The genre of the Gospels: from assumed mythology to recognized Greco-Roman biography

Earlier scholars categorized the Gospels as a unique "sui generis" genre — viewed as mythological. This led to the task of demythologizing. Some said the entire Gospels were myth. The Jesus Seminar assumed: "the Gospels are narratives in which the memory of Jesus is embellished by mythic elements... supposedly historical elements must therefore be demonstrated to be so" — i.e., assumed false unless proven true. This genre misidentification led to the Jesus Seminar's flawed methodology.