Why did the Pharisees come?
The wording indicates that, unlike the crowds of Mark 10:1, they have not come because they have a real interest in Jesus but because they are critical of these educational get-togethers. They want to end the people’s interest in Jesus’ teaching by unmasking him.1
2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”