She asserted the pre-Christian civilizations understood their myths as allegorical, but Christians obliterated evidence by destroying or suppressing literature after they attained control of the Roman Empire, leading to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world, ensuring the mythical origins of Jesus's story was hidden.

[8] Her theories are not accepted by mainstream historians, textual critics, and archaeologists, however have been promoted by scholars such as Robert M. Price, a fellow of the Jesus Project, and prominently featured in the 2005 documentary The God Who Wasn't There.

: 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".

[23] Theologian and Christ-mythicist Robert M. Price also criticized Murdock's first book,[24] while promoting her Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled in The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-Four Formative Texts,[25] and writing the foreword to her Who Was Jesus?