The Jews got their name from Judah the fourth Son of Israel (Jacob) that was the predominant and identifiable populace at that time of Jesus in His-story. The other tribes had merged with the Gentiles worldwide and lost their identity. Only a few (especially the believing line) could trace their genealogy and that is how we have the genealogy of the Man Jesus even from Adam. The search for the other tribes of Israel is still on. India has many!

The Jews during the time of the Man Christ Jesus on Earth were under the rule of Caesar. Judea was a province under the Roman Empire and royalty ruled each quarter of the province. Each was called a Tetrarch and all the four tetrarchies were under an Ethnarch or Governor.

The Jews were an oppressed lot. While they had partial religious freedom, politically, they were deprived of any authority. So, the religious leaders teamed with the political rulers to obtain some relief for the general public but most of the time satisfying their selfish needs and feeding their selfish egos.

There were also some radicals (zealots were one such group and Bar Abbas belonged to one such “terrorist” group) who believed in violence and who kept fighting the Roman authorities and the government using guerrilla warfare technics to free the common from their clutches.

Many were self-centered businessmen, bankers, and money lenders at huge interests, money changers, and corrupt individuals who were trying to earn favor with the Roman authorities by lobbying with them. “They derived profits at the cost of desecrating the Jewish temple”. –J. E. H Thomson, ISBE 1915. Many had even managed to sit in official positions because of their worldly wisdom, influence, and money and then paid little attention to their civil and social responsibilities. The suppressed public had to run behind these authorities for even their basic citizen rights.

Many were worldly-wise people who could “do it” or “get it done” at the cost of their fellowmen. They would bribe the governmental staff and soldiers, evade tax (under the lame excuse that they didn’t recognize Roman authority), betray their own people for money or any other selfish advantage, oppress the public by collecting more money than was required of them and rob money from widows and orphans. They also left their parents uncared for, during their old age saying that they will compensate for this apathy by paying money for religious causes and dropping money in the temple offertory (Undiyal in Thamizh). Typical Indian scenario!

There was a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. Some struggled to earn a living while those in good positions could amass wealth with the favor of the authorities. There were Jewish tax collectors (Matthew and Zacchaeus), Jewish Centurions (one of them had his son healed of a deadly illness by Jesus), Jewish Rulers (the rich, young ruler who went away sad because of his stickiness to his wealth) and men of high governmental positions. There were also people like Joseph and Mary who could afford only two small birds (turtle doves or young pigeons) for sacrifice and that too on a very important occasion – the circumcision of Mary’s Firstborn.

Jews who believed in the promise of God were waiting for their Messiah who would be born as King to deliver them from the Roman (Gentile) rule. But this was a minority. Priest Zachariah, Simeon, and Anna at the temple of Jerusalem, Philip, and Nathanael belonged to this remnant.

Most of the Jews were agnostics or religious fanatics. Religious people belonged to one or the other of the sects – Sadducees (Annas and Caiaphas) and Pharisees (Nicodemus). Then, there were the Lawyers (one approached Jesus regarding the chief commandment) who were educated in the Jewish religious law and Scribes, (a member of the group that came to question Jesus about divorce) a class of scholars who, though not priests, devoted themselves assiduously to the Law, that is, the professional students of the Law. They kept the law of Moses as an act of tradition and compulsion. While they claimed Abraham as their father and took pride in their heritage as a specially chosen people of God, they exhibited no faith of their forefathers. They read the Scriptures but did little to understand, grasp the truth and believe them. Some kept religion so that they could command respect from the public who looked up to them for moral teaching and religious guidance. They paid tithes and offerings so that they would get manifold returns.

There was a Jewish court called the Council or Sanhedrin (சன்னதி) where seventy chosen celebrities and learned men sat to hear cases and pass judgment on religious matters. The active Chief priest was the convener of this court.

Society had fallen to such pathetic standards of morality that any teacher of morals was mocked and ridiculed by socially influential people. They would even kill them to protect their vested interests. But, the souls of the common people were drought-ridden, and they were yearning for someone who could satisfy their thirst for life and be their Life-giver. Added to it was the spiritual suppression by the evil spirits and demons that kept possessing people and causing infirmities of various degrees. The public was in incessant fear and intimidation.

Satan had succeeded in spawning his seed into a vast majority of these religious Jews that, John the Baptist, as well as Jesus, addressed them a 'generation of vipers”. Jesus went a step further to reveal their identity as the children of the devil. Ye are of your father the devil. – John 8:44. But He answered and said unto them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas” – Matt 12:39. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And He left them and departed. – Matt 16:4. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you (Jews) – Rom 2:24.