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{"id":18909,"date":"2017-12-14T01:23:34","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T06:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=18909"},"modified":"2017-12-06T06:25:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T11:25:17","slug":"hurtado-flaws-mythical-jesus-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2017\/12\/14\/hurtado-flaws-mythical-jesus-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"More from Hurtado on the Flaws in the Mythical Jesus Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"christ-1618197_640_opt\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMythical Jesus\u201d: The Fatal Flaws
\nby larryhurtado<\/p>\n

My lengthy posting in which I explained why the \u201cmythical Jesus\u201d claim has no traction among scholars (here) dre1)w (predictably) an attempt to refute it from the \u201cVridar\u201d blogsite. I don\u2019t think it succeeds, but readers will have to judge for themselves. I\u2019ll content myself with underscoring a few things that remain established from my posting.<\/p>\n

I focused on three claims that Richard Carrier posits as corroborating his hypothesis that \u201cJesus\u201d was originally a \u201ccelestial being\u201d or \u201carchangel,\u201d not a historical figure, and that this archangel got transformed into a fictional human figure across several decades of the first century CE. I showed that the three claims are all false, which means that his hypothesis has no corroboration.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence of \u201ca Jewish archangel Jesus\u201d. All known figures bearing the name are portrayed as human and historical figures. Furthermore, contra Carrier, Paul never treats Jesus as an archangel, but instead emphasizes his mortal death and resurrection, and mentions his birth, Davidic descent, and Jewishness, cites teachings of Jesus, and refers to his personal acquaintance with Jesus\u2019 siblings.
\nThere is no example among \u201call the savior cults\u201d of the Roman period of a deity being transformed into a mortal being of a given time and place (such as he asserts happened in the case of Jesus). Carrier claims a pattern, but there is none.
\nFrom earliest extant Christian texts (Paul) to the NT Gospels, \u201cJesus\u201d is a genuine human figure. To be sure, Paul and other early Jesus-followers believed also that Jesus had been raised from death and exalted to heavenly glory. They also then ascribed to him a back-story or \u201cpre-existence\u201d (e.g., drawing on Jewish apocalyptic and Wisdom traditions). But for Paul \u201cJesus\u201d wasn\u2019t simply a \u201ccelestial being\u201d. And for the Gospel writers, he wasn\u2019t simply a bloke.
\nMy posting was intended simply to illustrate, especially for \u201cgeneral\u201d readers outside the relevant fields, why the \u201cmythical Jesus\u201d view is regarded as bizarre among scholars in the relevant fields, scholars of all persuasions on religious matters, and over some 250 years of critical study. It is a sad and desperate move for \u201cVridar\u201d to dismiss this fact by impugning this huge body of scholarship as either gullible or prejudiced, when the only \u201ccrime\u201d is a refusal to endorse the \u201cmythicist\u201d notion. The scholarship that I point to has been shaped by the critical impulses from the Renaissance and \u201cEnlightenment,\u201d all texts, whether biblical or Christian or whatever, subjected to the same critical tests and procedures. In what other subject would a solid body of scholarly judgement be treated to such foolish disdain?<\/p>\n

So, ignoring the various red-herrings and distortions of the \u201cmythicist\u201d advocates, the claims proffered as \u201ccorroborating\u201d their view have been shown to be erroneous. And this is why the view has no traction among scholars. There\u2019s no conspiracy. It\u2019s not because scholars are gullible or lazy. The view just doesn\u2019t stand up to critical scrutiny.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"