The Christ myth theory (sometimes called the Christ myth, Jesus myth, or nonexistence hypothesis) is the contention that Jesus of Nazareth did not exist as a historical person, that the Jesus of Early Christianity is a personification of an ideal saviour or mythical being to whom earthly events were later attached. Proponents of a mythical origin of Christianity allow that some gospel material may have been drawn from a historical preacher or preachers, but they hold that these preachers were not in any sense "the founder of Christianity"; rather they contend that Christianity emerged organically from Hellenistic Judaism, the epistles and Gospels largely chronicle a mythical non-historical Jesus. The proponents of the theory trace the evolution of the religion through the evolution of the literature and thus give primacy to the epistles over the gospels in determining the views of the earliest Christians.

Those who have proposed one form or another of the theory have documented the similarities between stories of Jesus and those of Krishna, Adonis, Osiris, Mithraism, and a pre-Christian cult of Jesus (Joshua) within Judaism. Some authors attribute the beginning of Christianity to a historical founder who predates the time Jesus is said to have lived. The antecedents of the theory can be traced to the French Enlightenment thinkers Constantin-François Volney and Charles François Dupuis in the 1790s.

The first academic advocate was the 19th century historian and theologian Bruno Bauer. Proponents such as Arthur Drews were influential in biblical studies during the early 20th century. Authors such as Earl Doherty, Robert M.

Price, and George Albert Wells have recently re-popularised the theory. Many biblical historians and scholars are dismissive of the theory.

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