Jesus himself affirmed that the Pharisees had a legitimate, God-given authority to teach God’s people. Since they sit on the seat of Moses, Jesus commanded, “Do and observe whatever they tell you” (Matt. 23:3). The Pharisees themselves most emphatically did not regard their traditions as merely human! On the contrary, they affirmed an oral law from Moses handed down through successive lineage, and they claimed it was comparable in authority to the written law.
