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What exactly is meant by the word "myth"? That term carries very heavy baggage. In modern popular usage it means an event that didn't really happen and was invented to entertain the masses- a "fairy tale", if you will. In the ancient sense a myth was a way of communicating some very deep and profound truths about a community and its life together. I will address the former because it seems that that is what is meant in the original question on this channel. I'll ask the question in another way: Was the person of Jesus an invention of the human mind? Or, more positively: Did the person of Jesus actually exist? I answer in the affirmative, and I'll approach my answer in two ways: 1)The history of Israel, and 2)The apostolic witness. I'll try to be brief.

Israel had a very long and arduous history, with its beginnings being traced roughly back to the Exodus from Egypt and their journey to Mt. Sinai. At Sinai, the Israelites (descendants of Jacob) were formed into a nation and a people through a Covenant (similar to a treaty) that had marked similarities to ancient Hittite Suzerainty Treaties. The Sinai Covenant, which was imposed by YHWH on the Israelites said, in short, "Love God and others, or else you will be stripped of your most prized possession, namely, the land which God promised to your father Abraham." They eventually ended up in Canaan (the Promised Land) and settled there. Life was not easy, as very cruel and powerful empires came and went. The literary prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, et al.) interpreted these conquering empires as God's judgment on God's recalcitrant people. Why would God punish God's own people? Because they were worshiping the gods of their conquerors. In the year 587 B.C.E. the southern part of the kingdom (called Judah) along with its capital Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by the Babylonians, and its people taken away from the land and into exile. The Israelite people would never experience independence again.

Around the year 535 B.C.E., the captives were allowed to return to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem and their temple. Many of them had no memory of the pre-exilic time because they were born in Babylon. Some of the captives were too old to return to Judah, and some decided to stay in Babylon because life was good. Those who returned to Judah became known as "Jews", because they developed a system of laws and regulations that, in their minds, guaranteed that they will never be taken away into exile

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