Did Jesus Really Exist? A Fair Debate with Mythicism

My last blog post inspired a mythicist to come on my Facebook Page Wall and state that I was delusional. He is certainly entitled to that opinion, but since the previous post would offer a deconstructing Christian a way to follow and honor Jesus, I think it is reasonable to address his concerns with an evaluation of mythicism. My reason for addressing this is that I want to show that a deconstructing Christian who still sees value in Jesus in some way is not delusional.

The mythicist position—that Jesus of Nazareth never existed as a historical person but was instead a mythical creation of early Christian imagination—deserves to be engaged respectfully and carefully. It challenges assumptions at the very foundation of Christianity and pushes us to examine what we believe, why we believe it, and what historical evidence actually shows. The mythicist argument claims the Jesus of the New Testament is not a historical figure but a composite of earlier religious symbols, Jewish mysticism, and Greco-Roman mythological themes. It asserts that early Christians created Jesus as a literary device for expressing the timeless archetype of death and rebirth seen in deities like Osiris, Mithras, and Dionysus. And indeed, mythicists point out that Paul—the earliest Christian writer we have—speaks of Jesus more as a cosmic figure than as a recently living person: the risen Lord revealed “through visions and revelations” (Galatians 1:12, 1 Corinthians 15:3–8). So, was Jesus real—or merely an invention?

Before we dismiss the mythicist position out of hand, we need to acknowledge that the Gospels are laden with symbolic narratives, typology drawn from Jewish scriptures, and theological messaging. Mythicists argue these literary constructions were misread as historical over time. They note that the earliest Gospel (Mark, c. 70 CE) was written decades after Jesus' death and may reflect creative storytelling more than eyewitness reporting. They observe that Paul never mentions Jesus’ birthplace, parents, miracles, parables, or specific locations—facts one might expect if Paul knew Jesus had recently lived on earth. They also claim that there are no known contemporary Roman records mentioning Jesus, and that ancient historians like Tacitus and Suetonius only record Christians—not Christ—until decades after the supposed events. Add in thematic parallels between Jesus and mythic figures like Attis and Krishna, and the question becomes real: Is it possible that Jesus was a mythical figure whose story “solidified” into history over time?

But here’s where mythicism runs aground. The overwhelming majority of professional historians—across theological and ideological lines—affirm that Jesus existed. Jewish, agnostic, atheist, Catholic, Protestant, and secular scholars concur. Bart Ehrman, a leading critical scholar and self-described agnostic who rejects the divinity of Jesus, wrote an entire book refuting mythicism titled Did Jesus Exist? (2012). In it, he writes: “I don’t know of a single historian who has spent years studying Jesus, and who teaches ancient history or New Testament studies at a major university, who doubts that Jesus existed.” Ehrman criticizes mythicists not for skepticism, but for ignoring historical method and falsely comparing Jesus to mythic figures who never had real followers, caused public unrest, or were publicly executed (Ehrman, 2012).

Let’s consider key evidence:

1. Paul Mentions Jesus’ Family and Death

Paul’s letters were written within 20–25 years of Jesus’ death—closer than almost any surviving ancient biography. In these letters, Paul refers to James as “the brother of the Lord” (Galatians 1:19), shows familiarity with Jesus’ teachings (1 Corinthians 7:10; 9:14), and states explicitly that Jesus was crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 3:1). Even if Paul’s theology is cosmic, his references assume Jesus was a real, recent person.

2. Josephus, a Jewish Historian, Mentions Jesus

Flavius Josephus (c. 37–100 CE), a Jewish historian writing under Roman patronage, refers to Jesus twice in his Antiquities of the Jews. One of these mentions, about “James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ,” is universally accepted as authentic (Ant. 20.200). The other, the Testimonium Flavianum (Ant. 18.63–64), is more debated—but recent research by T. C. Schmidt (2025) published by Oxford University Press argues that most of this passage is original to Josephus, with only slight Christian editing. Schmidt demonstrates that when adjusted for Josephus’ Greek style, the text reads: “He was a wise man…a doer of paradoxical deeds…He was thought to be the Christ…those who loved him did not forsake him; they reported he appeared alive to them on the third day” (Schmidt, 2025). This “reported-he-appeared” phrasing matches Josephus’ neutral, observational tone—not Christian belief.

3. Embarrassing Details Point to History, Not Myth

Historical method teaches us that people invent stories to strengthen a claim, not weaken it. Yet early Christian sources include embarrassing and difficult details: Jesus was executed by crucifixion—a shameful and politically seditious death; his disciples fled, denied him, and misunderstood him; and the first witnesses to the resurrection were women, whose testimony was legally invalid in that culture. Myth-makers don’t write in ways that discredit their own movement. Historians call this the “criterion of embarrassment”—and Jesus’ story has it all over.

4. Early Christian Belief Requires a Real Catalyst

A purely mythical Jesus cannot explain the sudden, rapid emergence of a Jewish movement proclaiming a crucified messiah in the heart of the Roman Empire—a belief that ran against Jewish expectations, Roman religion, and common sense. Myths do not make martyrs. Movements rooted in pure symbolism do not get their leaders executed, hunted, and scattered. Something happened—someone happened—and the effects were explosive.

All this evidence is why historians across the spectrum affirm Jesus’ existence. Even critical scholars like John Dominic Crossan and Gerd Lüdemann argue not only for Jesus’ historical reality but for elements of his teachings and execution as historically verifiable. Crossan writes: “That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be” (Crossan, 1994).

And yet—and this is important—acknowledging Jesus as a historical figure does not lock anyone into orthodox Christianity. It does not require belief in virgin birth, literal resurrection, or biblical inerrancy. Some see Jesus as a revolutionary teacher, a nonviolent prophet, a social healer, or a Gnostic revealer of divine consciousness. My own perspective—esoteric, universal, deeply shaped by mysticism—is not threatened by the historical Jesus; it is grounded in him. A purely mythic Jesus might inspire imagination, but a real Jesus—the one who walked, taught, challenged power, embodied love, and died forgiving—is a doorway into something deeper and more transformational. Myth can stir the soul. History can disturb it.

In fact, the truth about Jesus may be a mystery of incarnation: a real human life imbued with mythic depth, a figure who gathered symbols into flesh and then shattered them by the force of his presence. Rather than reducing Jesus to a myth, or flattening him into mere history, we can hold the tension: Jesus was a human being, and Jesus was more than a human being. He is both Rabbi and Logos, both Galilean and Cosmic Christ. The myth lives because the man lived.

So to anyone curious about mythicism, I welcome the questions. They sharpen our thinking and humble our assumptions. But in the end, mythicism itself collapses under the weight of the data—historical, textual, and existential. The question is no longer, “Did Jesus exist?” but “Who was he, really?” And if that question is open, then so is the possibility that the one who lived 2,000 years ago still speaks.

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Key Scholarly Sources Cited

• Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, HarperOne, 2012.
• T. C. Schmidt, Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ, Oxford University Press, 2025.
• John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.
• Paul’s letters as cited in the New Testament (e.g., Gal. 1:19; 1 Cor. 2:2; 1 Cor. 15:3–8).
• Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.63–64; 20.200.