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The Jesus myth

© Francois Tremblay

The notion of a god-man named Jesus as saviour of humanity is central to Christianity. Jesus on the cross is the icon of Christianity. Jesus is considered the most holy man in the Christian tradition.

Without belief in Jesus, the Christian religion loses all justification for its existence. As such, it becomes of vital importance to examine what is claimed about the Biblical Jesus and to evaluate these claims. Compounding this ideological importance, recent events in theology like the Jesus Seminar have put into question the deeds of the Biblical Jesus.

What exactly does the Bible claim that Jesus did? The most striking feature of Jesus' life is the incredible scope of the miracles he is said to have participated in. He is claimed to have turned water into wine and materialized loaves and fishes to feed thousands after thousands, to have walked on water and tamed the storm, exorcised demons and cured the masses, and raised the dead; and he was publicly judged, crucified, and resurrected (for a complete list with verses, see The Miracles of Jesus Christ). He was born of a virgin, was entombed and rose from the dead after three days, and ascended to Heaven.

One problem of these claims is that they are far from original. All of Jesus' attributes and miracles were already present in earlier myths. Mithraism, a religion that co-existed with Christianity but began much earlier, is the best example of this. Mithra was born of a virgin, his birth was celebrated on December 25th, performed miracles with 12 disciples, held a last supper, resurrected after three days on the spring equinox, and ascended to Heaven.

Also, Zoroaster, Horus, Krishna (member of the Hindu trinity), Bacchus, Prometheus, Indra, and a great deal of other deities or legendary characters were born by virgin birth and shared many other attributes with Jesus. Empedocles was reported as preaching, curing illnesses, controlling the storms, and raising the dead. Dionysus had a last supper. Bacchus turned water into wine. Osiris died and was resurrected. And so on and so forth. In fact, some early Christians condemned the idea of the crucifixion because it was considered pagan !

These other myths are a strong indication of the origins of the Jesus myth, if it is indeed a myth. But if Jesus did exist, then these claims would be irrelevant. Therefore we must examine the evidence.

But the problem here is that there is no evidence. No contemporary evidence (let alone credible contemporary evidence) has ever been proposed for the existence of Jesus.