The criterion is too ill-defined, leaving far too much scope for influence from the quester's own prejudice. Resulted in a Lutheran Jesus - back again to Schweitzer's problem of scholars' painting Jesus in their own image. For Jesus, it is the heart of man which lets impurity loose upon the world. The New Quest was theologically driven - obsessed with the question of the part the Quest pays in theological reflection, deeply problematic for those interested in doing history that is not driven by one's theological agenda. As confidence in the new quest began to break down, another direction in Jesus research began to develop.
Jewish sources are themselves witnesses in the quest.
By contrast to these imperatives of faith, the issues which writer and reader will explore together are concerned with the primitive, genuine, historical significance of words and events recorded in the Gospels. In pursuit of this aim, the utmost use will be made of the literary legacy of Palestinian and Diaspora Jews from the last two hundred years of the pre-Christian, and the first few centuries of the Christian era . These sources will not be treated merely as a backcloth, however, but as witnesses. They will not be employed simply as aids in answering queries arising from the New Testament, but as independent spokesmen capable, from time to time at least, of guiding the enquiry, either by suggesting the right angle of approach, or even the right questions to ask. He exposes some embarrassing, anti-Jewish elements in much of the existing New Testament scholarship, claiming that this has had a seriously distorting effect on most research into the life of Jesus.