The Pharisees were a sect of the Jewish church at the time of the New Testament. The name comes from a root that means "separate", and apparently this was self-chosen to indicate that they believed in a strict following of the Jewish law as expressed in the books of Moses, which separated them from most other contemporary Jews. From Jesus' words, this separation had degraded into a self-righteous conviction that they were better than others, and that a strict adherence to the letter of the law was more important than any thought of the law's spirit or of love toward the neighbor.

(References: Divine Providence 231 [4]; The Apocalypse Explained 746 [17], 939 [2])