Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus (22 December 1694, Hamburg – 1 March 1768, Hamburg), was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on revelation. He denied the supernatural origin of Christianity,[1] and was the first influential critic to investigate the historical Jesus.[2] According to Reimarus, Jesus was a mortal Jewish prophet, and the apostles founded Christianity as a religion separate from Jesus’ own ministry.