As we have already seen in the previous posts on the “Door of the Sheep”, Jesus equated the religious leaders of Israel as bad shepherds, who did not truly care for the sheep. He equates them, in fact, with robbers and thieves. “All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.” (John 10:8, ESV).

So who were these religious leaders? We have three groups that were prominently discussed in the New Testament – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. The Pharisees were the Jewish rabbinical sect viewed as the ruling religious party of Palestine in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees came onto the scene after the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid and Greek rule in 167 BC. The Zealots continued the battle against the Greek influences, oftentimes using violence. The Pharisees appear to have formed as an alternative to the Zealots around 100 BC, recognizing that the opposition of the Greeks (and the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persian before them) as God’s punishment for failing to keep the Law. The name Pharisee means ‘separated’ and they were determined to live separated from the pagans by pursuing strict devotion and adherence to the Mosaic law found in the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament). This explains their opposition to Jesus. How could he be the Messiah when he failed to keep the Law as they did. Jesus pushed back against their legalism and their failure to truly understand the heart and purpose of the Father.

The Sadduccees more or less embraced the Hellenistic culture and Greek rule. The Sadducees were direct descendants of Zadok, the high priest of Solomon’s day. Like Zadok, they were of the tribe of Levi. The Sadducees controlled the temple, and it was from their lineage that the high priest belonged. They were steeped in tradition and ritual, and like the Pharisees were concerned with keeping the law. Caiaphas, the high priest, was a Sadducee. The Pharisees, focused on interpreting the Old Testament and teaching exegetically, saw the synagogues as their domain.

The scribes, traditionally charged with copying the Scriptures, in Jesus’ day were the legal experts on the issues of the Law. The scribes, many of whom were Pharisees, were the authoritative teachers (rabbis) in the temple. As “lawyers” they confronted those who broke the Law. It is with these convictions that the scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus.

Jesus didn’t have issues with the Pharisees because they were Pharisees. Nicodemus was a Pharisee who viewed Jesus as being from God in light of his miracles and teaching authority, met secretly with Him (John 3:15), defended him before the Sanhedrin (John 7:50-52) and aided Joseph of Arimathea (another member of the Sanhedrin council) with the burial of Jesus. Rather, Jesus confronted the Pharisees as a collective group with their hypocrisy and legalistic religiosity (Matthew 23:2-4; Luke 11:46). They clamored for the limelight of honor and the approval of others (Matthew 23:5-7; Mark 12:38; Luke 11:43). Most condemningly, the scribes and Pharisees were more concerned with appearances than reality, more concerned with law than caring for people. They were more concerned with sentencing the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11) than restoring her to God. It wasn’t that they weren’t passionate about the things of God, but they’re passion was misplaced – it was about them and man’s ability to please God.

Jesus stated that these bad shepherds came “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). How were the stealing, killing, and destroying? The answer lies in the contrast that Jesus provides in the second part of that verse. We’ll look at that in the next post.