collage sermon

collage sermon, a photo by we2rone on Flickr.

Christ myth theory

Noel Coypel The Resurrection of Christ.jpg
The Resurrection of Christ by Noel Coypel (1700).
Some myth theorists see this as a case of a dying-and-rising god.

Jesus Christ never existed as a physical historical figure, but is a myth or incorporeal character created by the early Christian community.

Early proponents
Charles François Dupuis (1742–1809)
Constantin-François Volney (1757–1820)
David Strauss (1808–1874)
Bruno Bauer (1809–1882)
Albert Kalthoff (1850–1906)
W. B. Smith (1850–1934)
J. M. Robertson (1856–1933)
Arthur Drews (1865–1935)

Modern proponents
G. A. Wells, Alvar Ellegård, Robert M. Price, Richard Carrier, Earl Doherty

Subjects
Historical Jesus, Early Christianity, Ancient history

The Christ myth theory (also known as Jesus myth theory or Jesus mythicism) is a range of arguments that question the existence of Jesus of Nazareth or the entirety of his life story as described in the Christian gospels.[1][2][3][4] The most sweeping version of the myth theories contends that there was no real historical figure Jesus and that he was invented by early Christians. Another variant holds that there was a person called Jesus, but almost all teachings and miracles attributed to him were either invented or symbolic references. Yet another version suggests that the Jesus portrayed in the New Testament is a composite character constructed from multiple people over a period of time.[2][3][4]

Most myth theories use arguments based on variants of three main components: first that the New Testament accounts have no historical value, secondly an argument from silence based on the absence of references to Jesus in contemporary non-Christian sources, and finally that Christianity had relied on syncretism from the very beginning and combined various myths to build the gospel accounts.[4] Myth theorists have also drawn a number of parallels between the life of Jesus in Christian sources and various other religious or mythical domains, at times involving dying-and-rising gods. [5][6][7] Modern scholarship has generally dismissed these analogies as without formal basis, and a form of parallelomania laden with historical errors.[5][8][9][10]

Among the variants of the Jesus myth theory, the hypothesis that a historical Jesus figure never existed is supported only by a very small minority of modern scholars.[11][12][13] Bart Ehrman has stated that now virtually all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed,[14] and Robert M. Price agrees that this denial perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars.[15] Myth theorist G. A. Wells has also softened his stance on the non-existence issue.[16] Van Voorst and separately Michael Grant state that biblical scholars and classical historians now regard theories of non-existence of Jesus as effectively refuted.[11][17][18][19]

The origins of the theory go back to 18th century France, following friction in Europe between the church establishment and some theologians with the growth of rationalism, but its first formal presentation was made in the 19th century by David Strauss, who did not deny the existence of Jesus, but considered accounts of miraculous events to be "mythical".[20][21] The writings of Bruno Bauer and Arthur Drews in Germany developed the concept further. The range of theories grew and in the 1970s myth theorists such as G. A. Wells, Alvar Ellegård, and Robert M. Price had formalized and grouped their objections to the Christian accounts of the life of Jesus, with the writings of Wells eventually emerging as the most comprehensive overview of the positions advanced by myth theorists.[22][23] In 2012 biblical scholar Thomas L. Brodie, former director of the Dominican Biblical Institute, published a book in which he argued Jesus is mythical, and the gospels are essentially a rewriting of the stories of Elijah and Elisha when viewed as a unified account in the Books of Kings.[24] [25]