PHARISEES, a famous sect of the Jews, who distinguished themselves by their zeal for the traditions of the elders, which they derived from the same fountain with the written word itself; pretending that both were delivered to Moses from Mount Sinai, and were therefore both of equal authority. From their rigorous observance of these traditions, they looked upon themselves as more holy than other men; and therefore separated themselves from those whom they thought sinners or profane, so as not to eat or drink with them; and hence, from the Hebrew word pharis, which signifies to separate, they had the name of Pharisees or Separatists.
Their pretences to extraordinary piety drew after them the common people, who held them in the highest esteem and veneration. They held a resurrection from the dead, and the existence of angels and spirits; but, according to Josephus, this was no more than a Pythagorean resurrection, that is, of the soul only, by its transmigration into another body, and being born anew with it. From this resurrection they excluded all who were notoriously wicked, being of opinion that the souls of such persons were transmitted into a state of everlasting punishment; but as to lesser crimes, they imagined that they were punished in the bodies which the souls of those who had committed them were sent into. According to this notion it was, that Christ's disciples asked him concerning the blind man, "Who did sin, the man or his parents, that he was born blind?" With the Essenes, they held absolute predestination; and with the Sadducees, free-will: but how they reconciled these doctrines, we are nowhere informed.