Page "Pharisees" Paragraph 80

Although the New Testament presents the Pharisees as obsessed with avoiding impurity, Rabbinic texts argue that the Pharisees were concerned merely with offering means for removing impurities, so that a person could again participate in the community.

According to the New Testament, many Pharisees objected to Jesus's mission to outcast groups such as beggars and tax-collectors, but Rabbinic texts actually emphasize the availability of forgiveness to all.

Indeed, much of Jesus ' teaching, for example the Sermon on the Mount, is consistent with that of the Pharisees and later Rabbinic thought.