THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL & DESTROY (PART IX)

“The Fall of the Pharisees into Apostasy”

By Akin Ojumu

As much as we’d like to believe that the events that are recorded in the Bible occurred in a historical vacuum, there are actual historical backdrops for the stories we read in both the Old and the New Testaments. One of such historical background to the New Testament is the emergence of that notorious religious sect that church folks are all too well familiar with. And I’m referring to the party of the Pharisees.

In the last installment of this commentary series, we started exploring the events that led to the rise to prominence of the Pharisees in the land of Israel. We learned that this religious sect emerged as a consequence of the oppressive and violent campaign of compulsory Hellenization of the Jewish people by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the mad ruler of the Greco-Seleucid kingdom.

Unlike other religious sects in Israel, such as the Sadducees, which capitulated and embraced the cultural totalitarianism of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Pharisees, who were ordinary pious peasants, were among the few Jews who resisted. Incensed at how the aristocratic priesthood families who, because of their desire to preserve their influence and perpetuate their hold on power, easily acquiesced to the tyrannical demands of Antiochus without putting up much resistance, the Pharisees took up arms and joined the resistance movement.

Known as the Maccabean Revolt, the resistance movement against Antiochus IV Epiphanes was led by the Maccabees who were a priestly family zealous for the Law of God. Their mutiny against the emperor was a guerilla-type warfare launched to wrestle control of Jerusalem back from him and the forces aligned with him.

Furious with the rebellion mounted against him by the Jews, Antiochus IV Epiphanes retaliated with the ferocity of a raving lunatic. Perhaps living up to his moniker the people call him behind his back, Antiochus Epimames (“The Madman”), he unleashed a great tribulation upon the Jewish people.

Unimaginable horrors were perpetrated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Circumcised infants and their mothers were thrown from the walls in Jerusalem. In a three-day period, more than 40,000 Jews were slaughtered and another 40,000 were enslaved.

And that’s not all. The worship of YAHWEH was outlawed. Religious sacraments such as the observance of Sabbath and other religious feasts were forbidden. The rite of circumcision, the study of Torah, and the keeping of the Jewish dietary laws were all prohibited.

Still seething, Antiochus proceeded to the Temple. He installed a statue of Zeus and sacrificed a pig on the altar, an abominable act to God. To fill his war chest, Antiochus stripped the Temple of its sacred vessels, including the seven-branched golden menorah, and stole the silver and gold coin.

If, after reading all these heinous atrocities and depraved calumny perpetrated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes against the Jews, you concluded that he was the abomination of desolation described in the Books of Daniel and Matthew, you won’t be hyperbolizing.

Daniel 9:27

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

Daniel 11:31

“And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.”

Matthew 24:15-22

“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

Considering his reign of terror, his claim to being a god incarnate, his pillaging and desecration of the Temple, his outlawing of the worship of YAHWEH, Antiochus IV Epiphanes is often thought of as one of the foremost ancient kings who exhibited the spirit of the antiChrist. His persecution of the Jews is most certainly a preview to the events that would eventually unfold in the Last Days during the reign of the real antiChrist.

1 John 4:3

“This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

Although the Maccabee Revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes was made up of a ragtag group of mostly ordinary folks, the revolt was all the same successful. Around 165 BC, the Maccabees regained control of Jerusalem. Following the triumph, the people carried out a purification of the Temple. Temple worship and all the rites and customs of Judaism were reinstated. Today, the victory of the Maccabee Revolt is commemorated each year by the Jewish people in the festival of Hanukkah.

As stated earlier, included in the coalition that fought in the Maccabean Revolt were the Pharisees. Noted for their uncompromising observance of Judaic Law, the Pharisees took up arms against Antiochus IV Epiphanes to fight for religious freedom and to stem the tide of paganism sweeping the land.

Staunchly devout, the Pharisees wanted nothing to do with the metastasizing influence of Greek culture which they deemed to be a moral and spiritual cancer eating away the Jewish soul. Not so surprisingly, the name Pharisee is derived from the Hebrew word parush, meaning “separated,” or “isolated.” It’s a name chosen to telegraph their modus operandi, which is a total separation unto God and His Law away from the worldly influences of Hellenism.

It’s because of the intolerance for corrupting influence of power and wealth, that would eventually lead to the schism between the Pharisees and their brothers-in-arm in the Maccabean Revolt. The separation was due to a variety of reasons, and they are explained as follows:

First, from the events of Hanukkah emerged the Hasmonean dynasty. This was a succession of rulers over Judea who combined the offices of king and high priest, a violation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Second, contrary to the original aims of the Maccabean Revolt to rid Judea of Hellenism, the Hasmonean Dynasty “declined into worldly pomp and Grecian ways,” corrupting Judaism and Jewish culture (Source: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry).

From the foregoing, we see that the Pharisees were, in the beginning, fervent in their faith in YAHWEH and were passionately in love with the Torah. They embraced a lifestyle marked by self-discipline, austerity, and asceticism. Because of their commitment to teach their fellow Jews the precepts of the Word of God, they quickly gained widespread respect and admiration of their fellow Jews.

Over time, however, the zeal and passion of the Pharisees waned. Their passionate love for God would soon turn into a cold orthodoxy and religiosity. What started out as an innocent and impassioned quest to find answers in the Written Torah to the numerous questions related and relevant to the contemporary issues they faced, the Pharisees would soon come to regard themselves as wiser than God.

In their hubris, they turned the Written Torah into a malleable document subject to personal progressive interpretation. Rejecting the literal meaning of the Written Torah, the Pharisees embraced the principle of evolution in the Law whereas the Written Torah is interpreted using human reasoning.

In an effort to make the Written Torah relevant to their contemporary times, the Pharisees subverted the teachings of the Written Torah. They replaced the Written Torah with their own ideas and opinions. Thinking they are zealously protecting the Jews from violating God’s Law, the Pharisees became a law unto themselves.

Believing they were keeping the people from transgressing the Written Torah, the Pharisees took it upon themselves to erect a fence round the Torah by developing the Oral Torah, i.e., the Talmud, which they elevated to a level of supremacy over and above the Written Torah. In fact, the Mishnah (the first written form of the Oral Torah) says, “There is greater stringency in respect to the teachings of the scribes than in respect to the Written Torah.”

Within a few generations after the victory in the Maccabean Revolt, the Pharisees fell from a height of spiritual piety to the depth of religious apostasy. Departing from a fidelity to the Written Torah, they became more consumed with enforcing their own pharisaical teachings and legal codes than with administering God’s law. Instead of helping the people to navigate and obey the Written Torah, the Pharisees invented their own set of doctrines apart from the Written Torah thus adding mountains of unbiblical fine prints to biblical commands that’s impossible for the people to bear.

In His clashes with the Pharisees, the Lord Jesus never accused them of taking Written Torah too seriously. On the contrary, His charge against the Pharisees was that they didn’t take the Written Torah seriously enough. Christ’s verdict was that the Pharisees hadn’t studied Scripture enough – borne out by His oft-repeated phrase, “Have you not read?” (Matthew 12:3; 12:5, 19:4; 21:16; 21:42; 22:31; Mark 2:25; 12:10; 12:26; Luke 6:3) (Source: Grace to You).

While the Pharisees might have been fervent students of Scriptures, their academic prowess was not profitable to them since it didn’t give them any spiritual insight. Ultimately, their confidence in their own expertise blinded them to the arrival of the Messiah (Source: Grace to You).

John 5:39–40

 “You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.”

The fall of the Pharisees from a place of spiritual piety to religious apostasy is a cautionary tale to the Church today. Too often, we see ministers of the Gospel and laypeople who started well in the faith derail after a while because of fame and fortune. There are ministries today that are a hollowed-out shell of what they used to be because they veered away from the truth into error.

To be continued.