for failure to do good than for the committing of bad. For example, there were the priest and the Levite who went on the other side of the street and left the victim of robbers helpless, the goatlike ones who refrained from doing good to the King’s brothers, and the rich man who did nothing for Lazarus the beggar. Jesus warned his disciples against the wrong way, but he emphasized God’s way. He left the pattern for Christian teachers to follow.—Matt. 7:17, 18, 21.

21. What was the effect of his sermon on his hearers, and what will add illumination to Bible incidents involving him?

²¹ “Now when Jesus finished these sayings, the effect was that the crowds were astounded at his way of teaching; for he was teaching them as a person having authority, and not as their scribes.” How were the scribes teaching? Who were they? What other religious groups functioned in Palestine when Jesus taught there? Knowing something about the religious situation in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ preaching will help us better to understand many incidents recorded in the Bible. (Matt. 7:28, 29) We shall also appreciate more why the listening crowds were astounded at the difference in the Master Jesus’ manner of teaching.

Religious Attitudes When the Master Preached

 1. What did the Essenes believe and practice?

APART from the zealous activity of John the Baptist, there were a number of Jewish groups that were molding religious attitudes in Palestine when Jesus began his ministry. One of these groups was the Essenes, who are not mentioned in the inspired writings of Jesus’ apostles and disciples. They believed that godliness required them to punish the body, to fast and to live austerely, so they looked down on anything that was a pleasure to the flesh. They isolated themselves in little communities. The Essenes were not a major religious group confronting Jesus in his preaching, although they have recently been brought into prominence because of the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls of books of the Bible.

 2. What were the Zealots interested in, and on what occasion does their influence seem apparent?

² Then there was the group of Zealots or Nationalists. They wanted a Jew to arise to lead them in a revolt against Rome and break the yoke of Rome from off their necks. Galilee was a hotbed of seditions, and that was where Jesus had grown up. One of Jesus’ disciples was called “the zealous one” or “the Zealot,” and may have been a member of the Zealot party. However, he did not stir up the nationalistic or home-rule spirit immediately after Jesus had miraculously fed five thousand men. “Hence when the men saw the signs he performed they began to say: This is for a certainty the prophet that was to come into the world.’ Therefore Jesus, realizing they were about to come and seize him to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain all alone.” These nationalistic ones wanted to set him up as king, consequently in opposition to the rule by Rome. They wanted to draft Jesus, with his miraculous powers, for their own selfish purposes. But Jesus steadfastly refused