Global InformationChrist myth theory information
| Christ myth theory | |
|---|---|
 The Resurrection of Christ by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1875)—some mythicists see this as a case of a dying-and-rising deity. | |
| Early proponents |
|
| Later proponents |
|
| Living proponents |
|
| Subjects | Historical Jesus, historical reliability of the Gospels, historicity of Jesus |
| Part of a series on |
 |
|
The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory,[1][q 1] is the fringe theory 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 who lived in 1st-century-CE 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 question of historicity was settled in scholarship in the early 20th century,[8][9] and mythicism is rejected as a fringe theory by virtually all mainstream scholars of antiquity,[q 10][10][11][web 1] and has been considered fringe for more than two centuries.[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]
- ^ Lataster 2015a
- ^ "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees, based on certain and clear evidence." B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of God ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. p. 256-257
- ^ Herzog 2005, pp. 1–6.
- ^ Powell 1998, pp. 168–173.
- ^ Van Voorst 2000, p. 568.
- ^ Van Voorst 2000, p. 9; Price 2009, Chapter 1.
- ^ Eddy & Boyd 2007, p. 34.
- ^ Casey 2010, p. 33.
- ^ Wells 2007, p. 446 "by around 1920 nearly all scholars had come to regard the case against Jesus's historicity as totally discredited".
- ^ Van Voorst 2003, pp. 658, 660.
- ^ Burridge & Gould 2004, p. 34.
- ^ Van Voorst 2003, p. 658.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Ehrman.2015.Debatewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Gullotta 2017, p. 313-314,346.
- ^ Casey 2014, p. 41,243-245.
- ^ Ehrman 2012, pp. 336-338 "It is no accident that virtually all mythicists (in fact, all of them, to my knowledge) are either atheists or agnostics. The ones I know anything about are quite virulently, even militantly, atheist.".
Cite error: There are <ref group=q> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=q}} template (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=web> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=web}} template (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).