Theories about Jesus?

[FallentoReason]

2. He may not have existed at all. There certainly isn't any compelling evidence to support a real historical figure matching the description of the character of Jesus Christ. If he didn't exist, which is a very real possibility, how did such a character come to be invented?

If the NT is read in the order in which it was chronologically written, it all makes a little more sense; Paul's letters are what came first, and he uses very cultish language of the time, much like the mystery religions of the day ("the mysteries of Christ Jesus", he continually says throughout his letters, "..of which aren't known to us.." [but he was here on earth!!! How can that be?]), then you get the "back story" of this Jesus guy from the Gospels, which as you move chronologically among them (Mark -> Matthew/Luke -> John) you also realise the story gets longer and more supernatural with each telling.

In short, it's no different to e.g. the 12 deeds of Hercules, which might have been taken historically back in the day (there were a lot of Roman historians that included Hercules as having taken part in history in their books) but it doesn't mean those stories are to be taken as literally what happened in history.