Who was Jesus? (1)
Adaoted from Kamal Salibi

Most scholars today agree that the Gospels cannot be regarded strictly as history; not as many may be prepared to admit how little history they actually contain. Written probably between about AD 70 and 100, the four canonical Gospels have been attributed by Christian tradition to four apostles: two of them (Matthew and John) companions of Jesus; the other two (Mark and Luke) companions of Paul.

Paul, whose writings are older than the oldest known Gospels, did not believe all the stories about Jesus circulated in his time by the apostles in Jerusalem. To him, some of these stories were mere legend' with no more historical truth than the false reports circulated about Paul himself by these same apostles. Considering that the Gospels, at least in part, probably repeat what the Jerusalem apostles had originally taught about the person and mission of Jesus, it is highly unlikely that Paul would have fully endorsed the truth of their contents. For example, while he did agree with all four Gospels that Jesus was a descendant of David, it is clear that he rejected the accuracy of the various genealogies – among them, no doubt, the two conflicting ones that ultimately found their way into the texts of Matthew and Luke. Yet Paul, in his own writings, said very little about Jesus as a human being. For information about the man in the Christian scriptures, we have mainly the Gospels to go by. Because they frequently speak of general political events in connection with the life and career of Jesus (what are technically called 'synchronisms'), the canonical Gospels give the impression that their authors had done their historical homework and knew exactly what they were talking about. Upon closer scrutiny, however, this turns out to be largely incorrect. Scholars today commonly concede that the Gospels were written to prove that the historical Jesus was in fact the expected Israelite Messiah, or Christ, rather than provide an accurate biography. It is for this reason that they are replete with references to prophecies from the Israelite scriptures - what Christians call the Old Testament.

For example, while he did agree with all four Gospels that Jesus was a descendant of David, it is clear that he rejected the accuracy of the various genealogies – among them, no doubt, the two conflicting ones that ultimately found their way into the texts of Matthew and Luke. Yet Paul, in his own writings, said very little about Jesus as a human being.