Category:Jesus Myth Theory (subject)

Jesus Myth Theory

Overview

According to this theory, the Jesus we know from the Gospels is an entirely mythical figure fabricated by early Christians, by adopting popular myths and legends of the time.

In its more radical version the theory argues that a person called Jesus of Nazareth never existed; other proponents of the theory contend that there might have been a historical character named Jesus but is completely unrecognizable behind his mythical metamorphosis.

In some authors, the Jesus Myth Theory has been motivated or influenced by antisemitic attitudes, in the attempt to separate radically the Christian Jesus from his Jewish environment and to turn Christianity into a totally non-Jewish religion based on Hellenistic or "Aryan" traditions.

Major proponents of the Jesus Myth Theory

Two 18th-century French philosophers, Charles François Dupuis (1742–1809) and Constantin-François Chassebœuf, Comte de Volney (1757–1820) are credited for first developing the idea that Jesus should be viewed as an entirely mythical character. They rejected the historicity of Jesus and explained the origins of Christian narratives about Jesus as allegories based on solar pagan myths and rituals.

External links

• Wikipedia