Was Jesus really who they say he was?

Answer 1

Whether Jesus was really who they say he was can only be answered by faith. But some would accept the reading of The Bible in answer to this question, and the best evidence in the Bible would be what Jesus is reported as having said. We can look at all four gospels, but since we now know that Mark's Gospel was the earliest written and that the other gospel authors relied on it for their information about the life and mission of Jesus, there are grounds for believing that it could be the most accurate of the gospels. On the evidence of the four gospels, the evidence is mixed and one can have any answer one wishes.

In Mark's Gospel, at the trial of Jesus, he was was accused of claiming to be King of The Jews, although the Gospel never recorded him as making this claim. In chapter 3, the demons, who presumably are untrustworthy, said that Jesus was the Son of God, but this is another claim that Jesus never made for himself. He certainly denied being God (Mark 10:18 ).

Only in John's Gospel does Jesus quite unambiguously say that he is God.

Answer

It depends on who 'they' are. The authors of the Gospel were eyewitnesses or known to eyewitnesses to his ministry, death, and subsequent appearances. All Gospels cohesive present Him without doubt as God, both in how they perceived Him and also what Jesus said about Himself. There is good evidence for the historicity of their accounts, far more than most readily accepted secular documents.