[MJTM 22 (2020–2021) 31–60] Christopher M. Hansen1 in the Last
[MJTM 22 (2020–2021) 31–60] ROMANS 1:3 AND THE CELESTIAL JESUS : A REBUTTAL TO REVISIONIST INTERPRETATIONS OF JESUS ’S DESCENDANCE FROM DAVID IN PAUL Christopher M. Hansen1 Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI, USA In the last thirty years, popularity for the idea that Jesus of Nazareth never existed as a historical figure (better known as “mythicism” 2) has grown among laypeople. Until this time, rela- tively few were exposed to mythicism, though it has (contra Ehrman) persisted without hiatus for approximately the last 394 years. 3 Indeed, Barna’s recent survey indicates that nearly 40 percent of the population of the UK doubts the historicity of 1. I would like to thank Brak Avraham for his tireless help in tracking down sources and critiquing my argumentation and ideas with this piece. I must also thank many of my friends and family for their support, criticisms, and en- couragement with this piece as well. Without them, this piece would have never happened. 2. The term “mythicist” was initially used for the works of Schleier- macher and Strauss (Sacks, “Christliche Polemik,” 395 and Matheson, German Theology , 134–63). After its application to the “Christ Myth Theory” in the early twentieth century by Thorburn and others, it became standard both in and out of academia (Thorburn, Jesus the Christ , 1–25; Howell-Smith, Jesus Not a Myth , 3; Robertson, Jesus , vii–xiv; for academics today see Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? ; Casey, Jesus ; Gullotta, “On Richard Carrier’s Doubts”; Meggitt, “‘More Ingenious than Learned’?”). For further discussion of the term “mythi- cism,” see Meggitt, “‘More Ingenious than Learned’?” 449–50.
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