Written by From the Series: “The Lie of the Chosen: Pharisees, Talmud, and the Antichrist Spirit”
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The Temple Fell, but the Lie Survived
In 70 CE, the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. The priesthood collapsed. The sacrifices ended. For many, it was the end of ancient Judaism.
But the Pharisees survived.
They rebranded.
They became the rabbis — and the system they created would not be based on the Torah alone, but on something entirely different:
The Oral Law. The Talmud. Rabbinic Judaism.
And what they preserved was not just tradition, but the very spirit Jesus had denounced — a spirit of control, deception, legalism, and spiritual inversion.
The spirit of Antichrist did not vanish — it evolved.
1. From Pharisee to Rabbi: The Transformation of Power
After the Temple was destroyed, the Sadducees (the priestly elite) disappeared. The Essenes and Zealots were wiped out. Only one group remained organized and literate enough to rebuild:
The Pharisees.
They relocated to Yavneh, and there began to systematize their oral teachings, debates, and rulings. This formed the Mishnah, completed around 200 CE, and later the Talmud, around 500 CE (Neusner, 2003).
What was once a sect became a religion.
What was once oral tradition became binding law.
2. Rabbinic Judaism: Built on Rejection of Christ
Unlike Christianity, which saw Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy, Rabbinic Judaism was built in response to Him (Schäfer, 2007).
- It denied His divinity
- It justified His execution
- It mocked His teachings
- It codified rulings to isolate His followers
“If anyone acknowledges Jesus, they are cut off from the community.” (Sanhedrin 107b)
Modern Judaism is not biblical Judaism.
It is not the faith of Abraham or Moses.
It is the legal and political system of the Pharisees, preserved and glorified.
3. Rabbinic Authority: Man Over God
The rabbis claim divine authority — even over God Himself.
In Baba Metzia 59b, a famous story tells of a debate where God’s voice is overruled by the rabbis. When a heavenly voice disagrees with their ruling, one rabbi declares:
“It is not in Heaven!” (Lo baShamayim hi), and God supposedly replies:
“My children have defeated Me.” (Sefaria.org)
This is not reverence. This is blasphemy dressed as piety.
The same mindset Jesus condemned — “You make void the word of God by your tradition” — now rules entire communities.
4. The Rise of Zionism: A Political Phariseeism
In the late 19th century, a new movement rose: Zionism — the effort to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
Many early Zionists, including Theodor Herzl, were secular and anti-religious, but their ideology still borrowed from Pharisaic chosenness, Talmudic supremacy, and the belief that Israel had a divine right to rule.
Herzl wrote in The Jewish State (1896):
“We shall not dwell on piety. The state must be secular.”
Modern Zionist politicians often quote the Talmud, not the Torah.
They use legal frameworks, victimhood narratives, and “God’s promise” to justify apartheid, occupation, and genocide.
Even in recent decades, rabbinic texts have been used to justify extreme violence:
In The King’s Torah, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira wrote:
“It is permissible to kill non-Jewish children if they pose a future threat.”
(Haaretz, 2009)
This book was distributed to IDF soldiers by military rabbis during operations in Gaza.
5. Who Are the Pharisees Today?
- The Orthodox rabbis who place the Talmud above the Bible
- The Zionist leaders who bomb civilians in the name of divine right
- The religious gatekeepers who call Christ “a sorcerer” and His followers “idolaters”
- The legal minds who twist morality into contracts, exemptions, and double standards
They are not extinct.
They are in government, in banking, in law, in media, in religious institutions — and still hostile to the truth of Christ.
The Lie Did Not Die — It Was Crowned
The Pharisees lost the Temple, but won the world.
And the spirit Jesus exposed — the spirit of the Lie — was never repented of. It was enshrined, institutionalized, and globalized.
The question is no longer: “Where did the Pharisees go?”
It is: “How do we recognize them now?”
“You will know them by their fruits.”
— Jesus, Matthew 7:16
And the fruit of rabbinic power — like its root — is rotten.
References:
- Neusner, Jacob. From Politics to Piety: The Emergence of Pharisaic Judaism. Wipf and Stock, 2003.
- Schäfer, Peter. Jesus in the Talmud. Princeton University Press, 2007.
- Talmud Bavli, Baba Metzia 59b. Translation available via Sefaria.org
- Herzl, Theodor. The Jewish State. 1896.
- Haaretz. “Rabbis: It’s OK to kill Gentile babies during war.” Published Nov 2009.
- The Babylonian Talmud (Tractates Sanhedrin, Shabbat, Gittin), various editions.