My proposed lead paragraph, which treats the topic of the article (unlike the current lead paragraph).
"The historical Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth as reconstructed by historians who regard him as a natural man rather than as a supernatural entity. Though these acounts vary, in general they portray Jesus as a 1st-century Jewish sage or prophet who had a following but who did not establish a religion or send his disciples to convert the gentiles. Scholars of the historical Jesus use the historical method and Israeli archeology to reconstruct a biography of Jesus. They debate whether he preached the imminent end of the world, his connection to religious groups (such as the Essenes), and which sayings attributed to him are actually his. The so-called quest for the historical Jesus began with Hermann Samuel Reimarus and continues today with scholars such as the fellows of the Jesus Seminar." LC, I imagine that you will assert that this isn't what's meant by the term "historical Jesus," but if you google "historical Jesus was," you'll see that this is how the term is generally used.