As we all know, Jesus did not leave any written records to tell us about his thinking and work. After Jesus’ resurrection, when his disciples went out to preach the Gospel, they then began to realize the necessity of a written record.

To understand Jesus, we can learn from his contacts with all kinds of people during his lifetime, especially when He is debating or He is in conflict with learned people such as priests, scribes, zealots, Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes. We can then, from different angles and situations, get to understand Jesus’ opinion of Jewish society and religion of His time and His vision and ideal.