The teacher, known as Yeshua (Aramaic), Yehoshuah (Hebrew), Iesus (Greek) and Jesus (Latin) was a Jew and teacher of the Torah (meaning teachings). Over the last two thousand years there has been much controversy over his teachings and even his actual existence. Today, Christianity sees him as a revolutionary teacher bringing a new covenant between God and man. Judaism questions his existence and if he did exist was a deceptive teacher.

Too often the words of Yeshua are studied and interpreted through western philosophy rather than from an eastern philosophy. As the ancient Hebrews (from the patriarchs to the end of the first century CE) are classified as Orientals, their philosophy is closer to that of the east than to our own Greco-Roman culture.