Legend

"Myten om Jesus" (The myth of Jesus) is a classical book by late Swedish professor Alvar Ellegård, published in 1992. Long out of print, it was recently resurrected as an e-book available from Adlibris (the Swedish vendor). Ellegård subsequently (1999) wrote an English book on the same theme, "Jesus 100 Years Before Christ: A Study in Creative Mythology". Ellegård´s semi-mythicist work on Jesus created quite a stir when it was published, often being seen as downright extremist. I´m old enough to remember a well-attended Ellegård lecture organized by the Swedish Humanist Association (then called Human-etiska förbundet). The audience was so packed that I could hardly breathe! Today, another generation of Bible criticism later, "Myten om Jesus" sounds almost moderate. But sure, maybe not in Poland or Bible Belt America...

Ellegård does believe that Jesus was a real historical person, but places him in the second century BC rather than the first century AD. Curiously, he seems oblivious to Talmudic references which could be interpreted in the same way, nor does he know of the Jewish-Christian sect in Persia which had exactly this view of when Jesus lived. Instead, his case revolves entirely around the Dead Sea Scrolls. To Ellegård, Jesus is identical to the Teacher of Righteousness, the leader of the Essene community at Qumran. Over a century after his betrayal and violent death at the hands of the usurping Hasmoneans, this Jesus appearead in supernatural visions to Paul, Peter, James and the other "apostles", revealing that he was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah that would soon return and usher in the Millennium. Or so they claimed. In this scenario, the apostles were really Essenes, "Jesus" being their long-established cultic figure about whom little real historical information existed.

This explains why the earliest Christian sources (Paul, some of the Catholic letters, Didache, Barnabas, etc) contain relatively little information on the earthly ministry of Jesus, nor did the congregations Paul was corresponding with ask for any. (These congregations would have been less strict Essene groups living outside Palestine. Only the Qumran community had a monastic character.)  Paul´s knowledge of Jesus comes almost exclusively from visions. Apart from these, Paul is simply quoting various passages from the Old Testament, exegeting them as applying to the heavenly Messiah he claims contact with. Once again, explicable on the hypothesis that Jesus wasn´t a person who had lived and died recently. The difference between Paul and the other apostles was that the former wanted to de-Judaize the Essene movement he had joined, inviting God-fearers and other Gentiles to join. To this end, Paul took up influences from the mystery religions (with their dying and resurrecting god of salvation) and Gnosticism (with its dualism between Darkness and Light). Paul in effect became the real founder of Christianity: a syncretist religion blending Judaism and its Essene branch with Hellenism. Other leaders of the "Christian" movement, such as Cephas or James, didn´t want to go quite that far, keeping the Jewish character of the message more intact. Ellegård speculates that the defeat of the Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 AD, including the destruction of Qumran, must have created confusion and consternation among the Essenes in the diaspora, perhaps making it easier for de-Judaizing and Gentile-friendly influences to make themselves heard. 

The Gospels, usually dated 70 - 100 AD, where written later according to Ellegård, perhaps 100 - 130 AD. They are creative mythology, freely based on Messianic prophecies and other passages in the Old Testament, pagan legends about holy men and heroes, and statements made by Paul (which were originally visions). The first person to place Jesus firmly in the first century AD, together with Mary and Pontius Pilate, was Ignatius, but he couldn´t cite any sources, suggesting that the Gospels didn´t yet exist during his lifetime. Taking a cue from Ignatius, a respected Church leader, the Gospel writers expanded on his concept of a first-century Jesus who had suffered, died and been resurrected under Pilate circa 30 AD. Another reason why the Gospels were written down was to stake out territory against the Gnostics. The Gospel of John in particular is an anti-Gnostic polemic. Ellegård spends considerable time detailing all the contradictions between the Gospels, differences between various preserved manuscripts, and so on. His conclusion: we are dealing with an evolving tradition, not historical fact. He also points out that Christianity evidently *didn´t* evolve in Palestine (despite the Jerusalem church having a special status of honor), since all preserved Christian writings are in Greek, often address themselves to churches in Asia Minor, quote the Greek Septuagint translation of the "Old Testament", and so on. On the other hand, the theological milieu is nevertheless Jewish in the sense that it presupposes a grounding in Jewish scriptures not to be expected from mere Gentiles. That is, Christianity emerged in the Jewish diaspora, among Hellenized Jews (or in this scenario, Hellenized Essene Jews). Asia Minor, Alexandria or even Rome is the backdrop to early Christian evolution. Ellegård points to parallels between Philo and the Gospel of John in this regard.

Since Ellegård isn´t a full mythicist, he dates scriptures with a low Christology earlier than those where Jesus has ascended to divine status. Thus, Ellegård believes that the Didache might be the oldest preserved Christian scripture, since Jesus is there depicted as a teacher and prophet, and much of the teachings revolve around a piece of Jewish wisdom literature. The epistle of James might be a Jewish text simply rewritten and reused by Christians. Paul´s ideas about Jesus being a divine or semi-divine figure temporarily incarnating on Earth as a sacrifice for sin represents a later stage of development. Christian Gnosticism is even later. It´s not clear how the author classifies the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, but he seems to place it early, perhaps also as a general wisdom text re-attributed to Jesus. 

The last chapter of "Myten om Jesus" is the most surprising one, given the gung-ho reputation of this little book. Ellegård suddenly strikes an irenic pose, arguing that faith should become more like science, which he sees as skeptical - really skeptical. Science is based on the idea that we will never know the full truth, and faith (as a kind of parallel track to knowledge) should emulate this humble methodological skepticism. Ellegård even says that Paul was undoubtedly one of the greatest visionaries who ever lived?! I have no idea if this was Ellegård´s attempted concession to his Christian readers, or whether he actually was an honest agnostic. Probably the latter, since Sweden is so secularized that atheist professors hardly need to dissimulate. 

Somehow, I share Alvar Ellegård´s assesment. Jesus may be a myth, but it really is the greatest story ever told. And whoever told it, may even have been on to something...