E. Renan, translated by Varshavsky, The Life of Jesus, St. Petersburg, 1906. Renan, Joseph Ernest (1823-1892), a philosopher-positivist, historian, and writer. He is known as the author of a series of books on the history of early Christianity, Semitic studies, and philosophical dramas. “The Life of Jesus” is Renan’s most famous work, which enjoyed enormous success among readers and was repeatedly reissued in various countries. Ernest Renan was deprived of his professorship for nine years due to the publication of the book “The Life of Jesus.” In this book, he used a new method of synthesis of historical and literary sources. He was one of the first to investigate the New Testament as a historical source and compare the events described in it with other historical testimonies, becoming one of the central figures in the critical school of biblical studies. The biography of Jesus Christ soon after its publication in 1863 gained worldwide fame. The author seeks to purify the gospel narrative from the supernatural elements and portrays his hero as a real preacher, a religious anarchist. The Life of Jesus cannot be called a scientific study in the strict sense; it is more like a form of belles-lettres where historically accurate testimonies intertwine with the author’s subjectivity in assessments and arbitrary reconstructions of many events.