> who were the Pharisees ?

[Assad]

Who were the Pharisees mentioned in the Bible ?

Thanks

[Assad]

The word Pharisees (lat. pharis?|us, -i) comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "separated".

The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BC?70 AD). After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Pharisaic sect was re-established as Rabbinic Judaism ? which ultimately produced normative, traditional Judaism, the basis for all contemporary forms of Judaism and even the Karaites use the Rabbinic canon of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh.

[Aayah]

Good that there is already thread about this. I was looking for that as well, and came to this site:

The Pharisees

The most important of the three were the Pharisees because they are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their main distinguishing characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah or Written Law was akin to the U.S. Constitution in the sense that it set down a series of laws that were open to interpretation. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied. This oral tradition was codified and written down roughly three centuries later in what is known as the Talmud.
The Pharisees also maintained that an afterlife existed and that God punished the wicked and rewarded the righteous in the world to come. They also believed in a messiah who would herald an era of world peace.
Pharisees were in a sense blue-collar Jews who adhered to the tenets developed after the destruction of the Temple; that is, such things as individual prayer and assembly in synagogues.


source:http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/sadducees_pharisees_essenes.html

It says that they are the fathers of the modern Judasim, how far did Judasim got changed from the days of Moses peace be upon him to what so called the Modern Judasim?

[Assad]

:wsalam

I dont think it is possible to say that ''how far'' did Judaism evolved to Modern Judaism.

Wallahu Alam, I dont know about this. Will try to find out.

[Aayah]

^okay jazakAllah khair in advance

Also, I want to know, are there there any modern Jewish who still hold the belief that Uzair is the son of God? or?

[SilverLJ]

Originally Posted by Aayah

Good that there is already thread about this. I was looking for that as well, and came to this site:

It says that they are the fathers of the modern Judasim, how far did Judasim got changed from the days of Moses peace be upon him to what so called the Modern Judasim?

The quote you used does not quite give the full story (how could it). The priestly class called the Sadducees claimed decent from Zadoc who was a priest in David and Solomon's time and were what we might call today 'upper class'. The Pharisees, meaning 'separated from' because the separated from the Sadducees over interpretation of scripture mainly in the areas of immortality, providence and free will. The Sadducees took the Torah as their authority but the Pharasees took a wider view and looked also to the oral Torah

In terms of books (here we mean many volumes) we have the Hebrew Bible divided into three section: Torah (teachings), Nev'im (prophets) and Ketuvim (writtings). In addition to scripture there was the Mishnah or law code (bit like sharia) as well as a text book recording traditions and the most authoritative version compiled by Rabbi Juda ha-Nasi about 200 CE. There is also the Talmud which is a commentary and supplement on the Mishnah

In terms of asking how far did it change from Moses time then one can say ALL Jews revere the Torah but like any religion there are different camps. There are some Jews who try to follow very closely all 613 laws found there and there are progressive Jews who would argue that many of those 613 laws are now defunct as the circumstances or institutions they represented no longer exists and of course the Temple no longer exits and has not done so for 2,000 years.

If you want a detailed study the best short book I have seen is "The Jewish People - Their History and their Religion". Penguin, ISBN 9780140 154917