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The opening as it read in 2010
Quest of the Historical Jesus for the book by Albert Schweitzer . The quest for the historical Jesus is the attempt to use historical rather than religious methods to construct a verifiable biography of Jesus . As originally defined by Albert Schweitzer , the quest began in the 18th century with Hermann Samuel Reimarus , up to William Wrede in the 19th century. The quest is commonly divided into stages, and it continues today among scholars such as the fellows of the Jesus Seminar . Reimarus composed a treatise rejecting miracles and accusing Bible authors of fraud, but he didn't publish his findings. Gotthold Lessing published Reimarus's conclusions in the Wolfenbuettel fragments. Strauss 's biography of Jesus set Gospel criticism on its modern course. Strauss explained gospel miracles as natural events misunderstood and misrepresented. Ernest Renan was the first of many to portray Jesus simply as a human person. Albrecht Ritschl had reservations about this project, but it became central to liberal Protestantism in Germany and to the Social Gospel movement in America. Martin Kähler protested, arguing that the true Christ is the one preached by the whole Bible, not a historical hypothesis. William Wrede questioned the historical reliability of Mark. Albert Schweitzer showed how histories of Jesus had reflected the historians' bias. Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann repudiated the quest for historical Jesus , and although the introduction of The Five Gospels asserts this suppressed any real interest in the topic from c 1920 to c 1970, , The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says there was a brief New Quest movement in the 50s conducted by Bultmann's students, and the search continued without break outside of the Bultmann school. Today, historical efforts to construct a biography of Jesus are as strong as ever. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar .1
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The opening as it stood in 2005
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See Historical Jesus for the discussion of the historical evidence of his existence, and Portraits of the historical Jesus for portraits of his life.The quest for the historical Jesus refers to academic efforts to provide a historical portrait of Jesus .Since the 18th century, three separate scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during each specific phase.These quests are distinguished from earlier approaches because they rely on the historical method to study biblical narratives.While textual analysis of biblical sources had taken place for centuries, these quests introduced new methods and specific techniques to establish the historical validity of their conclusions.The enthusiasm shown during the first quest diminished after the 1906 criticism of Albert Schweitzer , who pointed out various shortcomings in the approaches used at the time.The second quest began in 1953 in the middle of it and introduced a number of new techniques, but reached a plateau in the 1970s.In the 1980s a number of scholars gradually began to introduce new research ideas, initiating a third quest characterized by the latest research approaches.While there is widespread scholarly agreement on the existence of Jesus, and a basic consensus on the general outline of his life, the portraits of Jesus constructed in the quests have often differed from each other, and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts.There are overlapping attributes among the portraits, and while pairs of scholars may agree on some attributes, those same scholars may differ on other attributes, and there is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 666245052.
The opening as it stood in 2020 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus The quest for the historical Jesus consists of academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus , and to use the findings to provide portraits of the historical Jesus . Since the 18th century, three scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during each specific phase. These quests are distinguished from earlier approaches because they rely on the historical method to study biblical narratives. While textual analysis of biblical sources had taken place for centuries, these quests introduced new methods and specific techniques to establish the historical validity of their conclusions. The enthusiasm shown during the first quest diminished after Albert Schweitzer 's critique of 1906 in which he pointed out various shortcomings in the approaches used at the time. The second quest began in 1953 and introduced a number of new techniques, but reached a plateau in the 1970s. In the 1980s a number of scholars gradually began to introduce new research ideas, initiating a third quest characterized by the latest research approaches. Since the late 2000s, concerns have been growing about the usefulness of the criteria of authenticity. While there is widespread scholarly agreement on the existence of Jesus and a basic consensus on the general outline of his life, the portraits of Jesus constructed in the quests have often differed from each other and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts. There are overlapping attributes among the portraits and, while pairs of scholars may agree on some attributes, those same scholars may differ on other attributes and there is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 962177622.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus This article is about the history of academic Jesus research. The quest for the historical Jesus consists of academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus , and to use the findings to provide portraits of the historical Jesus . Since the 18th century, three scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during each specific phase. These quests are distinguished from earlier approaches because they rely on the historical method to study biblical narratives. While textual analysis of biblical sources had taken place for centuries, these quests introduced new methods and specific techniques to establish the historical validity of their conclusions. The enthusiasm shown during the first quest diminished after Albert Schweitzer 's critique of 1906 in which he pointed out various shortcomings in the approaches used at the time. The second quest began in 1953 and introduced a number of new techniques, but reached a plateau in the 1970s. In the 1980s a number of scholars gradually began to introduce new research ideas, initiating a third quest characterized by the latest research approaches. Since the late 2000s, concerns have been growing about the usefulness of the criteria of authenticity and proclamations of a more expansive and genuinely interdisciplinary Next Quest. While there is widespread scholarly agreement on the existence of Jesus and a basic consensus on the general outline of his life, the portraits of Jesus constructed in the quests have often differed from each other and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts. There are overlapping attributes among the portraits and, while pairs of scholars may agree on some attributes, those same scholars may differ on other attributes and there is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1176973545.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus This article is about the history of academic Jesus research. The quest for the historical Jesus consists of academic efforts to determine what words and actions, if any, may be attributed to Jesus , and to use the findings to provide portraits of the historical Jesus . Conventionally, since the 18th century three scholarly quests for the historical Jesus are distinguished, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during each specific phase. These quests are distinguished from earlier approaches because they rely on the historical method to study biblical narratives. While textual analysis of biblical sources had taken place for centuries, these quests introduced new methods and specific techniques to establish the historical validity of their conclusions. The enthusiasm shown during the first quest diminished after Albert Schweitzer 's critique of 1906 in which he pointed out various shortcomings in the approaches used at the time. The second quest began in 1953 and introduced a number of new techniques but reached a plateau in the 1970s. In the 1980s, a number of scholars gradually began to introduce new research ideas, initiating a third quest characterized by the latest research approaches. Since the late 2000s, concerns have been growing about the usefulness of the criteria of authenticity and proclamations of a more expansive and genuinely interdisciplinary Next Quest. While there is widespread scholarly agreement on the existence of Jesus and a basic consensus on the general outline of his life, the portraits of Jesus constructed in the quests have often differed from each other and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts. There are overlapping attributes among the portraits and, while pairs of scholars may agree on some attributes, those same scholars may differ on other attributes. There is no single portrait of the historical Jesus that satisfies most scholars. The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth (second expanded ed.).
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Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “often developed during each specific phase”. Today it says “distinguished”. Read the current article and compare.
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What Wikipedia says this is
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Then
often developed during each specific phase
Now
distinguished
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