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WORD STUDIES

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The word of the day is

“myth”

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Why study the word “myth”?

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Why study the word “myth”?

Because even as there is a substantial literature that affirms the historicity of Jesus, there is also an extensive literature claiming that Jesus is only a myth.

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Dictionary definitions:myth:1. a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence, 2. an unfounded or false notion, 3. a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth)

ethos:the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution.(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethos)

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Perhaps the most common perception of "myth" is that of a story about an imaginary character that may have derived from some ancient context, but which no one expects to actually be true--a "fairy tale" character.  A more sophisticated concept of myth, and one that often is found in religious and sociological discussions, is that of an ethos story which is retold through the generations and conveys the fundamental nature of a society and the relationships among its members. 

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But  the two concepts may merge, for example in Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales in which the stories using "mythical" characters relate moralisms.

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The term "ethos myth" may be understood as the underlying ideology that governs the way in which society members relate to one-another.  In Western cultures the ethos story myths (or underlying ideologies) have included individualism, democracy, capitalism, the free market, and Christianity.  But the ethos stories gradually change with their retellings as great social transformations ensue. 

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Lately, in postmodern American culture, the ideology of democracy has been

yielding to authoritarian "progressivism,"

individualism is being supplanted by "communitarianism,"

capitalism is being threatened by "statism" (a veiled term for fascism), and

the free market myth is gradually succumbing to regulatory control.

 

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For purposes of exposition, we can distinguish two basic meanings of "myth": fairy-tale myth and ethos myth.

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For purposes of exposition, we can distinguish two basic meanings of "myth": fairy-tale myth and ethos myth.

Questions:Was Jesus actually a historical person or just another mythical fairy-tale character?What is happening to the ethos myth of Christianity? 

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Although the religion called "Christianity" derives from the Jewish figure of Jesus (the Greek version of the Hebrew name "Yeshua" or "Joshua"), it does not even bear his name. The most fundamental question about Jesus is whether he existed at all, or was his story only a Jewish version of legends transliterated from various ancient cultures. This may suggest that Jesus is an example of definition (1), i.e., a fairy-tale myth.

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Most of what is "known" about Jesus is found in the New Testament Gospels and in the writings of the Apostle Paul. A startling fact is that corroborating references to Jesus are virtually absent from the records and writings of non-biblical authors of the first century, C.E. With so little corroborating commentary, the Jesus story might comply with definition (2).

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Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, in their 1988 book The Power of Myth (Doubleday), convey the idea that myths are stories told in all societies out of their ethos, and that all myths are essentially the same at the core, but differ only in details.

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Moyers says that "Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. .... We need for life to signify, to touch the eternal, to understand the mysterious, and to find out who we are." (p. 5)  Campbell says that "What the myths are for is to bring us into a level of consciousness that is spiritual." (p. 14)  On this concept of myth, the Jesus story fits with definition (3), i.e., an ethos myth.

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D. M. Murdock surveys an extensive literature (145 bibliographic entries) that pertains to the contention that the Jesus story is only myth. After describing Jesus story parallels with legends of the Buddha, Horus, Mithra, Prometheus, and Krishna, all of which predate the Christian era, Murdock concludes that “The ‘gospel’ story of Jesus is not a factual portrayal of a historical 'master' who walked the earth 2,000 years ago.”(The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ, Stellar House Publishing, 2011)

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Murdock says that “the Jesus story is a myth built upon other myths and godmen, who in turn were personifications of the ubiquitous sun god mythos.”

(The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ, Stellar House Publishing, 2011)

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Robert M. Price describes the "Christ-as-myth" origin of Christianity as the theory that the Jesus story began as a myth that was historicized, rather than as a  story about an historical figure who was mythologized. In this view, the Jesus story is a version of a "dying-resurrecting Pagan godman" who was "eventually supplied with sayings borrowed from Christian sages, Jewish rabbis, and cynics, and clothed in a biography drawn from the Old Testament." (p. 51)(The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems, Kindle eBook, 2011).

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Barrie Wilson notes that stories of virgin births circulated around the thoroughly Hellenized world of the first century, C.E., particularly with respect to the so-called "mystery religions" surrounding Isis (Egyptian), Mithras (Persian), and Dionysus (Greek). Such mystery religions typically entailed virgin births of what Wilson calls "dying-rising savior figures" which promised salvation to believers. (How Jesus Became Christian, St. Martin's Press, 2008)

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Wilson says that Paul's Christianity religion was almost indistinguishable from these mystery religions.

(How Jesus Became Christian, St. Martin's Press, 2008)

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In his book The Invention of Christianity, Alexander Drake explains how1. the stories of Dionysus might have evolved into those of Jesus, 2. Christian rituals are similar to the Dionysian mystery rituals, and 3. the Christian conceptions of Heaven and Hell may have evolved from the Greek conception of the afterlife.(Kindle eBook, 2012)

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Latter-day biblical historians have compiled a substantial body of literature in support of the contention that Jesus lived and was crucified.

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In 1906 Albert Schweitzer wrote a biblical historical criticism of a number of works published prior to the turn of the twentieth century about “the life of Jesus,” pointing out various shortcomings in the research approaches used. Schweitzer's book, Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung, was translated into English by William Montgomery in 1910 and published under the title The Quest of the Historical Jesus.

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Schweitzer's book sparked a second quest in the 1950s and a third quest in the 1980s that introduced newer methods of analysis into the question of the historicity of Jesus. By the early twenty-first century, the issue had attracted the attention of a number of prominent biblical historians, among them John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Bart Ehrman, and Reza Aslan.

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There were no transcripts of either Jesus’ acts or his sayings, only imperfect recollections by multiple witnesses, recorded by different writers long after the actual occurrences, each of whom had different agendas in writing for different audiences.

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Upon analogy with what playwrights do, the Gospel writers were acting as if writing dramatic scripts for historical events that they themselves had not witnessed, but had only been recalled to them by earlier witnesses or in stories that had been circulated over the course of decades.

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In the same sense that playwrights through the ages have had to "make up" dialogues or speeches for their characters to engage in or deliver in their plays, the Gospel writers wrote the scripts for the dialogues and speeches recorded in the Gospels and the book of The Acts of the Apostles.

The speeches recorded in Acts by the illiterate Aramaic-speaking peasant Peter and the highly-educated Greek-speaking Pharisee Paul sound very much alike (same style, grammar, vocabulary) because the author of Acts wrote both speeches in Greek.

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Although they may have attempted to make the dialogues and speeches as faithful as possible to the reported originals, each Gospel writer would of course put the "spin" on the dialogue or speech that would convey his intended message to his audience. The Synoptic Gospels, read in the sequence in which they probably were written, progressively embellish the birth, death, and resurrection stories of Jesus, including different details for different audiences.

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Robert Price maintains that the Jesus story began as a myth that was historicized. (The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems, Kindle e-book, 2011)

Michael Baigent argues that early Christian church leaders mythologized the Jesus narratives, with the effects both of creating an object of faith and of establishing the locus and line of authority over the emerging Christian church. (The Jesus Papers, HarperSanFrancisco, 2006)

Taken together, these two views imply the historization of a myth followed by the mythologization of the history, i.e., myth to history to myth.

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Joseph Campbell says, “When a person becomes a model for other people's lives, he has moved into the sphere of being mythologized.”

(The Power of Myth, Doubleday, 1988)

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Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (1475-1521), Pope Leo X from 1513 to 1521, is reputed to have said, “It has served us well, this myth of Christ.”Historians have expressed doubt that Pope Leo X actually said this. (William Roscoe, The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth, 1806; Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, 1908)

The quote may have derived from a satirical piece entitled “The Pageant of the Popes” by a Protestant Reformer named John Bale (1495-1563).

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In the satirical piece, Bale wrote “For on a time when a Cardinall Bembus did move a question out of the Gospell, the Pope gave him a very contemptuous answer saying: ‘All ages can testifie enough howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie.’”(Michelle Arnold, Catholic Answers, http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/did-pope-leo-x-say-it-has-served-us-well-this-myth-of-christ).

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If indeed the Jesus birth, death, burial, and resurrection stories are only myths that are unverifiable, the Christian faith and doctrine based upon them have become an ethos myth story that serves to “bring us into a level of consciousness that is spiritual.” (Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, p. 14)

As noted by Karen Armstrong in her book The Case for God, myths are means for conveying essential truths even if they are not factual, and they have been important vehicles through the ages in helping humans to discern the meanings of what is transpiring in their lives. (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

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Even if the Jesus birth, death, and resurrection stories are theologized myths, Jesus' moral philosophy is compelling (but not unique) and may be revered as an authentic code for ethical social behavior (love one's neighbor…, do unto others…, care for the poor).

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Joseph Campbell says that the myth that must obtain in the future will not be focused upon Jesus or the central character of any other religion. Rather, it must be generalized to the society of the entire planet:

  (Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, p.  32)

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“...the only myth that is going to be worth thinking about in the immediate future is one that is talking about the planet, not the city, not these people, but the planet, and everybody on it.  ....  And what it will have to deal with will be exactly what all myths have dealt with...how to relate to this society and how to relate this society to the world of nature and the cosmos.” 

(Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, p.  32)

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This presentation may be viewed in essay form on-line at:

http://www.dickstanford.com

Click on “Selected Essays”

Click on “History or Myth?”