The Three-Headed "Jesus" Problem

[Pizza]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jesus_myth_theory
This is interesting. There is more than one "Jesus myth theory" position.

However, Volney and Dupuis did not agree on what the Christ myth was. Dupuis held that there was no human being involved in the New Testament account which he saw as an intentional extended allegory of solar myths while Volney allowed for confused memories of an obscure historical figure to be integrated in a mythology that compiled organically.[10] So from nearly the get go the modern Christ Myth theory had two parallel lines of thought: There was no human being being behind the New Testament and confused memories of an obscure historical figure were woven into the mythology. For the most part the 'no human being being behind the New Testament version is presented as the Christ myth theory ignoring Volney's confused memories of an obscure historical figure version.

As mentioned before Volney and Dupuis had different views regarding the Christ myth which resulted in a large number of ideas beings called "Jesus myth theory" or "Christ Myth theory" (going from totally imaginary to partly historical):
Jesus is an entirely fictional or mythological character created by the Early Christian community. (Effectively Dupuis position)
The Christ Myth may be a form of modern docetism.[20]
Jesus Agnosticism: The Gospel story is so filled with myth and legend that nothing about it including the very existence of the Jesus described can be shown to be historical.[21]
Jesus began as a myth with historical trappings possibly including "reports of an obscure Jewish Holy man bearing this name" being added later.[22][23] (Effectively Volney's position)
The Gospel Jesus is in essence a composite character (that is, an amalgamation of several actual individuals whose stories have been melded into one character, such as is the case with Robin Hood), and therefore non-historical by definition.[24]
Jesus was historical but lived around 100 BCE.[25][26]
The Gospel Jesus didn't exist and GA Wells' Jesus Myth (1999) is an example of this.[27] Note that from Jesus Legend (1996) on Wells has accepted there was a historical Jesus behind the hypothetical Q Gospel and that both Jesus Legend and Jesus Myth have been presented as examples of the Christ Myth theory by Robert Price and Eddy-Boyd.[28] while Richard Carrier has used them as examples of an ahistorical Jesus.[29]
Christianity cannot "be traced to a personal founder as reported in the Gospels and was put to death in the circumstances there recorded."[30]A Jesus who died of old age or only preached 'End of the World is nigh' speeches to small groups would qualify.
(The Christ myth is) "the theory that no historical Jesus worthy of the name existed, that Christianity began with a belief in a spiritual, mythical figure, that the Gospels are essentially allegory and fiction, and that no single identifiable person lay at the root of the Galilean preaching tradition.[31] "In simpler terms, the historical Jesus did not exist. Or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity" [32]
"This view (Christ Myth theory) states that the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology, possessing no more substantial claims to historical fact than the old Greek or Norse stories of gods and heroes..."[33] There are modern examples of stories of known historical people "possessing no more substantial claims to historical fact than the old Greek or Norse stories of gods and heroes"--George Washington and the Cherry Tree; Davy Crockett and the Frozen Dawn; Jesse James and the Widow to mention a few. King Arthur and Robin Hood are two more examples of suspected historical people whose stories are most likely fictional in nature.
Christ-myth theories are part of the "theories that regard Jesus as an historical but insignificant figure."[34]