One of the things that I find interesting about the Big Bang theory (the scientific theory not the tv show) is how scientists work to move our understanding back to the very beginning. The closer we can get to the actual event, the greater our understanding.
I find the same principle interesting when we apply it to the Jesus Myth Theory. Mythicists believe that the story of Jesus was created based on existing pagan myths. Presumably, if that theory is true, there was a moment when the story was created.
What we know for sure is that during the 50s and early 60s that Paul was talking about Jesus. Yes, he talked about the risen Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, but also made some mention of an earthly Jesus. We also know that four Gospels were written recounting the story of Jesus. I won’t get into the dating of the Gospels here but see this post.
If the story of Jesus, if a myth, must have been made up by someone. Normally, based on what we know about ancient myths, a myth at least starts in a fairly standard form, even if it might get added to over time.
The odd thing is that Paul refers to Jesus without giving much detail about the story. He just assumes that there is this figure of Jesus and he assumes his audience knows about Jesus as well.
And then there are the Gospels. The Synoptic Gospels have much in common but also some differences. Consider the virgin birth, which Mythicists make much of. You would think that if they were based on a standard myth, they would share the same story. But Matthew and Luke seem to share independent traditions about the virgin birth. There hardly seems time for multiple versions of a new myth to develop.
The messiness of the early accounts of Jesus are used by Mythicists to argue against the historicity of Jesus. But I think the evidence points more against the myth theory.
If we try to push back into the decades before the Gospels and even Paul, it is hard to see how the original myth developed. Why does Paul talk about Jesus the way he does? Why do we have four Gospels? This is not what we see when we look to other ancient myths.
I believe that one of the hardest problems for Jesus Mythicists is explain how the myth originally started and how they got from that to our first written texts.
A much better explanation is that there were actual historical events that became an oral tradition that we both referred to and described in our early Christian texts.
