Why do atheists even bother about debating Jesus?

[Confused Ape]

Did "john" (who also appears in Josephus...briefly) and "jesus" mint their own coinage?

I can now add the Pilate coins to archaeological backup for Pilate's existence along with the Pilate Stone. I didn't know about those so thanks for mentioning them.

Anyway, as I said in that earlier post - If we're supposed to accept Josephus's history books as proof of Pilate's existence without archaeological backup we'll have to do the same for Jesus and John the Baptist. This is why archaeological backup is so important - without it there would have been no concrete evidence that Pilate really existed. We can't accept Josephus's mentioning Jesus as proof of Jesus's existence, though, because he was only reporting what he'd heard from some Christians.

Looking for the real, historical Jesus is like looking for the Historical Basis For King Arthur

If Jesus had really existed, though, he would have have been an ordinary human who went around preaching what he thought was the Jewish God's message. All supposing he wasn't suffering from some mental illness which made him think he was God's son, of course.

but no one seems to like to mention the tale of Jephthah

Funny you should mention Jephthah. I once spent some time trying to find out what the story meant in Judaism and there are a lot of puzzled scholars. Here's one example of puzzlement from the Jewish Women's Archive.

Daughter Of Jephthah

And in making the vow, does he not know that it was customary in Israel for women to come out and greet with song and dance victorious male warriors upon their return from battle (compare Exod 15:19–21; 1 Sam 18:6–7) and that it is quite likely that his daughter will also follow this custom? Or does he think that an animal will be first out of his house? (Animals were often stabled in a small room inside, and quite near the entrance of, the typical Israelite house.And animals were a common object of sacrifice in ancient Israel.)

Another question concerns whether Jephthah’s daughter has prior knowledge of her father’s vow before she steps out of the house. The text suggests that Jephthah’s vow was made in their hometown of Mizpah; if pronounced publicly, presumably she would have heard it. Perhaps that was Jephthah’s intention—that she hear it and so take warning not to come out of the house first. But even if the vow was spoken in private, it is still conceivable that word could have gotten back to the daughter. And yet if the daughter did know, one wonders why she went out to greet him.