The Pharisees have long functioned as a paradigm case of misguided religion. Their prominence as antagonists in the Gospels has prevented this ancient Jewish school of thought from vanishing as a largely forgotten historical sect, yet at the cost of padding out their skeletal remains as a strawman, with distorted wax features, to serve as a silent foil for the true Christian faith. Even with no contemporary followers of his movement, the figure of the Pharisee remains.

The popular portrayal of Jesus opposing the Pharisees as representatives of the law and religious observance is quite inaccurate.