Although not as common as it once was, there remains a strong and vocal minority of people who do not believe that a fleshand- blood Jesus was ever born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, taught and preached in Galilee, and was eventually crucified by the Romans, then resurrected from the dead. More simply, they deny that Jesus themaneverexisted.Thesenaysayers often retort, for example, “Jesus is real, in the sense that he exists for those who want him to exist.” Or “it’s not even obvious Jesus was a historical figure. The myths about Jesus are not even original.” Or, more pointedly, “Jesus is about as real as Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and King Arthur.” More often than not, such skeptics accuse Christianity of being a copycat. Many critics consider the stories of Jesus nothing more than myth. Collectively, such critics are known as mythicists. Most notably, they hold that the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospel accounts is actually a copy of Ancient Near Eastern pagan myths rather than a trustworthy historical account of His life To be sure, the parallels between the stories of Jesus and those of the ancient Persian god Mithras are striking. Christian writer Lee Strobel explains that the god Mithras, according to Persian mythology, was “born of a virgin, on December 25, had twelve disciples, promised followers immortality, initiated a communion-like meal, was hailed as the way, the truth, and the life, sacrificed Himself for world peace, was buried in a tomb, and was resurrected on the third day.” Striking to say the least. But it’s not just the Persians who had their godman myths; the Egyptians had Osiris and Horus, the Greeks had Dionysus, Syria had Adonis, and AlexandriahadSerapistonamebut a few. On this view, early Christian writers are charged with plagiarizing pagan myths in the first degree. Nevertheless, we should take pause and consider if such a charge is warranted. Specifically, are the Jesus stories in the Gospels plagiarized pagan myths?
But that is not the whole story. It turns out that the pagan myths that seem to parallel the Gospel accounts do not actually predate Christianity but are mythologies that were not written until the second or third century AD. Strobel concludes, “Christianity couldn’t have borrowed the idea of the resurrection if myths about dying and rising gods weren’t even circulating when Christianity was birthed in the first century AD.” That means if anything, it was the pagans who copied the Gospels when writing their mythologies. In addition, on closer examination, the alleged similarities begin to disappear. If we look at the Egyptian god Horus, we see that he was, in fact, not born of a virgin, nor was he crucified, nor was he resurrected on the third day. Much the same can be said for the Greek god Dionysus, whose story is radically different from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s life and death. The myth of Mithras states that he was born from a stone rather than a virgin and says nothing about his death or resurrection.
Beyond that, there is another compelling reason to believe that the Gospel accounts did not copy Ancient Near Eastern myths: the Jews held little regard for paganism. Steeped in monotheism, it would have been unthinkable that the Jewish Gospel writers would have borrowed material from pagan mythological stories. In fact, nowhere in the New Testament is there even a hint of pagan influence. Bible scholar N. T. Wright concludes, “The idea that the earliest followers of Jesus would derive their faith from pagan myths is historically absurd.”
Finally, there is near-universal consensus among biblical scholars, including nonbelievers, that Jesus was indeed a historical figure and not the invention of a group of Jewish followers who adapted pagan dying-and-rising mythology to the Gospel accounts. The people of Israel were looking for the Jewish messiah to come and fulfill all that had been prophesied in the Old Testament. They were not looking to copy from their pagan neighbors. Wright notes “the story of Jesus of Nazareth is not a set of tales recycled from pagan myths. It is deeply rooted in Jewish soil and its foundational ideas are drawn from Israel’s Scriptures, not from mystery religions of the Greco-Roman world.” Likewise, even atheist New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman is spot on writing “the claim that Jesus was simply made up, copied from pagan gods, has no basis in any serious historical scholarship. There is no evidence that the earliest Christians modeled their stories of Jesus on pagan mythologies.”
Over and again, biblical scholars, atheists, Christians, and agnostics alike, are convinced the claim that the Gospel stories of Jesus are nothing more than recycled pagan myth is “absurd” and without merit. Join us again next time as we press ever closer to answering the question, Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.