What is the relation between the real Jesus and the historical Jesus?

For New Testament scholar Meier the relation is a paradox: the historical Jesus is not the real Jesus
and the real Jesus is not the historical Jesus. For the quest for the historical Jesus these two concepts
are very important to distinguish.
The real Jesus
What do we mean when we say the "real" Jesus, or the "real" Nero or the real anybody in ancient
history? In historical research there are five different gradations in the sense of "real".
1) By real we do not mean the total reality of the person, since that is impossible;
2) For many public figures of modern history, the mounds of empirical data available make possible a
"reasonably complete" portrait of the "real" person, while varying interpretations of the data
naturally remain;
3) The vast majority of the deeds and words, the "reasonably complete" record of the "real" Jesus, is
irrevocably lost to us today. The historical Jesus is neither the real Jesus nor the easy way to him. The
real Jesus is not available and never will be. This is true not because Jesus did not exist, because he
certainly did exist! It is rather because the sources that have survived never intended to record all or
even most of the words and deeds.
4) This is however true for most figures of ancient history. What really occurs in history is much
broader that the history recoverable by a historian.
5) There are however some figures that have left us a store of autobiographical writings that allow
some access to the "real" person. However, we must be aware of the fact that there are severe
limitations historians face in studying Greco-Roman history. With exception of a relatively few great
public figures, the "real" persons of ancient history are simply not accessible to us today by historical
research and never will be.
What we have to accept is the surprising fact that in comparison to the many figures of ancient
history we can know much about Jesus. Therefore we cannot know the "real" Jesus trough historical
research. However, we can know the "historical Jesus".
The historical Jesus
What exactly do we mean by saying "historical Jesus"? In New Testament research, but also in
Ancient history research, the historical Jesus is the Jesus whom we can "recover" and examine by
using the scientific tools of modern historical research.
Historical research can only reconstruct fragments of Jesus life. The reason for this is the fact that
this "marginal Jew" called Jesus left no writings of his own, no archeological monuments or artifacts,
nothing that comes directly from him without mediators. (notice that we do have written sources,
only not from his own hand). Therefore the paradox must be true: the historical Jesus is not the real
Jesus and vice versa. The historical Jesus can only give us fragments of the "real" person.