The Pharisees were the upholders of the written Law and its interpretations. They had an extensive oral tradition. They spent a great deal time considering exactly how individual requirements of the Law should be put into practice. They also upheld the divine authority of the prophetic teachings and other writings of the Old Testament. It was scribes of the Pharisaic tradition who passed on the religious tradition of the Jews to generation after generation of the Jewish youth, through the local synagogues. After the final destruction of the Temple by t Romans in A.D. 70, it was the scribes of the Pharisaic tradition w preserved the Jewish faith and way of life for the future.

They believed in the existence of angels, intermediaries between God and man, holy, spiritual beings created by God to serve him in various ways; but any worship of angels was absolutely forbidden. They also believed in the existence of demons. Jesus was accused by Pharisees being under the influence of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, also identified as Satan. The Pharisees waited for the Messiah of God. They believed that at the end of time there would be a resurrection from death and a great judgment of mankind by God.

Although the writers of the gospels present us with a critical view of the Pharisees, there are also indications in the New Testament that there were some who were ready to follow Jesus and his teaching. Nicodemus may have been such a one. The Pharisees sought the will of God with  great seriousness but were too concerned with external behaviour an avoidance of all that they considered to be 'unclean' to accept the radical approaches of Jesus in his teaching about the Kingdom of God.