Some people see the myth and think it’s true.

Others see the myth and believe it conveys deeper truths.

A few see the myth for what it is…

Myth, like all those other stories about dying and rising god-men.

Myth, like those stories about supernatural beings who never          actually existed.

Myth, like the stories in which real people undergo apotheosis after          their deaths.

Despite the contemporary Christian assertion that no-one in the ancient world considered the gospels to be myth, Justin Martyr, writing circa AD150, was moved to address the charge:

When we say that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter.” (Apology 21, my emphasis. You can read more here)

And how does Justin explain the similarities between the gospels and pagan myth?:

For when they say that Dionysus arose again and ascended to heaven, is it not evidence the devil has imitated the prophecy? (22:55, my emphasis)

The devil did it! It was ‘diabolical mimicry’!

Except we know it wasn’t. Early cultists created their own myth(s) using ‘prophecy’ from Jewish scripture and common mythical tropes to create their own god-man stories. Which isn’t to say Jesus didn’t exist – after all, Augustus existed, undergoing an imaginary apotheosis after his death – but it does mean gospel Jesus, the Son of God, the third person of the Trinity, is as much a fiction as all those other characters who were deified after their deaths. Which begs the question, why create a mythic character if Jesus was really so impressive to begin with? Unless of course he wasn’t.

Some people see the myth and think it’s true.

Others see the myth and believe it conveys deeper truths.

A few see the myth for what it is.