Changes

Most mythicists employ similar main arguments: they argue that non-biblical sources do not state that Jesus existed; that the Pauline epistles, which preceded the Gosples, do not establish that Jesus existed; and Jesus was not perceived by the earliest Christians as a recent person but as a being or person from a long mythical past (similar to Hercules or Achilles)<ref name="rp">.Robert Price. 2009. "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" essay. The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830838684.</ref>

Most mythicists employ similar main arguments: they argue that non-biblical sources do not state that Jesus existed; that the Pauline epistles, which preceded the Gosples, do not establish that Jesus existed; and Jesus was not perceived by the earliest Christians as a recent person but as a being or person from a long mythical past (similar to Hercules or Achilles)<ref name="rp">.Robert Price. 2009. "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" essay. The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830838684.</ref>

Mythicist theories tend to be fringe or conspiracy theories: Jesus was some sort of extraterrestrial from outer space (Richard Carrier),<ref>Richard Carrier. 2020. Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ. Pitchstone Publishing. ISBN 9781634311946.</ref> Jesus and early Christians were Buddhists (Michael Lockwood);<ref name="vom">John Loftus and Robert Price (editors). 2022. Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did He Even Exist?. Hypatia Press. ISBN-10 1839191589</ref> Jesus was invented by the Flavians, the family of Caesars who conquered Judea (Joseph Atwill),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus was mushroom hallucinogenic manifestation (John Allego),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus is based on astrology and zodiac signs from which Mark wrote his gospel (Bill Darlison),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus is the main character of Mark whose gospel is really a play (Danila Oder),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus is invented from a mish-mash of dying and rising gods or heroes or Old Testament parallels (Robert Price),<ref name="rp" /> Jesus was invented on the basis of earlier deities, astrological entities and fertility myths of dying and rising gods (Acahrya S).<ref>James McGrath. November 2011. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220818220304/https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-10/fringe-view Fringe view: The world of Jesus mythicism]. The Christian Century.</ref>  

Mythicist theories tend to be fringe or conspiracy theories: Jesus was some sort of extraterrestrial from outer space, perhaps an archangel (Richard Carrier),<ref>Richard Carrier. 2020. Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ. Pitchstone Publishing. ISBN 9781634311946."The most accurate description of earliest Christian thought is that Jesus was an angelic extraterrestrial, who descended from outer space to become a man, teach the gospel, suffer an atoning death, and rise again to return to his throne among the stars, even more powerful than before." (page 8-9) and "If Jesus was never really a historical person, then what the original Christians were teaching was that this ancient archangel descended from the superior heavens, not to Earth, but into the sky, below the top ring of outer space, then known as a vast and terrifying region between the earth and moon, the realm of all flesh, where death and decay, and Satan and his demons, were known to hold sway. And there is where Jesus was originally believed to have died, crucified not by the Romans on Earth, or by the Jews, but by Satan or his agents, far above the clouds. And there is where Jesus’s mortal bodysuit was buried, perhaps in some garden among the demonic sky castles. And three days later he rose from the dead and revealed his glory to all the heavenly creatures, Satan among them.” (p.32-33)</ref> Jesus and early Christians were Buddhists (Michael Lockwood);<ref name="vom">John Loftus and Robert Price (editors). 2022. Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did He Even Exist?. Hypatia Press. ISBN-10 1839191589</ref> Jesus was invented by the Flavians, the family of Caesars who conquered Judea (Joseph Atwill),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus was mushroom hallucinogenic manifestation (John Allego),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus is based on astrology and zodiac signs from which Mark wrote his gospel (Bill Darlison),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus is the main character of Mark whose gospel is really a play (Danila Oder),<ref name="vom" /> Jesus is invented from a mish-mash of dying and rising gods or heroes or Old Testament parallels (Robert Price),<ref name="rp" /> Jesus was invented on the basis of earlier deities, astrological entities and fertility myths of dying and rising gods (Acahrya S).<ref>James McGrath. November 2011. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220818220304/https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-10/fringe-view Fringe view: The world of Jesus mythicism]. The Christian Century.</ref>  

However, modern scholars of religion hold that tropes like "dying and rising gods" are outdated and based on dubious reconstructions from later sources, not early indigenous sources, since the earliest extant sources of examples mythicists often use (e.g. Adonis, Attis, Marduk, Tammuz/Dumuzi, Osiris, Inanna, etc) never make such claims, and there is no clear instance of a dying and rising deity narrative in the history of religions.<ref>Jonathan Z. Smith. "Dying and Rising Gods". Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd edition). Macmillan Reference. 2005. pp. 2535-2539. ISBN 978-0028659978. "There is no unambiguous instance in the history of religions of a dying and rising deity."</ref>  

However, modern scholars of religion hold that tropes like "dying and rising gods" are outdated and based on dubious reconstructions from later sources, not early indigenous sources, since the earliest extant sources of examples mythicists often use (e.g. Adonis, Attis, Marduk, Tammuz/Dumuzi, Osiris, Inanna, etc) never make such claims, and there is no clear instance of a dying and rising deity narrative in the history of religions.<ref>Jonathan Z. Smith. "Dying and Rising Gods". Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd edition). Macmillan Reference. 2005. pp. 2535-2539. ISBN 978-0028659978. "There is no unambiguous instance in the history of religions of a dying and rising deity."</ref>