible you use will be fine for all of the Biblical references.
** You’ve heard this before. Most of the work in this piece relies heavily on the research of Allen Ross, Kaufman Kohler, and Gershom Bader, all of whom are referenced below. I edited their statements for narrative flow and added some of my own analysis but the real work here is theirs. I only take credit for anything you find that might be wrong. If a statement sounds like it could have been from one of them, you should assume it is from one of them and I just messed up the notation.
*** Most Talmudic references came from or have been confirmed at Sefaria, a wonderful, free resource that I access constantly. Hit the link to check them out. (https://www.sefaria.org)
1. GotQuestions.org website, no author noted. “What were the 400 years of silence?” Got Questions Ministries, 2002-2025. (https://www.gotquestions.org/400-years-of-silence.html, accessed 27 May 2025)
2. JewishVirtualLibrary.org website, no author noted. “Ancient Jewish History: The Edomites.” American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 1998 - 2025 (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-edomites#:~:text=The%20Edomites%20were%20later%20forcibly,who%20built%20the%20Second%20Temple, accessed 28 May 2025)
3. Kohler, Kaufman. “Pharisees.” The Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com, The Kopelman Foundation, 2002-2021 (https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12087-pharisees, accessed most recently on 28 May 2025)
4. Ross, Allen. “The Religious World of Jesus.” Bible.Org, May 2009. (https://bible.org/series/religious-world-jesus. Accessed 8 May 2024)
5. Bader, Gershom. The Jewish Spiritual Heroes. New York, N.Y. 1940. Public Domain document, available at https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Introduction?lang=bi&with=About&lang2=en, accessed 28 May 2025
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