So let's just state at the outset that in 4 BCE, being the son of God, or at least being the son of a god, was not such an unusual thing. But a poor Jew being the son of God, that was news. INTRO Any understanding of Christianity has to start with Judaism, because Jesus was born a Jew and he grew up in the Jewish tradition. He was one of many teachers spreading his ideas in the Roman province of Judea at the time, and he was part of a messianic tradition that helps us understand why he was thought of not only as a teacher, but as something much, much more. Let's go straight to the Thought Bubble today. The people who would become the Jews were just one of many tribal peoples eking out an existence in that not-very-fertile crescent world of Mesopotamia after the agricultural revolution. The Hebrews initially worshipped many gods, making sacrifices to them in order to bring good weather and good fortune, but they eventually developed a religion centered around an idea that would become key to the other great Western religions.