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Is Judaism the Religion of Moses? 85

Pharisees Adopt Precedent of Joseph the Permitter

Because Joseph the Permitter was one of the chief leaders among the Pharisees immediately
following the Maccabean Revolt (168-165 B.C.), other Pharisees immediately followed his author-
itative example and made new commandments or Halachah on their own. This method of teaching
was not whole-heartedly accepted by all Pharisees immediately. It took about a generation to estab-
lish the new method of teaching firmly among the Pharisees.

If the majority of Pharisees agreed with the new commandments, they would then be ac-
cepted as the Word of God -- even if the commandments taught just the opposite from the teaching
of the Scriptures. IT ALL DEPENDED UPON WHETHER THE PHARISEES, AS A WHOLE,
THOUGHT THE NEW COMMANDMENTS WERE NECESSARY FOR THE PEOPLE TO
OBSERVE.

This practice gave rise to the theory that new rules -- though contrary to Scripture -- had to
be established to meet the needs of the changing times! Notice Herford's summary of this whole sit-
uation:

The lead which Joseph ben Joezer had given WAS FOLLOWED, but only gradually; and
though the theory of the Unwritten Torah [the traditional laws] was finally accepted and
worked out to its furthest consequences, as seen in the Talmud, yet those who most firmly
maintained it WERE QUITE AWARE OF THE WEAKNESS OF ITS FOUNDATION.
They knew that it cut the connection between the halachah [the rules of the Pharisees] and
the written Torah [the Scriptures], and THEY KNEW THAT IN APPEARANCE, AT ALL
EVENTS, IT GAVE THE TEACHERS FREE SCOPE TO TEACH WHAT THEY
THOUGHT FIT" (Herford, Talmud and Apocrypha, p. 68).

Pharisees Viewed Scriptures as Out of Date!

Because the Pharisees considered themselves Prophets and able to give the CURRENT will
of God, they reasoned that in many cases the CURRENT will of God may be completely different
from His will as expressed in past times. They maintained that many of their new teachings, which
were clearly contrary to the written Word of God, were actually the PRESENT will of God. This is
one of the reasons the Pharisees taught new commandments without Scripture proof!

The Pharisees were confident that as times changed and when the people would be under
new environmental conditions that certain of the Laws of God, as revealed in the Scripture would,
of necessity, become obsolete and have to be changed. And, feeling that they had the power of
prophets, they felt no compunction about teaching new commandments to meet the needs of the
time, regardless of whether those teachings contradicted the Word of God or not.

Herford shows us that this was the very attitude of the Pharisees:

The written Torah was good for the age in which it was given, or in which it was first
read; BUT THE WRITTEN TORAH ALONE COULD NOT SUFFICE FOR LATER
AGES (Talmud and Apocrypha, p. 113).

The Berean Voice November-December 2002