I have spent much of my apologetics activity responding to the Jesus myth theory. My first book (co-authored with Stanley Porter) Unmasking the Pagan Christ and my first journal article were both responses to the Jesus myth theory.
Although generally discounted by scholars, I believe that it is a dangerous theory that is influencing people through the medium of the internet. I am thankful that many apologists see this challenge and are responding to it.
This post is not a response to the specific claims of the Jesus myth theory.
My question is: Why is there even a Jesus myth theory to begin with? It does not make sense for people to just wake up one morning and decide they are going to question the historicity of one of the most well known ancient figures. Why do they do it?
I do not believe that there is only one answer to that question. I will present four possible reasons for people to embrace this theory.
1) Atheist Agenda. Atheists by definition deny the existence of God. Traditionally, however, they have accepted the existence of Jesus. They have seen Jesus as either someone who was delusional or someone who was misrepresented (usually by Paul).
More recently, some atheists have begun to question the existence of Jesus as well. Why make this leap? It may be the fault of many Christian apologists. Some apologists, including myself, see the resurrection of Jesus as the best evidence for the existence of God. If the evidence demonstrates that Jesus died and then on the third day was seen alive, something supernatural must have happened.
Instead of attacking each piece of evidence, it may be easier for some atheists to just reject the entire story. There is no need to respond to the empty tomb if Jesus never existed.
2) Anti-Religion. This reason has some overlap with the first but it is somewhat different. Being anti-religious does not require being an atheist. Some people use their love for God to fuel their hatred of religion.
The denial of the existence of Jesus should be seen in the context of attitudes toward other founders of major religions. In addition to denying the existence of Jesus, there are those who deny the existence of Moses, Buddha and Muhammad. Admittedly, those who deny the existence of Muhammad are quite careful in how they express that view.
There seems to be a trend for people to question the existence of every founder of a religion. How long before people question the existence of Joseph Smith?
3) Another Conspiracy. Some people embrace the Jesus myth because of their love for conspiracy theories. We can assume that at some point people knew that Jesus was a myth and then at another point people believed he was real. Someone had to be responsible for this change.
The Church has made many mistakes over the centuries and so they are an easy target. Church leaders must have secretly decided to make Jesus historical, presumably to make money off of the ignorant masses.
Once you add Constantine into the mix, you have both religious and political powers conspiring together. That is the makings of the perfect conspiracy theory.
4) Alternative spirituality. Not everyone who subscribes to the Jesus myth does it for negative reasons. Some use it to replace traditional Christianity with an alternative spirituality.
My introduction to the Jesus myth came through Canadian author Tom Harpur. Harpur is a former Anglican priest. Having read his books and spoken with him over coffee, I have a sense of why he believes what he does. Harpur was deeply disturbed by the exclusivity of traditional Christianity. Belief in Jesus as the only way is, according to Harpur, the reason behind the crusades, inquisition, holocaust and so on.
But what if the story of Jesus was true in a spiritual sense rather than a historical sense? What if there was no historical Jesus to divide Jews, Christians and Muslims? What if there was a cosmic Christ in every human of every religion and of no religion? Then there would be the potential for peace and unity for the human race.
This is not the place to respond to each of these claims. Rather the purpose of this post is to acknowledge that there are different reasons why people accept the Jesus myth. The practical application for apologists is to determine the kind of Jesus mythicist we are interacting with. Their place in each of the four categories will influence how we respond to their questions.
Ralph Ellis
Ralph released his first book in this genre in 1998; but his seminal work, King Jesus, was published in 2008. In this book, Ralph proposes that the gospel story is semi-mythical: it was based upon real events, but subsequently embellished and fictionalised by the gospel authors and editors. The proposed foundation for this semi-mythical gospel story is the history of King Izates of Adiabene, who Josephus Flavius claims was the leader the Jewish Revolt. Apparently, Josephus also calls this monarch, King Izas.
This was followed in 2012 by a sequel, Jesus, King of Edessa. This work follows the same reasoning, but attempts to further explore and refine the historical evidence for Josephus’ otherwise semi-mythical monarch, King Izas. The result is a claim that Adiabene is actually a reference to Edessa in Mesopotamia; and therefore King Izas must be King Manu VI of Edessa. So the Edessan king was called King Izas Manu, while Jesus was called King Jesus (Em) Manu-el.
In addition, Ralph claims that the traditional crown** of the Edessan monarchs is a plaited crown of thorns, and therefore similar to the gospel description.
Ralph
** Image of an Edessan king, wearing his plaited Crown of Thorns.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Coin_of_King_Abgar_X_Phraates_of_Edessa.jpg
Thank you for giving it a name. “The Jesus Myth”. I will NEVER fall for the Jesus myth!
“Why is there even a Jesus myth theory to begin with?”
Because there exists no credible evidence whatsoever. Nobody ever mentioned Jesus while he was supposedly alive.
“The only definite account of his life and teachings is contained in the four Gospels of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All other historical records of the time are silent about him. The brief mentions of Jesus in the writings of Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius
have been generally regarded as not genuine and as Christian interpolations; in Jewish writings there is no report about Jesus that has historical value. Some scholars have even gone so far as to hold that the entire Jesus story is a myth…”
– The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia
1. “Atheist Agenda” – No, just sincerely want to see valid evidence for once to substantiate the claims.
Proper Definition & Meaning of ‘Atheist’
http://www.freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17350#p17350
2 “Anti-Religion” – Again, no, just sincerely want to see valid evidence for once to substantiate the claims. If our sacred religions are so important to us, and they are, then, accuracy and transparency should also be equally important – a point far too many religious folks fail to
grasp. Faith and euphoria should never trump credible evidence and facts.
3. “Another Conspiracy” – claiming conspiracy here just
appears to be just another way of dismissing the fact that no valid evidence exists for the New Testament Jesus.
4. “Alternative spirituality” because the standard beliefs have failed and are no longer working. People want the truth and they will never get it from religious apologists.
I recommend you study:
The Mythicist Position video (read the links for further info)
There is not one single scholar in the field who believes Jesus is a myth. The count is absolutely zero. Even an agnostic like Bart Erhman tears these people to shreds. It’s junk history, there is more evidence for Jesus than any other figure of antiquity.
First you make the mistake of assuming it isn’t true because it is in the Bible. Biblical scholars treat Biblical works as any other ancient historical document. They don’t treat them as inspired, and what they discovered is that the Gospels are of the genre ancient biography, and are mostly reliable. When putting the books of the bible together, they choose the ones closest to the event with the most accurate information. To count them out is to count out the best sources in favor of later less reliable ones.
Check out William Lane Craig’s 4 facts on Jesus that the majority of scholars agree with. There is broad consensus on many things about Jesus life, that to not believe some of them makes you a minority. Even to deny his crucifixion makes you a kook or a true Muslim believer. The idea he didn’t even exist isn’t even on the radar it’s so ridiculous. Also another good resource from him is “Who was Jesus” on his reasonable faith org website which lists the reasons for the general reliability of the gospels among other things.
William Lane Craig and reasonablefaith.org, I see we are getting our information from a diverse array of sources.
“to not believe some of them makes you a minority.” Therefore whatever the majority believe is true?
“Even to deny his crucifixion makes you a kook or a true Muslim believer.” You do realize that ad hominem attacks weaken your position, yes?
It was the quickest reference to use and good because he used a variety of sources you can look up if you’re so inclined.
A majority doesn’t make you right but the one sided evidence makes it virtually certain.
Ad hominem attack would be if I said you were wrong BECAUSE you’re a kook. It’s the overwhelming evidence and the poor disproven arguments of the mythicists that makes it irrational to believe Jesus never existed.
Actually, there are many scholars who accept Jesus as a myth but, one would never learn that by only reading Christian apologist websites.
William Lane Craig has zero credibility. In my experience, I have found that Christian apologists cannot be trusted to tell the truth on these issues.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
– Upton Sinclair
“…Christian scholars over the centuries have admitted that … “there are parallels between the Mysteries and Christianity”1 and that “the miracle stories of the Gospels do in fact parallel literary forms found in pagan and Jewish miracle stories,”2 “…According to Form Criticism the Gospels are more like folklore and myth than historical fact.”3
1. Metzger, HLS, 8.
2. Meier, II, 536.
3. Geisler, CA, 320.
– Who Was Jesus? 259
“…As for this tiresome business about there being “no scholar” or “no serious scholar” who advocates the Christ Myth theory: Isn’t it obvious that scholarly communities are defined by certain axioms in which grad students are trained, and that they will lose standing in those communities if they depart from those axioms? The existence of an historical Jesus is currently one of those. That should surprise no one, especially with the rightward lurch of the Society for Biblical Literature in recent years. It simply does not matter how many scholars
hold a certain opinion…. ”
– Dr. Robert Price, Biblical Scholar with two Ph.D’s
Religion and the Ph.D.: A Brief History
http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18805
“William Lane Craig has zero credibility. In my experience, I have found that Christian apologists cannot be trusted to tell the truth on these issues.”
And therefore, ladies and gentlemen, anyone who has ever come to the apologist discussion table who is a Christian (or even a convert from Atheism i.e. C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel) who actually believes in and defends their worldview (despite any academically bolstered credentials in History, comparative religions & cultures, cerebral prowess in intellectual rationality and logic, and a firmly held conviction to “speak truth in love” as Scripture calls Christ’s adherents to strive for), is automatically negated by our “freethoughtnation”-advocating Marty into untrustworthiness and unacceptability categorically. That’s just fantastic, my friend. We will get right on trying to locate an atheistic humanistic evolutionary materialist scientist PHD holder who still somehow supports Christian orthodoxy, believes in Divine Providence, the historicity of Christ and the vivifying, sanctifying transformation of a human soul through the workings of the Holy Spirit to quote from for your sole criteria for acceptance. It might be difficult for us though I’m afraid, since they all tend to cling to that nicely explained enforced axiomatic framework so common in secular universities that if diverted from (say, for example one’s heart and mind being changed by the gospel and the workings of Christ), they’re usually forced to be systematically laughed at to scorn by their equally yoked pool of co-dependent naturalism-shackled peers. Do you have a preference to hear such impossible to fulfill and self-contradictory testimony from a leprechaun or a yeti?
Lisa, can I ask you who during Jesus’ life time you would expect to write about him?
How about anybody? In over 20 passages throughout the canonical gospels claiming Jesus was famed far and wide not a single claim has ever been substantiated with credible evidence.
This is very interesting:
Religion and the Ph.D.: A Brief History
http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18805
I recommend you read these:
Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver
http://www.amazon.com/Moses-Exist-Myth-Israelite-Lawgiver/dp/0979963184/
On the Historicity of Jesus
http://www.amazon.com/On-Historicity-Jesus-Might-Reason/dp/1909697494/
My point is that there is no contemporary writer that we would expect to report on Jesus but who did not. The closest is Philo and reporting on Galilean preachers was very far from his interests.
Very interesting points. Especially in determining what approach to use when “battling” with those who push the Jesus Myth theory…