Endnote 3 – Biblical Views: The Pharisees—Good Guys with Bad Press

It is noteworthy that a similar scenario can also be seen in the Nahum pesher from Qumran. Here two Jewish groups that are antagonist to each other but both—seen from the perspective of the scroll author—wrong with regard to their teaching are described as fighting over the “simple ones of Ephraim” (4Q Pesher Nahum III, 5, see also II, 8–9), which is obviously the same group as the Matthean “crowd.” The rival factions are addressed using only the ciphered names “Ephraim” and “Manasse,” and there are good reasons to assume that the names stand for the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who lead the crowds—from the perspective of the Qumranites—astray. If we take this text at face value for a moment, then the Pharisees are more successful in their hold over the people than the Sadducees, and the Qumranites can only wait and hope that their deception will become obvious at the end of time (which the Qumranites thought as being near).