The Pharisees and the Reform Movement

The Pharisees were a reform movement, reacting to encroaching Hellenism and diminishment of the significance of the law for determining who is supposed to run the priesthood. They wanted to get back to the Bible, but they wanted to clarify it and they expected you to follow their clarifications. In other words, what's Sabbath? We're going to tell you what 40 things are that constitute what work is. That's a first century Pharisee. And I just don't see in them anything like a bunch of petty fogging, miserable downer.