First Quest
As originally defined by Schweitzer, the quest began with Reimarus and ended with Wrede. This period saw the increasing influence of the historical Jesus as an academic and popular topic. Soon after Wrede's work, Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann denounced the whole effort, marking the end of the so-called first quest.
These scholars of what today would be called the Quest for the Historical Jesus applied the historical methodologies of their day to distinguish the mythology from the history of Jesus. Reimarus pioneered "the search for the historical Jesus", applying the Rationalism of the Enlightenment Era to claims about Jesus. Although Schweitzer was among the greatest contributors to this quest, he also ended the quest by noting how each scholar's version of Jesus often seemed to reflect the personal ideals of the scholar, an observation first stated by Johannes Weiss in 1890, and which continues to be observed in Jesus research (as it does in other historical studies) even today.
- Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768) - credited as the father of the Quest for the Historical Jesus
- Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) - "Ecce Homo -The History of Jesus of Nazareth, a Critical Inquiry" (1769), the first Life of Jesus described as a mere historical man, published anonymously in Amsterdam. Translated in English by George Houston, and published in Edinburgh, 1799, London, 1813, for which "blasphemy" Houston was condemned to two years in prison, and New York in 1827.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) - a US president who considered Jesus' ethics superb and miracles ahistorical: Jefferson Bible
- David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874) - asserted that the supernatural elements of the gospels could be treated as myth.
- Ernest Renan (1823–1892) - asserted that the biography of Jesus ought to be open to historical investigation just as is the biography of any other man.
- William Wrede (1859–1906) - wrote on the Messianic Secret theme in the Gospel of Mark. He also wrote a crucial study of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, which argued for its inauthenticity.
- Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965), The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906) - "Schweitzer saw Jesus' ethic as only an "interim ethic" (a way of life good only for the brief period before the cataclysmic end, the eschaton). As such he found it no longer relevant or valid. Acting on his own conclusion, in 1913 Schweitzer abandoned a brilliant career in theology, turned to medicine, and went out to Africa where he founded the famous hospital at Lambaréné out of respect for all forms of life."
- Rudolf Bultmann - identified the Signs gospel.
- Martin Dibelius - advocated that form criticism be applied to the New Testament.
Some recent scholars have reasserted Schweitzer's eschatological view of Jesus: see Dale Allison in his 1998 work Jesus of Nazareth, Millenarian Prophet and Bart D. Ehrman in 1999 work Jesus, Apolocyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Conversely others, such as the Jesus Seminar, have denied the authenticity of Jesus' eschatological message, describing Jesus as a wandering sage.
In the early 19th century, existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard cast doubt on the entire project, stating unequivocally: "It is infinitely beyond history’s capacity to demonstrate that God, the omnipresent One, lived here on earth as an individual human being. History can indeed richly communicate knowledge, but such knowledge annihilates Jesus Christ."
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