Why were the teaching of the Pharisees popular among the common people?

Answer 1

Answer 1

The word "pharisees" is a mispronunciation of the Hebrew "perushim" and actually refers to the Torah-sages.

A quote from the non-religious Josephus can answer your question: "The body of the people, whatsoever they do about Divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform according to their (the Sages') direction; insomuch that the cities give great attestations to them on account of their entirely virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives and their discourses." (Antiquities, book 8)

In plain English, the quote means that the Jewish people followed the instructions of the Torah-sages and praised them greatly because of their virtuous conduct.

Answer 2

The Pharisees were also a Populist Movement, in contrast to the Sadducees who were composed of the Temple elites. The Pharisees stressed the law common to all Jews instead of focusing on the Temple rituals that most Jews could not participate in. This class distinction also helped endear the Pharisees to the lower class. Additionally, the Pharisees were generally seen as honest and trustworthy in an era when the established Priesthood (all Sadducees) were corrupt (Talmud, Yoma 18a).

Answer 2

Pharisees taught the Torah. The class room was synagogue. They taught how to apply the laws of the Torah to daily life. This helped make Judaism a religion of the home and family. It also made the Pharisees popular among the common people.

Answer 3

Because the Jewish people loved their Torah, and it was the Sages ("Pharisees") who taught the Torah.

The Jewish group that concentrated on the study, teaching and application of the Torah in every century was and is the Torah-sages and their many disciples, from Abraham down to today.
The word "Pharisees," which is based on a Greek misspelling used by Josephus, actually refers to the Sages of the Talmud. (The Hebrew word "p'rushim," to which he referred, means people of temperance; the opposite of epicurean.)The Torah-sages such as Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others, were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism.

Josephus talks of three groups among the Jews in late Second-Temple times: Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. This may convey the mistaken impression that the Pharisees were just one "sect" among others, when in fact Josephus himself admits that the Pharisees (Torah-sages) with their disciples and followers constituted the large majority of the Jewish people. As he himself writes (Antiquities book 18), "the cities give great attestations to them."
Although the Christian Testament portrays them poorly, in fact the Pharisees were very egalitarian. They taught that all men were created in God's image and that all had the same rights, and the same right to an education, etc. They were devoted to the practicing of kindness, charity, the fulfillment of mitzvot, the study and teaching of Torah and the education of all people, regardless of status in society. They detested hypocrisy and actively sought it out and criticized it whenever they encountered it.

The Pharisees were the only movement to survive the destruction of the Second Temple and were the ancestors of modern Judaism.
Our traditional Jewish beliefs today, including the afterlife and the resurrection, are traditions continuing from the Prophets and the Sages of the Talmud ("Pharisees").

See also:

Ancient groups among the Jews