Pharisees

The strictest and most influential group of Jews in the time of Jesus. They studied the Old Testament and were determined to keep every rule in it. Many traditions and interpretations of the Old Testament had grown through the centuries, and the Pharisees tried to follow these too. They did not like when Jesus made friends with the people they considered “sinners”—

like tax collectors. They objected when Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. Jesus often criticized their unloving attitudes. Some of the leaders of the New Testament church had once been Pharisees—men such as the apostle Paul, Nicodemus, and probably Joseph of Arimathea.