Christ myth theory

Christ myth theory
The Resurrection of Christ by Noel Coypel (1700)—some mythicists see this as a case of a dying-and-rising god.
Description	Jesus of Nazareth never existed; or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity and the accounts in the gospels.
Early proponents	Charles François Dupuis (1742–1809) Constantin-François Volney (1757–1820) Richard Carlile (1790–1843) Bruno Bauer (1809–1882) Edwin Johnson (1842–1901) Dutch Radical School (1880–1950) Albert Kalthoff (1850–1906) W. B. Smith (1850–1934) J. M. Robertson (1856–1933) Thomas Whittaker (1856–1935) Arthur Drews (1865–1935) Paul-Louis Couchoud (1879–1959) Alvin Boyd Kuhn (1880–1963)
Modern proponents	G. A. Wells, Tom Harpur, Michael Martin, Thomas L. Thompson, Thomas L. Brodie, Robert M. Price, Richard Carrier, Earl Doherty, Raphael Lataster
Subjects	Historical Jesus, Early Christianity, Ancient history

The Christ myth theory (also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, mythicism, or Jesus ahistoricity theory) 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." According to mythologists "Jesus was originally a [deity] who was later historicized" in the Gospels, which are "essentially allegory and fiction."

Some mythiscists hold — in terms given by Robert M. Price — the "Jesus agnosticism" viewpoint, while others go further and hold the "Jesus atheism" viewpoint. Some scholars have made the case that there are a number of plausible "Jesuses" that could have existed, but that there can be no certainty as to which Jesus was the historical Jesus. Others have said that Jesus may have lived far earlier, in a dimly remembered remote past. A number of writers adduce various arguments to show that Christianity has syncretistic or mythical roots. As such, the historical Jesus should not be regarded as the founder of the religion, even if he did exist.

Most Christ mythicists agree that the evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus Christ is weak at best, and point at a series of perceived peculiarities in the sources which they regard as unthrustworthy for a historical account:

In modern scholarship, the Christ Myth Theory is a fringe theory, and is accepted by only a small number of academics. The Christ myth theory contradicts the mainstream historical view, which is that while the gospels include many mythical or legendary elements, these are religious elaborations added to the biography of a historical Jesus who did live in 1st-century Roman Palestine, though scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus, and the only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.

The seven undisputed Pauline epistles considered by scholarly consensus to be genuine epistles are generally dated to 50–60 AD (i.e. approximately twenty to thirty years after the generally accepted time period for the death of Jesus, around 30–36 AD), and are the earliest surviving Christian texts that may include information about Jesus.