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[–] 16938568? ago 

What we know of today as the Jews are the direct philsophical descendants on the Pharisees. Judaism the religion is actually younger than Christianity. Judaism IS Pharisaism.

When the Bible says 'Jew' it means 'Judean', a person belonging either to the tribe of Judah or the more general region of Judea. The 'Jewish' religion did not exist, not as we understand it today. The closest thing were the Pharisees who uniquely followed the Oral Torah, whereas all the other sects did not.

The Oral Torah is what would later be codified as the Talmud. Whilst there are a few verses that might rankle with you from the Old Testament, the driving force behind Judaism and their usury, deceit and manipulation comes from the Talmud. Again, only the Pharisees followed the Talmud (which back then was the Oral Torah).

Hebrew religion required the Temple to be practiced. Jesus prophesied that the Temple would be destroyed, and in 70AD it was destroyed by the Romans. It is symbolically destroyed with the tearing of the veil upon Jesus' death.

With the Temple destroyed the Hebrews could no longer practice their faith. They were left with three options; they could become Romanised, they could become Christians (who has Jesus as their Temple), or they could become a Pharisee (whose Oral Torah said that they do not need a Temple; this is why the Jews and Pharisees had Rabbis as their most important figures in contrast to Priests. The Priests were Levites, they were supposed to have a relationship with God. The Rabbis just studied the Scriptures and came up with their own theories, which they believed to be as important if not more so than the Scriptures themselves).

So after a few years pretty much every Hebrew had become one of these three things. 'Judaism' was born. It was Pharisaism.

Thus everything Jesus criticised the Pharisees for, He is criticising the Jews for.

… And yes, everything would be much simpler if the Bible had called them Judeans or Judahites instead of Jews; but then if it had, the Pharisees would just have named themselves after that instead to confuse us.