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Do the Pharisees deserve the sweeping condemnation heaped upon them by Christ and his followers?
In marked contrast to the diatribes of Jesus is the testimony of Josephus: “Now, for the Pharisees, they live meanly [plainly], and despise delicacies in diet, and they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason’s dictates for practice.... The cities give great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives, and their discourses also” (Antiquities, Book xviii, chap. i, sec. 3).
Paul, the Christian, when arraigned before Agrippa, believed that no loftier testimonial to his character could be adduced than the fact that he had been a Pharisee ([Acts xxvi, 4, 5]).