It is usually held that the name Pharisee is derived from a root (_p-r-sh_) meaning to “separate,” and that the Pharisees took their name, or received it, in order to emphasize their separation from the common people. This is, on the face of it, difficult to accept when one remembers that the Pharisees were the champions of the oral Law, which was, in the first instance, based upon popular traditional custom. The inappropriateness of this explanation becomes glaring when it is considered that everything we know about the Pharisees shows us that so far from separating themselves from the people this is exactly what they did not do; they arose from the ranks of the people, and unlike the aristocratic Sadducees, were always among the people, as the Gospels show. If it be said that their “separateness” consisted not in keeping apart from the people, but that they were “separate” in the sense of their being so much holier, the reply is that in this case we should not expect their name to be derived from the root _p-r-sh_, but from what would have been the far more appropriate one _q-d-sh_, which means “separate” in the sense in which holiness brings this about.[153] But what is further a strong argument against this theory is the fact that it has absolutely no support from the sources. Josephus says, for example, that “while the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have not the populace as their followers, the Pharisees have the multitude on their side.”[154] That certainly does not look like separation from the ordinary people. Further, Leszynsky has collected some interesting _data_ from the Mishna showing that in Pharisaic literature the term to “separate oneself” is used in a disparaging sense; in Niddah iv. 2, for example, this very term is used in reference to the Sadducees, who are blamed as those who “separate themselves” from the congregation. Again, Hillel gives the command: “Separate not thyself from the congregation” (Aboth ii. 4). So that everything points to the theory which would explain the name Pharisee as “Separatist” as wrong. A more probable explanation is that already hinted at by Josephus, who says in _Bell. Jud._, II, viii. 14 of the Pharisees that “they are those who seem to explain the laws with accuracy.” Here we may recall the passage, Nehemiah viii. 8, referred to in the preceding chapter, where it is said that the teachers of the Law “read in the book, in the Law of God, interpreting [from the root _p-r-sh_] it; and they gave the sense, and caused (the people) to understand the reading.” Further, in Rabbinical literature this root, _p-r-sh_, from which the name Pharisee is derived, is constantly found used in the sense of to “explain,” “expound,” or “interpret,” in reference to Scripture which is explained in the interests of the oral Law. So that, while the root _p-r-sh_ means both to “separate” and to “interpret,” all the evidence goes to show