The Archetypal Hero and the Historicity of Jesus of Nazareth

In the book The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama, Lord Raglan presents the stories of various heroes which have risen and fallen in popularity throughout the ages. He analyses these legends for similarities, and lists the 22 most common characteristics that they share. His list is as follows.

1. The hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather, to kill him, but
7. He is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns to go to his future kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king, and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and
13. Becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully, and
15. Prescribes laws, but
16. Later loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18. He meets a mysterious death,
19. Often at the top of a hill.
20. His children, if any, do not succeed him.
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. He has one or more holy sepulchers.

Some of the characters to which Raglan applies these attributes are: Oedipus (21), Theseus (20), Romulus (18), Heracles (17), Perseus (18), Bellerophon (16), Pelops (13), Asclepios (12), Dionysos (19), Apollo (11), Zeus (15), Joseph (12), Moses (20), Elijah (9), Watu Gunung (18), Nyikang (14), Siegfried (11), Llew Llewgyffes (17), King Aurthur (19), and Robin Hood (13). The story of Jesus of Nazareth fits into the hero pattern in the following way.

Jesus is born from the virgin Mary (1), and is the son of Joseph, a descendant of King David (2). It is reported that Jesus was not actually Joseph's son, however, and that he was the son of God [who is also referred to as a king] (2&5) who impregnated Mary via the power of the holy ghost (4). When he is born, King Herod attempts to kill him (6), but he is spirited away to the land of Egypt (7) where his mother and foster father Joseph raise him until it is safe to return (8). The gospels relate very little information about his childhood (9), but he returns to Israel (10) and becomes a preacher who prescribes moral teachings to his followers (15). He goes to Jerusalem during the passover, and is initially greeted warmly by the people, but later loses favor with them (16), and is taken out of the city to stand trial before Pilate (17). He sentenced to crucifixion, and is killed (18&19). He is raised from the dead (21), but has a holy sepulcher in Jerusalem (22). He is not reported as having any children (20). It is believed that when he returns, he will defeat the devil, who is often portrait as a dragon (11), and will become the king who reins uneventfully for 1,000 years (13&14).

Other then numbers 3 and 12, Jesus scored 20/22 of the points of the mythic hero archetype. With so many traits of his being shared with mythical heroes who nobody claims existed anymore, why should we believe that Jesus existed at all?

 

This post is laughable. Fitting Jesus into a stereotype of a hero is irrelevant to his possible existence. Where in the most common characteristics does it say the hero and information about him were prophesied over 1000 years before his coming in writing?

 

How is it laughable? There are plenty of stories about different messiahs around that time, very similar to Jesus.

Here are some:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_messiah_claimants

 

This post is very thoughtful, and Jimmy's research is very thought-provoking. However, this description of heroism is surely based on Jesus's existence, so in that case, it's the complete opposite conclusion?

Surely, as arguably the most famous individual of all time, Jesus's model was used to create heroes who resemble him and his life? I'm not entirely sure that all ancient myths/stories about heroes have made it to today's literature. Perhaps the ones that never made it were filtered by Christian scholars (or simply by society rejecting heroes whom they cannot revere), and that's why we only have these stories? We can only view things through the lens of present society, which is significantly tainted with Christian literature. Until a few centuries ago, most of the people who could read ever since Jesus's death only learned to read so they can study the Bible.

Additionally, these criteria are not an all-conclusive list of heroic traits and backgrounds. It's easy to draw up a list with a comparative goal in mind, and then conclude that the comparison is apt once you get enough data. A comprehensive (or at least random) list of heroic traits is more needed to be able to compare these accurately.

 

Some of the later heroes are certanly based in part on Jesus, however the older Greek ones (Heracles, Apollo, Dionysus, Zeus, Perseus, etc.) clearly pre-date him, so it would be illogical to say that these are based off of Jesus. While I do agree that larger, more comprehensive lists could be made, the fact does still remain that all of these attributes were applied to pre-Christian figures, so doesn't it stand to reason that Christ is merely a re-hashing of these older tales?

I don't see why it is laughable, nor do the "messianic prophesies" (most of which are mistranslated or misapplied) have any relevance to this discussion at all.

 

My point was that it's hasty to assume the author's conclusion based on his own data. It's scientific if he included an entire list--rather than just a convenient list--and then attributed the traits to our "crafting of Jesus's tale." However, this seems a little less than scientific. The author depends on the sale of his book, so he's obviously going to craft it in such a way. The point was compelling, but I don't really know for sure if it's really a valid point.

It's much more sellable to say "Jesus never existed; here's why!" than to say "Well, I found some traits, and Jesus fits roughly half of them. I dunno, maybe he did or didn't exist?"