As Jacob Neusner says: From the rabbinic traditions about the Pharisees we could not have reconstructed a single significant, public event of the period before 70—not the rise, success, and fall of the Hasmoneans, nor the Roman conquest of Palestine, nor the rule of Herod, nor the reign of the procurators, nor the growth of opposition to Rome, nor the proliferation of social violence and unrest in the last decades before 66 AD, nor the outbreak of the war with Rome … 9 It is wise, therefore, to treat the rabbinic tradition with great caution in reconstructing pre-70 history, and indeed this is
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