Of these parties and sects the people were most influenced by the Pharisees. who best expressed popular ideas, and with whom the people came most vitally in contact, especially through the authoritative channels of the temple, the syna gogues, and the schools. Tn fact. the control of the last two institutions was almost wholly in the hands of the Scribes, who were the ex pounders and the administrators of the law, and who almost exclusively belonged to the Pharisaic party: while in the temple itself their influence :Ind authority was an increasingly important factor. This popular influence of the Pharisees was naturally most felt in Judea and Jerusalem, where the observance of the national religion was concentrated, and where the religions rulers had their home; Ina. there and elsewhere there were those among the people who. while rever encing the Scribes and following the general line of their directions, still held to a direct fellow ship with God in worship and life.
From this survey it is clear that .Tesus, while finding a special receptivity among these devout ones of the people. as a religious teacher and worker the Jews, must have come more or less into contact with the sects and parties of the lain]: that this contact, in proportion as
.Tests' position involved opposition to national ideas and customs, must have been one of con flict: and that this conflict, in proportion as the parties combined politics with their religion, must have been one of menace to His work and to His life.
As given in the Gospel history, Jesus' life and work most naturally divides itself into two prominent periods—the Galilean period, which was largely one of construction, centring upon the gathering around Himself of a body of dis ciples, and the Judean period, which was largely one of instruction, having as its object both the preparation of His disciples for the closing events of His life, and the presentation to the Jews of His Alessianic claims. Between these two main periods lay the short period covered by His withdrawal into the regions of northern Galilee; while preceding them was the preliminary period of His younger years, leading up to His formal induction into His work and His early ministry in Judea; and following them was the culminat ing period of His life, issuing in His betrayal, crucifixion, resurrection. and ascension.