Who was Jesus?
Adapted from Kamal Salibi

Most scholars today agree that the Gospels cannot be strictly considered history; but perhaps many are not prepared to admit how little history they actually contain.
They were probably written between approximately 70 and 100 AD, the four canonical gospels have been attributed by the Christian tradition to four apostles: two of them (Matthew and John) would have been companions of Jesus; Pablo's other two (Marcos and Lucas).
Paul, whose writings are older than the oldest known Gospels, did not believe that all stories about Jesus circulated in his time through the apostles in Jerusalem were true.
For him, some of these stories were mere legends "with no more historical truths than false reports that these same apostles circulated on Paul himself.
Given that the Gospels, at least in part, are likely to repeat what the apostles of Jerusalem had originally taught about the person and mission of Jesus, it is very unlikely that Paul fully supported the truth of its content.
For example, while he agreed with the four Gospels that Jesus was a descendant of David, it is clear that he rejected the accuracy of the various genealogies, including, without doubt, the two conflicting ones that finally found their way into the texts. of Matthew and Luke.
However, Paul, in his own writings, said very little about Jesus as a human being. To obtain information about Jesus, man, in the Christian scriptures, our main source is the Gospels.
Because these often speak of general political events related to the life and career of Jesus (what are technically called 'synchronisms'), the canonical Gospels give the impression that their authors did their historical work and knew exactly what What were they talking about.
However, after a more detailed examination, their claims turn out to be largely incorrect. Today's scholars commonly admit that the Gospels were written to prove that the historical Jesus was in fact the expected Israelite Messiah, or Christ, instead of providing An accurate biography. It is for this reason that they are full of references to the prophecies of the Israelite scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament.
For example, while he agreed with the four Gospels that Jesus was a descendant of David, it is clear that he rejected the accuracy of the various genealogies, including, without doubt, the two conflicting ones that finally found their way into the texts. of Matthew and Luke. However, Paul, in his own writings, said very little about Jesus as a human being.