The Quest for a Historical Jesus Methodology

Throughout the "quest for the historical Jesus," there has been a parallel quest aimed at discovering new and improved methodologies for studying his life. This methodological quest was originally driven by the belief that the Gospels are so unique (even sui generis) among the literary works of their time that such "historical experimentation" (to use Schweitzer's words) is necessary for the task of reconstructing Jesus's life. Although most scholars today characterize the Gospels as a form of G