Christ myth theory | |
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![]() The Baptism of Christ by Joachim Patinir — Proponents of the Christ myth theory reject the mainstream consensus that Jesus was a historical person who was baptised and later executed. | |
Early proponents |
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Later proponents |
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Living proponents |
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Subjects | Historical Jesus, historical reliability of the Gospels, historicity of Jesus |
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The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory,[1][q 1] is the view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance.[q 2] Alternatively, in terms given by Bart Ehrman paraphrasing Earl Doherty, it is the view that "the historical Jesus did not exist. Or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity."[q 3]
The mainstream scholarly consensus, developed in the three quests for the historical Jesus, holds that there was a historical Jesus of Nazareth who lived in 1st-century-AD Roman Judea,[2][3][4] but his baptism and crucifixion are the only facts of his life about which a broad consensus exists.[q 4] Beyond that, mainstream scholars have no consensus about the historicity of other major aspects of the gospel stories, nor the extent to which they and the Pauline epistles may have replaced the historical Jesus with a supernatural Christ of faith.[q 5]
Mythicism can be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment, when history began to be critically analyzed,[5] and was revived in the 1970s. Proponents broadly argue that a mythological character was historicized in the gospels, and that thus a historical Jesus never existed.[q 3][q 6][q 7] Most mythicists employ a threefold argument:[6] they question the reliability of the Pauline epistles and the gospels to establish Jesus's historicity; they argue that information is lacking on Jesus in secular sources from the first and early second centuries; and they argue that early Christianity had syncretistic and mythological origins as reflected in both the Pauline epistles and the gospels, with Jesus being a deity who was concretized in the gospels.[7][q 8][q 9]
The historicity of Jesus has been widely accepted in scholarship since the early 20th century.[8][9] Mythicism is rejected by virtually all mainstream scholars of antiquity,[10][11][web 1] and has been considered a fringe theory for more than two centuries.[q 10][12] It is criticized for commonly being presented by non-experts, its reliance on arguments from silence, lacking evidence, the dismissal or distortion of sources, questionable methodologies, and outdated comparisons with mythology.[note 1] While rejected by mainstream scholarship, with the rise of the Internet the Christ myth theory has attracted more attention in popular culture,[13][14] and some of its proponents are associated with atheist activism.[15][16]
Ehrman.2015.Debate
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