Abstract:
The premise of this article is that historical research should not be
predetermined in any way. All available sources should be utilized.
Applied to historical Jesus studies, the implication is that the researcher
cannot be restricted to the canon. The article focuses on the sources that
are used for historical Jesus (re)construction. The Jesus tradition is
chronologically stratified according to John Dominic Crossan's 'Inventory of the Jesus tradition by chronological stratification and independent attestation'. This inventory is to be found as an appendix to his 1991
book 'The historical Jesus'. However, the openness to extra-canonical sources does not provide us with any noticeable new information.