Have you ever heard of the word Pharisee? I hadn’t until a coworker of mine used it as an analogy to describe someone they knew. My coworker explained the Pharisees were similar to people who know it all and make you feel guilty for not following their lead.

Next came Google.

Nine articles, a few passages, and one rabbit hole later, I came to this conclusion of who the Pharisees were in a nutshell. They were the strictest and most righteous group of people who couldn’t stop condemning others for not following law or tradition over God’s will. This made the bar so high to get into Heaven that no common man could ever achieve it. And if I’m being frank (which is my favorite) they sound like arrogant know-it-all-assholes.

For those who have a hefty religious background, this next part might be redundant to you but those who are in the same boat as me, here are a few definitions I gathered online.

So, who would be considered a modern-day Pharisee these days? Back to Google to see what the masses had to say.

Some of the answers were interesting. One mentioned if the person spends more time talking about what they’re against than for, they might be a modern day Pharisee. Or, if they get angry and offended when rebuked against, and my personal favorite, showing up every Sunday makes you right with the big man upstairs regardless of what you did that week.

One man wrote about the 12 signs of being a modern-day Pharisee and at the end expressed the reason he could write the post was because he had experienced all twelve in his own life. If you’re curious, click here.

But how do you deal with modern day Pharisees? Ignore? My Google results were inconclusive but I found this Bob Marley lyric that felt fitting instead.

“Who are you to judge the life I live?
I know I’m not perfect
-and I don’t live to be-
but before you start pointing fingers…
make sure you hands are clean!”- Bob Marley