If the Gospels are the fictional stories of Jesus, a person who never lived, we would expect that there would be some evidence of people having a mythical view of Jesus.
This is one of the challenges for Jesus Mythicists. When did Christians shift from believing in a mythical Jesus to a historical Jesus? It’s not an easy question for them to answer. It is tempting to say at the time of Constantine since everything is Constantine’s fault.
Do we see any evidence among early Christians of people believing that Jesus was only a myth?
The earliest Christian writings we have are from Paul. While Mythicists claim that Paul never believed in a historical Jesus. That is false as you see here. While Paul did see Jesus as being in heaven during that time, Paul also interacted with people who knew Jesus personally, such as Peter, John, and James.
The book of Acts describes the early church and it bridges the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry to that work of the early church. It includes people who were active in the first volume (Luke’s Gospel) and people like Paul and other historical figures. There is no sense of transition from the mythical to the historical.
As we move into the post-biblical period, there is no sense of a mythical understanding of Jesus. Even Origen, the church father most interested in allegorical interpretations, strongly defends a historical basis for the life of Jesus.
This is a problem for Jesus Mythicists. If they are correct, the Gospel writers were so successful in their writing, that everyone else (including those writing before them) really believed that Jesus was real.
