(printed p. 39 — Book II)
Four derivations of this name are handed down. The first is from parasch, which means to explain and to spread out, as though the Pharisees were illustrious, exposed to human eyes, and conspicuous, because they broadened their phylacteries, of which more later, as in Matthew 23:5; because they loved greetings in the marketplace, Luke 20:46; and because the trumpet blast that preceded certain almsgivings in Matthew 6:2 might also belong here, if, as some say in Euthymius and Strabus, that had been a custom of the Pharisees. Others, however, do not admit it, because it is not proved.
The second derivation is also from the same verb, but insofar as it has the force of expounding, that is, declaring and interpreting.
(printed p. 40)
This etymology seems to please Gorionides especially, since in the chapter mentioned above - that is, book 4, chapter 6 in the Basel edition, or book 1, chapter 29 in the Cracow edition - they are called “the wise men of Israel” and “explainers of the law,” and King Hyrcanus is called their disciple. “The king,” he says, “sat at table with the wise men of Israel. These are the Pharisees, who explain the law.” By alliteration, this etymology is plainly shown: Hemmah peruschim hammeporeschim eth thorah, “These are the Pharisees, the explainers of the law.”
The passages read in Scripture can also serve as a support for this matter: Leviticus 24:12, literally, “to declare to them by the mouth of the Lord,” or, as our translator expresses the sense, “until they knew what the Lord commanded”; and Nehemiah 8:8, “They read in the book of the law of the Lord explained,” as Elias signifies, or rather, as our interpreter has it, “distinctly”; or, as the translator of Elias gives it, “with the discourse explained”; or, as Buxtorf has it, “clearly, fully, and explicitly.” There are also the expressions very commonly used among the rabbis, as when some interpretation is called perousch, and when they say, caduecad parasch peloni, that is, “So and so this man explains,” and caescher pa reschou rabbothenu, “as our masters explained.”
But some object: they ought to be called Poreschim, not Perouschim. The former is the active participle, Benoni; the latter is the passive, Paul. First, it may be answered that this pertained to their greater excellence and glory. Since no one can teach unless he has been taught, they are called perouschim as men filled and excellently instructed with expositions and interpretations received by tradition both from God and from their ancestors.
[margin: Four etymologies of the Pharisees.]
(printed p. 41)
Secondly, in certain verbs there are sometimes usages outside the ordinary and common rule. So it is also with this verb: in the active conjugation, especially in Piel, the rabbis use it absolutely and almost passively, as Elias explains in the Tishbi, where he says he marvels at the fact.
And indeed, although Beza, on Matthew chapter 3, praised that objection as if it were excellent and ascribed it with commendation to Johannes Mercerus, nevertheless Junius and Tremellius - either Mercerus’s own pupils or his associates in the same sacred work - disregarded it on Mark chapter 7 and said that the Pharisees were named from explaining the law. Melanchthon, in book 2 of his Chronicles, approves this more strongly.
Third, according to Saint Jerome in the book Traditions on Genesis, the name comes from parats, that is, “to divide”; but then in Hebrew they would be called Perutsim, and in Greek and Latin more often Pharitsaei or Pharizaei, although, according to the same Saint Jerome in the preface to Amos, also Pharisei.
The fourth derivation, then, is more probable and more accepted among the Hebrews themselves: it comes from that same first verb parasch, but insofar as it means to divide and separate, as in Ezekiel 34:12, “in the midst of his sheep, scattered and dispersed.” Hence among the rabbis, in Piel, as I touched on above, it also means “to be separated.” Hence too each of the sections which they made in the books of Moses - fifty-three in all - is called a paraschah, and every mark by which things are separated from other things,
[margin: Second, third, and fourth derivations.]
(printed p. 42)
which among philosophers is called a difference, is called peresch. Hence finally come the Pharisees, as if they were separated and set apart from others.
But from what thing, or for what reason, were they separated? Because, as Baal Aruch says, and Elias in the place already cited, hem happerouschim middarche haholam, that is, “because they were separated from the ways of this world,” just as the Nazareans were. So too in the Book of Roots Radak interprets the Pharisees as Hannicbadim, that is, honored, excellent, and eminent. Likewise in the book Iuchasin, virgins dedicated to God are called peruschoth; and perischouth is holiness of life itself. Thus Rabbi Akiba says in chapter 3 of Pirke Avoth, Nedarim seiag liphrischouth, that is, “Vows are a hedge of holiness of life”; not, as Drusius badly cites it, “Tradition is the hedge of holiness of life,” since the preceding expression is Masoreth seiag lethorah, that is, “Tradition is the hedge of the law.”
As far as the meaning of division is concerned, the Saint Jerome cited above supports this derivation when he says, “The Pharisees, who separated themselves as if they were just, are called divided.” And Saint Augustine, sermon 30 On the Words of the Lord, says: “The Pharisees were Jews, as it were the eminent Jews. For the nobler and more learned men were then called Pharisees.” And more clearly in sermon 15 On the Words of the Apostle: “Some were leading men, and, as it were, set apart for Jewish nobility, not mixed with the contemptible common people; these were called Pharisees. For this word is said to be interpreted ‘separation,’ just as in Latin egregius means, as it were, separated from the flock.”
(printed p. 43)
Saint Epiphanius, in heresy 16, says in Greek that they were called Pharisees because they separated themselves from others by the excess of religious observance which they thought they possessed; the Hebrew term, he says, is interpreted as “separation.”