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(
, 3061), “a pestilence, any deadly infectious malady,” is used in the
plural in Luke 21:11 (in some mss., Matt. 24:7); in Acts 24:5, metaphorically, “a pestilent
fellow.” See
FELLOW
.¶
PETITION
(
5
, 155), from
, “to ask” is rendered “petitions” in 1 John 5:15: see
ASK
, B, and cf. the distinction between A, Nos. 1 and 2.¶ Cf.
(see
PRAYER
).
PHARISEES
(
G $
, 5330), from an Aramaic word
(found in Dan. 5:28),
signifying “to separate,” owing to a different manner of life from that of the general
public. The “Pharisees” and Sadducees appear as distinct parties in the latter half of the
2nd cent. B.C., though they represent tendencies traceable much earlier in Jewish history,
tendencies which became pronounced after the return from Babylon (537), B.C.). The
immediate progenitors of the two parties were, respectively, the Hasidaeans and the
Hellenizers; the latter, the antecedents of the Sadducees, aimed at removing Judaism from
its narrowness and sharing in the advantages of Greek life and culture. The Hasidaeans, a
transcription of the Hebrew
, i.e., “pious ones,” were a society of men zealous
for religion, who acted under the guidance of the scribes, in opposition to the godless
Hellenizing party; they scrupled to oppose the legitimate high priest even when he was on
the Greek side. Thus the Hellenizers were a political sect, while the Hasidaeans, whose
fundamental principle was complete separation from non-Jewish elements, were the
strictly legal party among the Jews, and were ultimately the more popular and influential
party. In their zeal for the Law they almost deified it and their attitude became merely
external, formal, and mechanical. They laid stress, not upon the righteousness of an
action, but upon its formal correctness. Consequently their opposition to Christ was
inevitable; His manner of life and teaching was essentially a condemnation of theirs;
hence His denunciation of them, e.g., Matt. 6:2, 5, 16; 15:7 and chapter 23.
While the Jews continued to be divided into these two parties, the spread of the
testimony of the gospel must have produced what in the public eye seemed to be a new
sect, and in the extensive development which took place at Antioch, Acts 11:19-26, the
name “Christians” seems to have become a popular term applied to the disciples as a sect,
the primary cause, however, being their witness to Christ (see
CALL
, A, No. 11). The
opposition of both “Pharisees” and Sadducees (still mutually antagonistic, Acts 23:6-10)
against the new “sect” continued unabated during apostolic times.
PHILOSOPHER
(
, 5386), lit., “loving wisdom” (
, “loving,”
,
“wisdom”), occurs in Acts 17:18.¶
PHILOSOPHY
(
&
, 5385) denotes “the love and pursuit of wisdom,” hence,
“philosophy,” the investigation of truth and nature; in Col. 2:8, the so-called
“philosophy” of false teachers. “Though essentially Greek as a name and as an idea, it
had found its way into Jewish circles … Josephus speaks of the three Jewish sects as
three ‘philosophies’ … It is worth observing that this word, which to the Greeks denoted
the highest effort of the intellect, occurs here alone in Paul’s writings … the Gospel had