Where did the Jesus myth come from?

[cootey]

Jesus was not a real person, so where did this Jesus myth come from? Was it based on a single other faith? Was it a combination of other faiths? Or was it completely invented out of nothing?

'You have just made a positive claim.IE "Jesus was not a real person". That attracts the burden of proof;let's see yours.'

There is NO evidence anyone by that name ever did anything consequential. Certainly not around the alleged time of his 'existence'. There were lots of people called Jesus but it appears none of them made any ripples in the local fabric.

' My position; I'm agnostic about the existence of an historical Jesus. I think it's possible, even likely he existed and began a small,orthodox Jewish sect.'

It's possible, but so are Alien Abductions, however, there is no evidence to back either of them up. The best we can say is 'we don't know'.

' However, I also think the Jesus of the New Testament is almost certainly myth.'

On much stronger ground there, not only is there NO evidence the 'miracle working son of god' ever existed, there is a decided LACK of contemporary evidence from people who WERE THERE and wrote about the place. Apparently no one noticed him at the time and the first stories about him emerged decades after the alleged event.

' Christianity as it is today was invented more by Saul of Tarsus* than any other person. The religion contains NO new ideas,moral code or theology. Of course some basic ideas were lifted from the Torah,including an emasculated version of Mosaic Law. Other ideas,such as the resurrecting god and hell are found in other religions, so who knows from which ones they were taken,or indeed if they were invented independently? '

Yep, Saul of Tarsus has a lot to answer for, except HE probably never existed either ! He and his writings were almost certainly made up by Polycarp.
Dying and Rising gods and sons of gods were everywhere around that time and had been around for millenia. The basics of the story were established in loads of religions and sects. The closest parallel to the 'Christ' myth can probably be found in the Egyptian stories of Horus and Osiris around 2,000 years BCE. However, other ideas that Christianity borrowed can be also be found in Zoroastrianism and even Mithraism. All of these religions were well known in the Middle East at the time.

[Justtristo]

Jesus was not a real person, so where did this Jesus myth come from? Was it based on a single other faith? Was it a combination of other faiths? Or was it completely invented out of nothing?

Assuming Jesus is a totally mythical character (which seems likely, although we cannot prove beyond the shadow of a doubt). The best treatment of the whole Christ Myth hypothesis is Robert M Price's The Christ Myth Theory and it's Problems which you can purchase as a ebook off his website.

http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com

[cratehorus]

SO it was a combo of all world religions?

[Minimalist]

I think that is too over-simplified. Try seeing jesus as the final upgrade of the dying/resurrected vegetation god ( you don't have to go all the way to Egypt...Tammuz and Adonis click the names - will serve nicely. Tammuz was local and Adonis was brought along with the Greeks.

Put another way, Tammuz is Vista, Adonis is Windows XP and jesus is Win 7. Except Win 7 actually works.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Yep, Saul of Tarsus has a lot to answer for, except HE probably never existed either

My mistake, I should have written 'the person(s) we CALL Saul/Paul of Tarsus'

It's possible, but so are Alien Abductions, however, there is no evidence to back either of them up. The best we can say is 'we don't know'.

Agreed; my point was simply a pedantic one; we don't KNOW,so may not assert "Jesus did not (or did) exist. The answer is irrelevant to me in any practical way.

[cratehorus]

So it was aliens?

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

So it was aliens?

Probably.

[cratehorus]

So it was aliens?

Probably.

What???

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Probably.

What???

Oh dear,it was a joke, Joyce.

[Jackalope]