Christ myth theory

The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance. 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."

In contrast, the mainstream scholarly consensus holds that there was a historical Jesus who lived in 1st-century-CE Roman Judea, and that he was probably both baptized and crucified. The question of historicity was settled in scholarship in the early 20th century; however even before this, denial was never persuasive in or out of academic circles. 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.

Mythicism can be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment, when history began to be critically analyzed, 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. Scholars such as Robert M. Price and G. A. Wells argue that evidence of the historical Jesus is so obscured by myths and dogma that nothing about him is certain. A view closer to the mainstream position is that the historical Jesus was the Galilean preacher preserved in the hypothetical Q source, and that details about him were added via Paul's mythical Jesus.

Most mythicists employ a threefold argument: 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.

Mythicism is rejected as a fringe theory by virtually all mainstream scholars of antiquity, and has been considered fringe for more than two centuries. 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on arguments from silence, lacking evidence, the dismissal or distortion of sources, questionable methodologies, and outdated comparisons with mythology.

With the rise of the internet the Christ myth theory has attracted more attention in popular culture, and some of its proponents are associated with atheist activism.