Dr. Helen Bond

But the rest of his writings don't support that because he's actually he hardly says anything about them and he's really not particularly positive about them.

So maybe he changed his mind at the end or maybe we're just reading that passage wrong.

He does.

He does.

And he says it in his own letter.

So in theory, Paul is a great source because he is our only example of a Pharisee who writes anything, or at least whose work has come down to us.

He says in his letter to the Philippians that he's, as to the law, he says, a Pharisee.

So again, it sort of suggests that Pharisees are...

particularly interested in the law, particularly interested in interpretation of the biblical material.

The trouble is, we know nothing else from his letters about what did it mean to him to be a Pharisee?

Is he still a Pharisee, even if he's a follower of Christ?

I mean, can you only be one or the other?

Maybe not.

Maybe he still considered himself a Pharisee, but it's not clear from his letters what

the Pharisees seemed to have been interested in, or they believed in resurrection, and they were looking for a Messiah of Israel.

And both of those aspects, I suppose, you find in Paul's letters.

No, not really.

There's a little bit of that.

There's a little bit of discussion about, you know, Jesus's background, is he Davidic, that kind of thing.

But mainly they are portrayed as Jesus's opponents, but mainly it's on issues to do with interpretation of the law, particularly to do with purity issues.