Let's look at some of the vocabulary used in the English Standard Version of the Bible.

To persuade or beg someone.

A short story that teaches a moral lesson.

To be destroyed; to pass away; to become nothing; to be lost; to die; hence, to wither; to waste away. - Webster 1913

An ancient sect of Judaism.  Not all Jews would have been pharisees, and there would have been several different sects of Judaism at that time.  Pharisees may have seen themselves as a revival movement trying to reignite a more true and pure Judaism. They were known for their strict conservative views, which Jesus often criticized publicly.