“Since David Frederick Strauss, in his “Life of Jesus,”
attempted for the first time to trace back to myths and pious fictions, doubts
regarding the existence of an historical Jesus have never been lulled to rest.”
– Arthur Drew’s
The onset of the historical Jesus quest was meant to be
critical. In many ways, the quest has
failed to do so, and these reasons shall be discussed below. The question of Jesus’ historic nature has
been a long—and sometimes long-winded—debate for generations of scholars, and
no clear objective has been drawn as to what exactly scholarship should be
looking for to end the debate.
Perhaps
the only way to conclusively determine the nature of the historical Jesus would
be to kick up a papyri fragment along the likes of which was inscribed “The
Memoirs of Jesus the Christ, son of Joseph.”
Foregoing that improbability, this issue seems to be coming up short on
real conclusive evidence, yet seems to have an overabundance of scholars who
want to write about the subject.
