You Tube Theology

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Following select NT passages, Christians have depicted Pharisees as xenophobic, self-righteous, elitist, legalistic, miserly hypocrites and Jesus as the egalitarian reformer. Yet the primary sources (Paul, Josephus, Qumran Scrolls, rabbinic literature, even the Gospels) reveal Pharisees to popular, egalitarian, pragmatic liberalizers helping fellow Jews both to unite in following Torah and to resist Roman colonial assimilation. In turn, Jesus emerges as more conservative, divisive and eschatological. We can stop maligning the Pharisees, and we can stop attempting to make Jesus look good by making other Jews look bad.