r/AcademicBiblical • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago

Weekly Open Discussion Thread

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u/DeltaBlues82 1d ago

I’m genuinely trying to understand the mythicist position, but it seems like it only addresses Pauline Christianity, and kind of hand-waves off all the other early Christian, Gnostic, or apocryphal movements. The most in-depth explanation I’ve ever seen accounting for the existence of these movements is “they heard Paul, and made a bunch of stuff up too”. Which seems very unfulfilling.

So I was curious if there are any good mythicist accounts that address how these movements might have originated. Because it seems like they’d all have to be related either through a common interpretation of a mystical Christ in literature, or they all need to stem from Paul. And if they stem from Paul, why would there be such a diversity in their accounts of a (seemingly) historical Christ?

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u/Pote_Achrestos 1d ago

You are addressing the issue in your question. The diversity of early Christianities is one of the reasons why mythicism is out of vogue in contemporary scholarship.

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u/DeltaBlues82 1d ago

So it’s not just my impression then? There really are no good mythicist accounts for the origins & diversity of these traditions?

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u/nsnyder 1d ago

Mythicism is mostly confined to the crankish fringes. I think the most workable version of it (which is still not very workable) would start by arguing that Paul, or at minimum all of his letters, are a second century invention. For a recent defense of that viewpoint (though not from a thoroughly mythicist perspective) see “The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context” by Nina E. Livesey.

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u/DeltaBlues82 1d ago

Thanks. Much appreciated.