WHY did many first-century Jews fail to accept Jesus as the Messiah? One eyewitness reports: “After [Jesus] went into the temple, the chief priests and the older men of the people came up to him while he was teaching and said: ‘By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?’” (Matthew 21:23) In their eyes, the Almighty had given the Jewish nation the Torah (Law), and it gave certain men God-given authority. Did Jesus have such authority?

Jesus showed the utmost respect for the Torah and for those to whom it granted genuine authority. (Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 5:14; 17:14) But he frequently denounced those who overstepped the commandments of God. (Matthew 15:3-9; 23:2-28) Such men followed traditions that came to be known as the oral law. Jesus rejected its authority. In turn, many rejected him as the Messiah. They believed that only someone supporting the traditions of those in authority among them could have God’s backing.

“Who Gave You This Authority?”

The Mosaic Law clearly left primary religious authority and instruction in the hands of the priests, the descendants of Aaron. (Leviticus 10:8-11; Deuteronomy 24:8; 2 Chronicles 26:16-20; Malachi 2:7) Through the centuries, however, some priests became unfaithful and corrupt. (1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-29; Jeremiah 5:31; Malachi 2:8, 9) During the era of Greek domination, many priests compromised on religious issues. In the second century B.C.E., the Pharisees​—a new group within Judaism that distrusted the priesthood—​began instituting traditions by which the common man could consider himself as holy as the priest. These traditions appealed to many, but they were an unacceptable addition to the Law.​—Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32 (13:1 in Jewish editions).

The Pharisees became the new scholars of the Law, doing the job that they felt the priests were not doing. Since the Mosaic Law did not allow for their authority, they developed new methods of interpreting Scripture through cryptic allusions and by other methods seemingly supporting their views.a As the chief caretakers and promoters of these traditions, they created a new base of authority in Israel. By the first century C.E., the Pharisees had become a dominant force in Judaism.

As they collected existing oral traditions and searched for Scriptural implication to establish more of their own, the Pharisees saw the need to give added authority to their activity. A new concept regarding the origin of these traditions was born. The rabbis began to teach: “Moses received Torah at Sinai and handed it on to Joshua, Joshua to elders, and elders to prophets. And prophets handed it on to the men of the great assembly.”​—Avot 1:1, the Mishnah.

In saying, “Moses received Torah,” the rabbis were referring not only to the written laws but to all their oral traditions. They claimed that these traditions​—invented and developed by men—​were given to Moses by God at Sinai. And they taught that God had not left it up to men to fill in the gaps but had orally defined what the written Law had left unsaid. According to them, Moses passed this oral law down through the generations, not to the priests, but to other leaders. The Pharisees themselves claimed to be the natural inheritors of this “unbroken” chain of authority.