page_title: Christ myth theory
section_title: Paul's Jesus is a celestial being
hierarchical_section_title: Christ myth theory / Mainstream and mythicist views on the arguments / Jesus was a mythical being / Paul's Jesus is a celestial being
caption_attribution_description: English: manuscript of the Epistle to the Romans (fragment)
context_page_description: The Christ myth theory is the view that the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology, possessing no substantial claims to historical fact. Alternatively, in terms given by Bart Ehrman paraphrasing Earl Doherty, "the historical Jesus did not exist. Or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity." It is a fringe theory, supported by few tenured or emeritus specialists in biblical criticism or cognate disciplines. It is criticised for its outdated reliance on comparisons between mythologies, and deviates from the mainstream historical view.
  There are three strands of mythicism, including the view that there may have been a historical Jesus, who lived in a dimly remembered past, and was fused with the mythological Christ of Paul. A second stance is that there was never a historical Jesus, only a mythological character, later historicized in the Gospels. A third view is that no conclusion can be made about a historical Jesus, and if there was one, nothing can be known about him.
caption: A 3rd-century fragment of Paul's letter to the Romans
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