Most antiquities scholars think that the new testament gospels are
"mythologized history." In other words, they think that around the
start of the first century a controversial jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben
Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provided the seed
that grew into christianity.
At the same time, these scholars acknowledge that many bible stories
like the virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and women at the tomb
borrow and rework mythic themes that were common in the Ancient Near
East, much the way that screenwriters base new movies on old familiar
tropes or plot elements. In this view, a "historical jesus" became
mythologized.
For over 200 years, a wide ranging array of theologians and
historians-most of them christian-analyzed ancient texts, both those
that made it into the bible and those that didn't, in attempts to
excavate the man behind the myth. Several current or recent bestsellers
take this approach, distilling the scholarship for a popular audience.
Familiar titles include Zealot by Reza Aslan and How jesus Became god
by Bart Ehrman.
But other scholars believe that the gospel stories are actually
"historicized mythology." In this view, those ancient mythic templates
are themselves the kernel. They got filled in with names, places and
other real world details as early sects of jesus worship attempted to
understand and defend the devotional traditions they had received.
The notion that jesus never existed is the majority position. Of course
it is! says David Fitzgerald, author of Nailed: Ten christian Myths That
Show jesus Never Existed at All . For centuries all serious scholars of christianity were christians themselves, and modern secular scholars
lean heavily on the groundwork that they laid in collecting, preserving,
and analyzing ancient texts. Even today most secular scholars come out
of a religious background, and many operate by default under historical
presumptions of their former faith.
Fitzgerald is an atheist speaker and writer, popular with secular
students and community groups. The internet phenom, Zeitgeist the Movie
introduced millions to some of the mythic roots of christianity. But
Zeitgeist and similar works contain known errors and oversimplifications
that undermine their credibility. Fitzgerald seeks to correct that by
giving young people interesting, accessible information that is grounded
in accountable scholarship.
More false arguments in support of the jesus Myth theory can be found
in the writings of Richard Carrier and Robert Price. Carrier, who has a
Ph.D. in ancient history uses the tools of his trade to show, among
other things, how christianity might have gotten off the ground without a
miracle. Price, by contrast, writes from the perspective of a
theologian whose biblical scholarship ultimately formed the basis for
his skepticism. It is interesting to note that some of the harshest
'debunkers' of the truth from Zeitgeist or
Joseph Atwill (who tries to argue that the Romans invented jesus) are
from serious Mythicists like Fitzgerald, Carrier and Price.
No comments:
Post a Comment