The level of such influence is impossible to gauge accurately, but the fact that some Pharisees at least were clearly respected political figures (Gamaliel, Simon ben Gamaliel, and others during the war) should incline us to think that they were not without a voice in the official councils of state; and, a fortiori, it is highly likely that their influence as de facto teachers of the masses (even though the priests remained the de jure teachers) will have remained considerable.
