The Jesus Seminar and the consequence of rejecting eyewitness origins

If the Gospels do not trace to eyewitnesses, scholars can arbitrarily decide what Jesus "really" said. The Jesus Seminar (1990s, including Ehrman) voted on which red-letter statements Jesus actually made, reducing most of them to inauthentic. Ehrman's own view is that Jesus used "Son of Man" to refer to someone other than himself. Mike argues this approach lets scholars construct any Jesus they desire — each ends up with a tailor-made Jesus. But if Gospels trace to eyewitnesses, this deconstruction is not valid.