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. This was monotheism, the idea that there is only one true god, or at least that if there are other gods, they're total lame-oids. The Hebrews developed a second concept that is key to their religion as well, the idea of the covenant, a deal with God. The main man in this, the big mocker, was Abraham.