The alternative is that there's no historical character, merely a mythical one. Many of the early stories make much more sense if you adopt that position. The

The alternative is that there's no historical character, merely a mythical one. Many of the early stories make much more sense if you adopt that position. The earliest allegorical story that mentions the character was written around 70 CE - so a good 40 years after the supposed crucifixion. You assert plenty of first hand accounts were available (they weren't), and that there are many corroborative accounts now (there aren't). The movement seemed to be spreading remarkably slowly until it was leveraged by an opportunistic emperor in the early 4th century. At that time there were dozens of various sects, the Nicene was just another variant, but the orthodoxy that came out of that adoption meant we lost many of the works and details of the others. That rewriting of history would also address your last point, too.