Conversely, if the historical Jesus did not exist, a motley crew of individuals have perpetrated the greatest hoax in recorded history perpetuated over two millennium.
That doesn't follow, any more than any other god figure began as a hoax.
The
Gabriel's Vision stone may or may not be evidence of a cult in Jerusalem in the 1st century BCE that believed a savior would come, die and rise after three days. Even if that weren't the case, it would show one kind of possibility.
Or consider the 'kenosis hymn' which Paul quotes at Philippians 2:5-11. It's thought to be the oldest Christian text we know of, and it has two matters of particular interest. First, 2:8 says,
"8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
The commentary I read says that the whole "hymn" is a metrical poem throughout, except for the words "even death on a cross" which aren't in meter. This points to those words being a later gloss, and raises the possibility that death on the cross was not part of the original story (though I don't suggest it proves it).
Then we have,
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
which says that Jesus was not called Jesus (Aramaic
Yeshua, from Hebrew
Yehoshua, 'Joshua', meaning 'Yah[weh] is salvation') until after his death, meaning that 'Jesus' is a sobriquet. At the least, the earliest knowledge we have of Jesus is not history, but rather story.
Then Paul, who's never met Jesus, arrives some twenty years after the traditional date of Jesus' death, knows nothing of an earthly biography for Jesus, and instead is fixed on declaring Jesus' divinity. Not until the author of Mark, 45 years after the traditional date, cobbles up a Jesus bio by joining the dots on purported messianic prophecies in the Tanakh, do we have the outline of a mortal.
What evidence is "blü 2" prepared to produce that the "historical Jesus" was part of a massive conspiracy?
What credible evidence does "Garden47" have of an historical Jesus, other than the usual 'everyone says so' and 'James the brother of the Lord'? We're looking for a clincher here, not just same old same old.