New Testament exegesis will never attain a truly scientific character unless Rabbinical literature is thoroughly studied and consulted as to the meaning and purpose of the various sayings and teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and as to the historical perspective from which alone the work of the nascent Christian sect can be understood.--"The Attitude of Christian scholars toward Jewish literature" / Kaufmann Kohler. In Studies, addresses, and personal papers, p. 424.

The best utterances of Jesus find their explanation in the Agadah. Take, for instance, the beautiful saying of Jesus: "Behold the birds of heaven! They sow not, neither do they reap, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not of much more value than they? Behold the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin ; yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, shall He not much more clothe you, oh men of little faith." As soon as you compare it with an almost identical saying concerning the beasts and the birds in the Mishna, of the men that lack Emunah, 'faith,' and then take into consideration that the name of the purple lily in Palestine was 'the king's lily,' you recognize at once that that saying did not originate with one man, but with the whole class of Hasidim, whose chief teaching was trust in God, who gave the Manna as daily bread even in the wilderness, and not to give a thought to to-morrow's cares and troubles. The Midrash to Parshat ha-Man offers the key to this saying.