How did the myth of Jesus' resurrection originate?

[John V]

Many would answer that it was borrowed from the Osiris myth.

Perhaps. However, I start from the premise that Yeshua was a historical figure, an itinerant rabbi with considerable rhetorical prowess, who got himself crucified by the Romans and remained dead.

So my answer is cognitive dissonance.

When people believe something intensely, and it fails to happen, they can't live with that. They have to invent a story to prove that it really did happen in an unexpected way.

The problem with such explanations is that they can also support opposite scenarios.

For instance, consider yourself. You believed. Then you read some things in the OT and judged god as unworthy. This sets up cognitive dissonance - if you continue to believe you end up in hell and don't want to consider that. So, you found reasons to discontinue belief.

I'm not saying that's what actually happened. I'm just saying that broad concepts like cognitive dissonance can generate tales that go any which way, and so don't really have much value.