I have been looking at the Religions Wiki article on the Jesus Myth. They tackle one of the most difficult issues for the JMT right at the beginning. They acknowledge:
Previously, mythicism has been criticized for not explaining the origin of Christianity.
They attempt to show a believable origin for the Jesus Myth. This is important because it is one thing to explain what the Gospels mean, it is another to develop a theory for the origins of Christianity.
They rightly acknowledge that Christianity arose out of Judaism:
Christianity almost certainly grew out of Judaism in the western Levant region under Roman rule in the 1st to 2nd centuries CE.
The main problem with that statement is that they try to sneak the second century. By the beginning of the second century, Christianity had broken from Judaism and was a separate movement.
Obviously there are differences between Judaism and Christianity. This attempt to develop the JMT points to mystery religions.
Early Christianity is often considered to have been a mystery religion, involving secret knowledge and ceremonies known only to initiates of the religion. Many other mystery religions existed throughout the Greek-Roman world. Christianity shares the concept of a savior god that experiences sufferings such as death and resurrection and followers who value baptism to wash away sins to be reborn, ritual meals, and salvation through rituals, as with the other mystery cults.
The claim that Christianity is often considered to be a mystery religion is overstated. Yes, the word “mysterion” is used in the epistles but not in the same way as the mystery religions.
This is important for the JMT because the mystery religions often use the myths of what is claimed to be “dying and rising gods.” This concept of dying and rising gods is also overstated. The supposed resurrection is most often not an actual rising. What these myths depict are not at all like what the death and resurrection of Jesus is in the Gospels.
The big problem for the JMT is explaining how a Jewish movement can adopt pagan myths and integrate those concepts into anything resembling Judaism (even acknowledging the diversity within Judaism).
This article, and every Mythicist I have encountered, fails to explain adequately the development of the Jesus story or the origin of Christianity.
