Jesus of Nazareth ranks among the most important figures in history. Yet there is no common agreement about his identity. It is generally accepted that there were three quests of the historical Jesus. The first was characterised by Albert Schweitzer, the second was conceived of as the 'New Quest' of the 1950s, and the Third Quest which collected the scholars from the two prior quests. This three-quest history in fact came about more due to the ingenuity of publishers than to scholars engaged in the enterprise. To describe what it left out, it was necessary to coin the facetious term 'No Quest.'

Quests of the Historical Jesus is a major reassessment of the situation, beginning with the evolution of orthodoxy and quests before Schweitzer's. Along the way Brown examines the Nazi attempt to make Jesus an Aryan critic of Judaism. The book brings together ongoing questions - criteria, methods, and specific issues. Instead of seeking a bedrock of "facts," Brown emphasizes the role of hermeneutics in formulating questions and seeking answers and concludes that, whether we realize it or not, the "facts" themselves are shaped by our hermeneutics and belief-systems.