Jesus was a Jew. This indisputable fact long ago led H. S. Reimarus, the founder of the study of the historical Jesus, to regard Jesus completely within the framework of Judaism, and to consider it evident ‘that Jesus had not the slightest intention of doing away with the Jewish religion and putting another in its place’. From this it became necessary to explain the New Testament accounts of conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees as the product of exchanges between church and synagogue – an early position which the form-critical approach has appeared to confirm. But if Jesus lived in harmony with his contemporaries, then the reason for his violent end must have lain in his political activity. Accordingly, from Reimarus to R. Eisler down to S. G. F. Brandon Jesus has again and again been placed in the company of Zealot resistance fighters.

Since the Enlightenment, too, the representation of Jesus as an Essene wisdom teacher has often been placed alongside representations of him as an orthodox Pharisee and a nationalistic resistance fighter. Since the publication of the Qumran texts particularly, repeated attempts have been made to connect Jesus with the Essenes.

Over against all these stands an impressive list of scholars who have taken seriously the opposition of Jesus to his contemporaries which comes to light in various places in the Gospels.