https://lasvergnas.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... il-existe/The second, more interesting, is that no one in the first centuries denied that Jesus existed. The author replies that this is a daring affirmation, since the Christians boasted of having made the troublesome works disappear. On the other hand, evhemerism was widespread among "atheists": the gods were seen as deified humans.
It was not necessary the first Gospel to persuade the Pagans that Paul preached "merely a man".