The founder of Christianity, Jesus of Nazereth (4 B.C.–A.D. 29) lived in Palestine during the height of the Roman Empire. In Palestine at the time of Jesus, the political situation of the Jews was chaotic. They had been in servitude for nearly 100 years, were extensively taxed by their masters, the Romans, and were suffering from increased internal conflict within their own ranks. The main source of this conflict was the rivalry between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

The Sadducees were a priestly sect that had flourished for about two centuries before the Second Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by fire in August A.D. 70. The sect was made up of aristocratic families and merchants, the wealthy elements of the population who clung to birthright and social and economic position. They tended to have good relations with their Roman rulers and generally represented the conservative view within Judaism.

Their immediate rivals, the Pharisees, claimed to be authorities on piety and learning. They were seen as a political party concerned with the laws of rabbinic traditions, especially its holiness code — including dietary laws and agricultural rules governing the fitness of food for Pharisaic consumption — and the observance of the Sabbath and festivals.

The core difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees was the interpretation of the content and extent of God's revelation to the Jewish people. The Sadducees, because of their willingness to compromise with the Roman rulers, aroused the hatred of the common people.

A third group of Jews, the Essenes — a virtual monastic brotherhood of property-sharing communities devoted to lives of disciplined piety — considered the world too corrupt to allow Judaism to renew itself, so they dropped out of any conflict.

It was into this complex political-religious cauldron that Jesus added a further element of dissension.