[96] Suidas.
The particulars, from which they separated themselves, were these.
First, From commerce with other people, as afterward will appear in their Traditions: whence they called the common people, by reason of their ignorance, עם הארץ populum terræ, the people of the earth. In the Gospel of Saint John 7. 49. they are called ὄχλος. This people who knoweth not the Law are cursed.
Secondly,[97] From the apparel and habit of other men: for they used particular kinds of Habits, whereby they would be distinguished from the vulgar. Hence proceeded that common speech, Vestes populi terræ, conculcatio sunt Pharisæorum.
[97] R. David. Sophon. 1. 8.
Thirdly,[98] From the customs and manners of the world. This heresie of the Pharisees seemeth to have had its first beginning in Antigonus Sochæus. He being a Pharisee, succeeded Simon the Just; who was Coetanean with Alexander the Great: he lived three hundred years before the birth of Christ.
[98] Thisbites.
The Pharisees were[99] not tied to any particular Tribe or Family, but indifferently they might be of any; S. Paul was a Benjaminite; Hyrcanus was a Levite.[100] Each Sect had its Dogmata, his proper Aphorisms, Constitutions, or Canons: so the Pharisees had theirs. My purpose is, both concerning these and the other Sects, to note onely those Canons, or Aphorisms, wherein chiefly they were heretical, and one differing from the other.
[99] Chrys. Mat. 15.
[100] Flavius Jos. lib. 13. c. 18.