WIthin Judaism, there is a strong sense of Identity which comes from a person's ancestry as well as their religion and as a result of this they lived separately to non-jews, or gentiles. However, under Roman rule, The number of gentiles living in and around Palestine grew and this increased tensions. Abraham the founder of Judaism made a covenant with God where God promised the Land of Israel to his people. The Roman occupation of the area was in direct opposition to this promise so Jews were not happy with the situation

the Pharisees and sadducees did not expect to have their authority challenged and took offence when Jesus challenged them, through things he did or when answering thier questions.

The passages from Matthew shows a conversation between Jesus and the Authorities around upholding the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating, as referred to in the Torah. The Pahrisees are not concerned with personal hygiene but with ritual impuroty: 'breaking the tradition of the elders'. If a Jewisg person did not wash tueir hands before eating then, potentially, they could becpome spiritually impure.

Jesus did not follow accepted rules of the day and avoid those the Jews will avoid. He actually went to them and challenged their exclusion and ill treatment. As Matthew 15:1-9 shows, Jesus 'knowledge of the scriptures was so good that he could just reel off an extract from Isaiah, and a very appropriate one at that . However he did not want to humiliate the Pharisee but to identify correct errors in their teachings