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Thus one properly says, in terms of this distinction, that what I can call "the Jesus of history as a fact of the past" (= "the actual Jesus of the past," or "the actual Jesus of history") is the material object both of Christian faith and witness and of "the quest of the historical Jesus," or better, "the historical quest for Jesus" (Marxsen). But, then, this same material object appears under a significantly different horizon, depending on which of the two ways of relating to this object is in question. In the case of the historical quest for Jesus, it appears under the horizon opened up by asking the empirical-historical question; and so the formal, as distinct from the material, object, assuming this question, is rightly distinguished as "the empirical-historical Jesus." In the other case of Christian faith and witness, this same material object appears under the different horizon opened up by asking the existential-historical question; and so its formal object, assuming this very different question, is rightly distinguished as "the existential-historical Jesus."

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