Our task in this volume has been to set Jesus in his contemporary context. I have tried to show the extent to which he was part of a period of Jewish history in which Jews were struggling to find ways of overcoming the complex pressures on their way of life created by Roman rule and the infiltration of Hellenistic culture.

In their various ways the Zealots, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes were all trying to remain true to their traditions at the same time as they were trying to find ways in which they could adjust to the changed circumstances in which they found themselves. This may have meant adopting an aggressive stance and attempting to remove the obstacles to Jewish independence by force; it may have meant gradually changing the seat of the cult from the Temple to the local community; it may have meant accepting a substantial loss of political freedom in order to preserve the integrity of the Temple cult; or it may have meant emigration and physical isolation. In each case the group was in effect giving the tradition a new form and a new direction, remaining within the basic framework of beliefs and practices but living them out in interestingly and sometimes strikingly different ways.

In order to achieve their goals of sustaining their tradition under pressure such groups needed, we have seen, to clarify their understanding of group membership as well as to clarify the rules of the group and their strategies for teaching and enforcing them.