Dr. Helen Bond

Not really.

I mean, we do have a few references to them in the New Testament and Josephus.

A few also in rabbinic literature.

Some of the pre-70 rabbis might be Pharisees.

We don't know for sure.

But most people think that they're not priests.

The priests are doing their own thing in the temple, and these are probably lay people, so not priests, but they're wanting to extend that temple purity into everyday life.

They're probably more common in urban situations.

Although we do find elements to do with purity in rural places, probably Jerusalem was their main base.

Even in the Gospels, when Pharisees come, quite often they come from Jerusalem.

They may well have been all sorts of different social orders.

I imagine that they're not from the very lowest.

You have people like Paul.

We hear of people like Gamaliel, maybe Nicodemus in John's Gospel.

And both of those have they've left sort of remains in the historical record, too.

So they're probably more likely to be people with a bit of education.

But, you know, I'm kind of making it up here.

Not entirely, but, you know, that we don't have anything really solid to go on.

Well, sometimes it's good to know, you know, that we don't know.

And a lot of what you might read in, you know, if you go to an encyclopedia, there'll be a little authoritative entry on what the Pharisees were like, what they thought, who they were.