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Is Judaism the Religion of Moses? 83

Notice this! The Pharisees came to the place of believing that God did not reveal Himself in
the Scriptures alone -- "speaking not alone in the words of an ancient text" -- but that He was ac-
tively revealing His present truth to the Pharisees through influencing their hearts and consciences!
You can imagine what unlimited authority this gave the Pharisees among those who accepted their
beliefs.

By appropriating the role of modern prophets, they maintained the right of free prophetic ut-
terance. That is, they claimed the prerogative to speak the current will of God without the necessity
of appealing to the Scriptures. They did not believe they had to be shackled to the teaching of the
Scriptures!

This opinion gave the Pharisees extreme latitude. They believed, as Herford puts it, "IN
THE CONTINUOUS PROGRESSIVE REVELATION OF GOD, AND THAT HIS
AUTHORITY WAS MADE KNOWN IN THE REASON AND CONSCIENCE OF THOSE
WHO SOUGHT TO KNOW HIS WILL, AND NOT ONLY IN THE WRITTEN TEXT OF THE
TORAH [the law of God]" (Talmud and Apocrypha, p. 73).

The ideas and beliefs of the Pharisees originated in their own minds!

The Pharisees claimed that the Holy Scriptures alone were NOT SUFFICIENT to give the
complete truth of God -- especially since environmental conditions change. To the Scriptures, they
claimed, had to be added the so-called traditional law (which they determined to be the Word of
God).

There are Churches today who claim the same prerogative. The Roman Catholic Church,
for example, does not derive its authority from the Bible. It rejects, in many cases, the plain teach-
ing of Scripture to proclaim its own church doctrines.

THEY [THE PHARISEES] UPHELD THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION AS
SUPERIOR TO INDIVIDUAL INTELLIGENCE, and taught that no Scripture should be
of unauthorized, or private, interpretation" (Conder, Judas Maccabaeus, p. 203).

It is indeed amazing to what extent the Catholic Church parallels the actions of the Pharisees
in this matter.

New Doctrines Taught Independent From Scripture

With the "feeling" that they had the spirit of God guiding them, the Pharisees began to make
more laws and commandments of their own, without appealing to the Scriptures.

The first Pharisee we have record of who began to teach new commandments of his own,
without any Scripture basis, was Joseph ben Joezer. This Pharisee lived at the time the majority of
the Pharisees erroneously accepted the traditional laws as the "Oral Law of Moses."

Joseph ben Joezer made three new laws completely independent of Scripture. In fact, what
he commanded was not only independent of Scripture but WAS NOT EVEN PERMITTED BY

The Berean Voice November-December 2002