This French enlightenment thinker, who I will call C. F. Volney for short, was with Charles-François Dupuis, one of the earliest proponents of the Jesus Myth.
C. F. Volney had some background in both philosophy and history. He spent time in Egypt and Syria (which at the time included Lebanon and Israel). He was what was called then an orientalist.
He was not an atheist but a deist, as were many of his colleagues. Revolutionary France was not religiously neutral but was actively reacting to the control and authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
One of C. F. Volney’s goals was to point to the eventual union of all religions based on their common truths. Obviously there are some strong contradictions between the religions and so a lot of work would need to be done.
This led C. F. Volney to reject Jesus as a historical figure (although he may have seen an original historical figure upon which the mythical material was laid upon.
He put a lot of emphasis on sun worship as a unifying theme, something that later Mythicists also have done.
Here is one passage from his book, The Ruins.
Finally, these traditions went so far as to mention even his astrological and mythological names, and inform us that he was called sometimes Chris, that is to say, preserver,* and from that, ye Indians, you have made your god Chrish-en or Chrish-na; and, ye Greek and Western Christians, your Chris-tos, son of Mary, is the same; sometimes he is called Yes, by the union of three letters, which by their numerical value form the number 608, one of the solar periods.** And this, Europeans, is the name which, with the Latin termination, is become your Yes-us or Jesus, the ancient and cabalistic name attributed to young Bacchus, the clandestine son (nocturnal) of the Virgin Minerva, who, in the history of his whole life, and even of his death, brings to mind the history of the god of the Christians, that is, of the star of day, of which they are each of them the emblems.
None of this is something that modern historians or scholars of religion would accept but it was useful for C. F. Volney’s purposes in trying to devise religious ideas apart from the Roman Catholic Church.
Similar ideas to this can be found in the writings of Gerald Massey.
