AusGeoff
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Sage of Gippsland
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Excerpted overview of main Jesus mythicist
arguments from Wikipedia:
Most "Christ mythicists" follow a threefold argument:
they question the reliability of the Pauline epistles and
the Gospels to postulate a historically existing Jesus;
they note the lack of information on Jesus
in non-Christian sources from the first and early
second century; and they argue that early Christianity
had syncretistic and mythological origins...
Paul's epistles lack detailed biographical information—
most mythicists agree that the Pauline epistles are
older than the gospels, and note that aside from a few
passages which may have been interpolations,
there is a complete absence of any detailed
biographical information such as might be
expected if Jesus had been a contemporary
of Paul...
The gospels are not historical records, but a
fictitious historical narrative—mythicists argue
that although the gospels seem to present a historical
framework, they are not historical records, but
theological writings, myth or legendary fiction
resembling the Hero archetype. They impose "a
fictitious historical narrative" on a "mythical cosmic
saviour figure", weaving together various pseudo-
historical Jesus traditions...
No independent eyewitness accounts
survive, in spite of the fact that many authors
were writing at that time. Early second-century
Roman accounts contain very little evidence,
and may depend on Christian sources...
Paul refers to Jesus as an exalted being, and is
probably writing about either a mythical
or supernatural entity, or a celestial deity
named Jesus. This deity is derived from personified
aspects of God, notably the personification of
Wisdom, or "a saviour figure patterned after similar
figures within ancient mystery religions" which were
often a dying-and-rising god...
While Paul may also contain proto-Gnostic (early theological)
ideas, some mythicists have argued that Paul may refer to a
historical person who may have lived in a dim past, long
before the beginnings of the Common Era [CE].
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