 | This is a user-space draft. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 07:18, 21 March 2017 (UTC) |
The Christ myth theory (also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, mythicism,[1] or Jesus ahistoricity theory)[2] is the proposition that "the historical Jesus of Nazareth did not exist, or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity."[3] According to mythologists "Jesus was originally a [deity] who was later historicized"[4] in the Gospels, which are "essentially allegory and fiction."[3]
- ^ Maurice Casey, Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths?, Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014.
- ^ Lataster, Raphael (2015). "Questioning the Plausibility of Jesus Ahistoricity Theories — A Brief Pseudo-Bayesian Metacritique of the Sources". The Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies. 6:1.
- ^ a b Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? Harper Collins, 2012, p. 12: "In a recent exhaustive elaboration of the position, one of the leading proponents of Jesus mythicism, Earl Doherty, defines the view as follows: it is "the theory that noy historical Jesus worthy of the name existed, that Christianity began with a belief in a spiritual, mythical figure, that the Gospels are essentially allegory and fiction, and that no single identifiable person lay at the root of the Galilean preaching tradition." In simpler terms, the historical Jesus did not exist . Or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity." Ehrmann quotes Earl Doherty, Jesus: Neither God Nor Man. Age of Reason, 2009, pp. vii-viii.
- ^ Carrier, Richard (2014). On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt. Sheffield Phoenix Press Limited. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-909697-49-2.
[T]he basic thesis of every competent mythologist, then and now, has always been that Jesus was originally a god just like any other god (properly speaking, a demigod in pagan terms; an archangel in Jewish terms; in either sense, a deity), who was later historicized.