teaching.14 He taught, as we have seen, sitting in a boat, probably anchored in shallow water, while the listening crowds sat on the foreshore all around. He taught by using parables, or as we might say, ‘illustrations’, a system of instruction specifically designed to sift the wheat from the chaff among his hearers. Other teachers might rejoice when great crowds followed them, but not so Jesus; for he knew only too well the mixed motives of the human heart (John 2:25). Here is an unusual teacher;