Of all the great founders of religions, Jesus is at once the best
known and the least known to the modern scholar. From the
dogmatic point of view he is the best known, from the historic
point of view he is the least known. The Christ of dogma is in
every lineament familiar to us from early childhood; but
concerning the Jesus of history we possess but few facts resting
upon trustworthy evidence, and in order to form a picture of him
at once consistent, probable, and distinct in its outlines, it is
necessary to enter upon a long and difficult investigation, in
the course of which some of the most delicate apparatus of modern
criticism is required. This circumstance is sufficiently singular
to require especial explanation. The case of Sakyamuni, the
founder of Buddhism, which may perhaps be cited as parallel, is
in reality wholly different. Not only did Sakyamuni live five
centuries earlier than Jesus, among a people that have at no time
possessed the art of insuring authenticity in their records of
events, and at an era which is at best but dimly discerned
through the mists of fable and legend, but the work which he
achieved lies wholly out of the course of European history, and
it is only in recent times that his career has presented itself
to us as a problem needing to be solved. Jesus, on the other
hand, appeared in an age which is familiarly and in many respects
minutely known to us, and among a people whose fortunes we can
trace with historic certainty for at least seven centuries
previous to his birth; while his life and achievements have
probably had a larger share in directing the entire subsequent
intellectual and moral development of Europe than those of any
other man who has ever lived. Nevertheless, the details of his
personal career are shrouded in an obscurity almost as dense as
that which envelops the life of the remote founder of Buddhism.