Jesus myth theory
| Jesus myth theory | |
|---|---|
 The Resurrection of Christ by Noel Coypel (1700). Jesus myth theorists see this as one of a number of stories about dying and rising gods. | |
| Description | the New Testament account of the life of Jesus is so filled with myth and legend as well as internal contradictions and historical irregularities that at best no meaningful verification regarding Jesus of Nazareth (including his very existence) can be extracted from them. |
| Early proponents | Charles François Dupuis (1742–1809) Constantin-François Volney (1757–1820) Bruno Bauer (1809–1882) Arthur Drews (1865–1935) |
| Modern proponents | G.A. Wells, Alvar Ellegård, Robert M. Price |
| Subject | Ancient history |
The Jesus myth theory (also known as the Christ myth theory and the nonexistence hypothesis) is a term that has been applied to several theories that at their heart have one common concept: the New Testament account of the life of Jesus is so filled with myth and legend as well as internal contradictions and historical irregularities that at best no meaningful verification regarding Jesus of Nazareth (including his very existence) can be extracted from them.[1] It should be noted that not all versions of the Jesus myth theory deny the possibility of a flesh and blood Jesus being involved in the Gospel account but rather as with J. M. Robertson's version "(w)hat the myth theory denies is that Christianity can be traced to a personal founder who taught as reported in the Gospels and was put to death in the circumstances there recorded."[2]
The term does not have an exact and agreed-upon meaning, but has been used to describe various related concepts such as Jesus originally being an allegoric myth to which historical details possibly including an actual obscure 1st century teacher of the same name were added later,[3][4][5] a c100 BCE Jesus being made to seem to be of the 1st century through legendary processes,[6][7] the Gospel Jesus being a composite character formed out of both mythic and historical elements that may or may not include an actual 1st century teacher named Jesus,[8][9] and has even been applied to people who held that there was indeed a 1st century teacher named Jesus but that the New Testament accounts tell us little to nothing about the man.[10][11]
Two of the earliest known published skeptics of the historicity of Jesus were the French Enlightenment thinkers Constantin-François Volney and Charles François Dupuis in the 1790s. Notable proponents include Bruno Bauer; Arthur Drews in the 20th century; and more recently G.A. Wells, Alvar Ellegård, and Robert M. Price. The idea has come to modern public attention through the work of writers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens (two of the "Four Horsemen" of "New" Atheism), and the French philosopher Michel Onfray.[12]
Supporters of the Jesus myth theory point to the lack of any known written references to Jesus during his lifetime and the relative scarcity and disputed veracity of non-Christian reference to him in the 1st century. Some proponents contend that Christianity emerged organically from Hellenistic Judaism, and drew on perceived parallels between the biography of Jesus and those of Greek, Egyptian, and other gods, especially those figuring in myths about dying and rising deities.
