The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

172 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
calendar in a proper manner could live in the knowledge of universal
cosmic harmony. In my opinion there is a superior mind and personality
behind this universal concept, namely the teacher of righteousness,
who has developed his view of creation and salvation history in
the spiritual-intellectual contestation with the destructive ideas of the
Hellenistic world.
7. The Pharisees
The tension between Essenes and Pharisees was thus so strong because
both came from the same Chasidic 'family', and family conflicts are
the most painful ones. Of course, they developed in opposite directions.
The Zadoqite-aristocratic Essenes consciously formed the esoteric
elite of the true Israel with strict rules of secrecy. They were
separated by a ditch from the massa perditionis of the people. The
leading Pharisees were indeed also scribes and formed an elitist
movement, but similar to the maskilim in the book of Daniel, they
turned to the people to educate them in the observance of the law.
They tried therefore to extend by gradation the holiness proper to
the Temple to the whole 'Eretz Israel'. Furthermore they gradually
tried to impose their understanding of the laws on the people. In order
to do so it was necessary to interpret the laws in such a manner that
they could be practiced in every-day life. Josephus as well as the New
Testament emphasize therefore the influence and the high esteem the
Pharisees enjoyed among the people. And they both also refer to their
ccKpipeioc, that is, thoroughness in exegesis and observance of the
laws as being a typical characteristic of them. 26
Here a question arises about the special features of this 'accurate'
study of the law. The problem is, to what extent can we extrapolate
from the later rabbinic texts to Pharisaic exegesis before the destruction
of the Temple? Connected with this is the question about the role
of the scribes during that epoch. D.I. Brewer has tried in his recent
dissertation 27 to describe the exegetical methods of the Pharisees on
the basis of about 100 tannaitic texts, which are ascribed to experts
before 70 or stem from discussions of Pharisees, Sadducees and the
26. Cf. A.I. Baumgarten, The Name of the Pharisees', JBL 102 (1983),
pp. 411-28 (413).
27. Techniques and Assumptions in Jewish Exegesis before 70 CE (Texte und
Studien zum Antike Judentum 30; Tubingen: Mohr, 1992).