Dorothy Milne Murdock (March 27, 1960 – December 25, 2015), better known by her

pen names A pen is a common writing tool, writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a Nib (pen), nib or in a sm ...

Acharya S and D. M. Murdock, was an American writer supporting the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the view that "the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology", possessing no "substantial claims to historical fact". Alternatively ...

that

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

never existed as a historical person, but was rather a mingling of various pre-Christian myths,

Sun deities A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. Th ...

and dying-and-rising deities. She wrote and operated a website focused on history, religion and spirituality, and astro-theology. She asserted the pre-Christian religious civilizations understood their myths as allegorical, but Christians obliterated evidence by destroying or suppressing literature after they attained control of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, leading to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world, ensuring the mythical nature of Christ's story was hidden. She argued the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

canon, as well as its important figures, were based on Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and other cultures'

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

s. Her theories are overwhelmingly rejected by mainstream historians,

textual critics Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

, and archaeologists, but have been well received by other Christ mythicists such as Robert M. Price, a fellow of the

Jesus Project The Jesus Project, announced in December 2007, was intended as a five-year investigation to examine whether Jesus existed as a historical figure. Plans envisaged that a group of 32 scholars from a variety of disciplines would meet regularly with ...

Life

Murdock was born to James Milne Murdock and Beatrice Murdock in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and grew up in Avon, Connecticut. She received a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree in

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, Greek Civilization, from

Franklin and Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Frankli ...

, then spent a year at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. She had one son. She died of cancers in her immune system and liver on December 25, 2015. She was known as "Dori" to her loved ones.

Writing career

Murdock began her website, ''Truth Be Known'', in 1995. 1999, as Acharya S, she published her first book, ''The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold'', arguing the

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

story is a fabrication.Adventure Unlimited Press, rear cover of Murdock (1999) Her 2007 book, ''Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ'' continues the theme of ''The Christ Conspiracy'' by expanding her theory questioning the

historicity of Jesus The question of the historicity of Jesus is part of the study of the historical Jesus as undertaken in the quest for the historical Jesus and the scholarly reconstructions of the life of Jesus. Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Je ...

, alleging "early Christian history to be largely myth, by sorting through available historical and archaeological data." In 2009, she released ''Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection'' and ''The Gospel According to Acharya S''. Murdock wrote refutations of

ancient astronauts Ancient astronauts (or ancient aliens) refers to a pseudoscientific hypothesis which holds that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this ...

theories, asserting they "may be prompted by the same type of motivation that produced the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, a chronicle largely-consisting of the plagiarized myths of other cultures" re-fashioned as 'fact' concerning purported legend-based characterizations, and may be driven by the attempt to validate biblical myth as historical under a different 'interpretation'."

Reception

Murdock's work received strong criticism from New Testament scholars and historians of early Christians. Agnostic

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

scholar

Bart D. Ehrman Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including t ...

wrote in his '' Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth'' that "all of Acharya's major points are in fact wrong" and her book "is filled with so many factual errors and outlandish assertions that it is hard to believe the author is serious". Taking her as representative of some other writers about the Christ myth theory, he continues "Mythicists of this ilk should not be surprised that their views are not taken seriously by real scholars, mentioned by experts in the field, or even read by them". Emeritus Professor of New Testament Languages and Literature at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

Maurice Casey criticized her work for "her anti-Christian outlook, a lack of any proper sense of reality, failure to give adequate references, inability to interpret primary sources correctly, and dependence on inaccurate out-of-date secondary sources rather than primary evidence." Baptist comparative religion scholar

Clinton Bennett Clinton Bennett (born 7 October 1955) is a British-American scholar of religions and participant in interfaith dialogue specialising in the study of Islam and Muslim-non-Muslim encounter. An ordained Baptist minister, he was a missionary in Ban ...

compares her views to those of radical freethinker Robert Taylor (nicknamed "the Devil's chaplain"), secularist MP and Christ-mythicist

John M. Robertson John Mackinnon Robertson (14 November 1856 – 5 January 1933) was a prolific Scottish journalist, advocate of rationalism and secularism, and Liberal Member of Parliament for Tyneside from 1906 to 1918. Robertson was best known as an advocat ...

, and American mythographer

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

. Butler University religion professor

James F. McGrath James Frank McGrath is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University and is known for his work on Early Christianity, Mandaeism, criticism of the Christ myth theory, and the analysis of religion in ...

describes her viewpoint as one that "once had some currency among scholars" in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but was subsequently abandoned. The book received mixed reviews among conspiracy theorists and supporters of the Christ myth theory. Writer

Russ Kick Russell Charles Kick III (July 20, 1969September 12, 2021) was an American writer, editor, and publisher. Russell Charles Kick III was born on July 20, 1969, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Early in his career, Kick wrote articles, a column, and a cover ...

, in his book ''You Are Being Lied To'', describes ''The Christ Conspiracy'' as "an essential book for anyone who wants to know the reality behind the world's dominant religion". Conspiracy theorist and publisher

Kenn Thomas Kenn Thomas (born June 12, 1958) is a conspiracy writer, archivist, and editor and publisher of ''Steamshovel Press'', a parapolitical conspiracy magazine. Thomas, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, has written over a dozen books on various con ...

calls her a "great chronicler of the conspiracy known as Christianity". Atheist activist and Christ mythicist Richard Carrier criticized her use of the inscriptions at Luxor to make the claim that the story of Jesus' birth was inspired by the Luxor story of the birth of

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...

. Theologian and Christ-mythicist Robert M. Price also criticized Murdock's first book, while promoting her ''Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled'' in ''The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-Four Formative Texts'',p. 1179 and writing the foreword to her ''Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ''.

Publications

* * * * * * *

References

External links