Historical Jesus -- what are the theories, and who supports them?

by greenlaser3

Is there anywhere I can find an unbiased overview of the current state of research regarding Jesus? (Who he was, what he taught, reliability of the gospels, etc.) It seems to be a contentious topic, and I'm having difficulty slogging through the endless back-and-forth arguments out there. (Arguments which I don't really have the expertise to judge anyway.) At this point, I'm less interested in the particular arguments, and more interested in what scholars think overall. Who are the primary scholars in this area, and what do they think? Is there a strong consensus, or is there a lot of disagreement?

The wikipedia pages on this seem to give a decent overview, but a lot of the references seem to be textbooks and pop-sciencey books rather than original research papers. I'd prefer something a little more academically rigorous if possible.

Thanks!

zerbey

/u/jasoncaspian and /u/talondearg provided excellent answers already, see the FAQ page:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/faq/religion#wiki_did_jesus_exist.3F