When Jesus talks about the Pharisees in today’s reading, he’s pretty brutal. He tells the crowds and the disciples that the Pharisees are bad examples: they’re insincere and full of themselves. Most Christians today grow up hearing that the Pharisees are the bad guys, and the Gospel of Matthew has a lot to do with this. In this Gospel, the Pharisees are one-dimensional villains. Matthew never misses a chance to throw in a dig at these guys. At several points, like Matthew 23:13, we’re even told that the Pharisees will “have no place in the Kingdom.” 

Over the millennia, Christians have translated Matthew’s condemnation of the Pharisees into anti-Jewish theology, rhetoric, and oppression. Christian tradition has taken tension in the Gospels out of context and weaponized it for its own agenda. The term “supersessionism” refers to the belief that Christ came to supersede, or replace, the Law or Torah. This passage can easily be read through a supersessionist lens: Jesus tells the crowds not to emulate the Jewish religious leaders. As an example of bad behavior, he talks about how the Pharisees lengthen their tassels – emphasizing their commitment to the Law. Matthew 23:23 seems to repeat a common anti-Jewish sentiment: Jesus urges the Pharisees to stop focusing on the minutiae of observance. Instead, he exhorts them to prioritize justice, faith, and mercy – which today’s Christian’s are tempted to read as confirmation of their own, distinctly Christian priorities. 

Supersessionist readings of Matthew are inconsistent with the actual content of this passage, though: Jesus repeatedly argues that the Pharisees aren’t strict enough in their observance of the Law. This Gospel never sets the Law aside or dismisses its relevance. In fact, the whole force of Matthew’s argument depends upon it. In today’s reading, Jesus also tells the crowds to “do and observe all things whatsoever [the Pharisees] tell you” (Matthew 23:3). Jesus says that people should do what the Pharisees say. The Pharisees were teachers of the Law, and Jesus recognizes their authority. The problem is that they don’t follow the Law they teach. Jesus’s point is that justice, faith, and mercy are essential to the Law.  

So who was the community that put together the Gospel of Matthew as we know it today? Who were these people who had such serious beef with the Pharisees – and yet share their allegiance to the Law?

Scholar Anders Runesson argues in his article “Behind the Gospel of Matthew: Radical Pharisees in Post-War Galilee?” that the Gospel of Matthew was actually written…by a group of Pharisees (468). Specifically, he proposes that it was written by a subgroup that had been a minority in a Pharisean association before breaking off from the Pharisees to form their own group. Who else but a former insider could be so petty, so aggrieved, so single-minded in their attacks on the Pharisees? According to Runesson, the Gospel of Matthew reads like the legitimization of a new community rule (470). The “Matthean community” would have told and retold these stories to create their new identity and assure themselves that they were on the right path. 

Noting textual similarities with Matthew, Runesson even argues that these breakaway Phariseans created a community rule that survives in the Didache, an early Christian document. He points out that Pharisees were involved in the Christian movement, most notably Paul, who never renounced his Pharisean identity (Acts 23:6). Acts and Luke give examples of Pharisees being “good guys” by demonstrating sympathy with Christian leaders or becoming Christian themselves (Runesson 468). 

Decontextualized, Matthew leaves us to come to our own conclusions about why Jesus was so disappointed in the Pharisees. When we take a step back, then, we realize that Matthew has a specific agenda and that maybe we shouldn’t accept all that criticism at face value. And we certainly shouldn’t read Jesus’s condemnation of the Pharisees as a condemnation of the Law or religious authority, much less as a condemnation of Judaism. Rather, the authors of this Gospel were wrestling with members of their own, diverse community. 

Anders Runesson is a scholar specializing in New Testament studies, early Judaism, and Christian Origins.

Contemplative Christian practices often ask us to imagine ourselves as a witness to the events of scripture. We imagine what it would be like to be part of a crowd listening to Jesus or walking along a road with the disciples. What would we have heard, smelled, and felt? But it can be hard to enter into the text when we’re missing so many dimensions about what its authors were thinking and feeling. 

Reflect on how you read today’s Gospel. How do you feel about the Pharisees when you read Jesus’s words? What kind of characters are they? Who do they remind you of? 

Leaving Jesus’s time, allow yourself to reflect on what you learned about Jewish groups like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and High Priests – from the pulpit, in Sunday School, or on TV. How might anti-Jewish theology inform your understanding of scripture? How does the story change when you reframe familiar scripture as a Jewish text written for a Jewish audience? 

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was a poet, essayist, and feminist. Born to a Jewish father and a Christian mother, Rich wrestled with her religious identity throughout her life. Though her family raised her as a Christian, she came to consciously embrace her Jewish identity. As a lesbian, Rich also navigated the intersection of her heritage, gender, and sexuality. Her work witnesses to anti-Semitism in the U.S. and contributes to the vibrancy of liberative Jewish thought in the 20th century. Learn more about Rich and her work from the Academy of American Poets.

In this painting, Chagall depicts Jesus as a Jewish martyr, invoking the persecution of European Jews in the 1930s. Jesus wears a prayer shawl instead of a loincloth and a headcloth instead of a crown of thorns. Three biblical patriarchs and a matriarch surround his head. Around the cross are images of the pogroms and persecution. Pope Francis has called “White Crucifixion” his favorite painting. Learn more.