New Testament scholar Robert M. Price, who argues it is quite likely there never was an historical Jesus in the sense that the Gospel version is in essence a composite character and therefore unable to be reasonably verified as a single historical person,[32] writes that the Jesus myth theory is based on three pillars:

• There is no mention of a miracle-working Jesus in secular sources.
• The Pauline epistles, earlier than the gospels, do not provide evidence of a recent historical Jesus.
• The story of Jesus shows strong parallels to Middle Eastern religions about dying and rising gods, symbolizing the rebirth of the individual as a rite of passage.