The Christian scholar Simon J. Joseph wrote an interesting article on the Gospels :
The Death of Jesus as a Political Conspiracy and Assassination
He recognizes indirectly what is (for me) a basic problem for many atheists in accepting Mythicism, even if he describes it as a problem (in the his view) for the same Christians in accepting the same ''historical'' truth of the Gospels. His logic is the following:
1) the people are inclined to reject conspirationistic theories.
2) the Gospels claim really conspirationistic theories (describing a Jewish Conspiracy against Jesus)
3) therefore, the people are inclined to reject the historical truth of the Gospels.
Note the surprising similarity with Mythicism:
1) the people are inclined to reject conspirationistic theories.
2) the Mythicists claim really conspirationistic theories (describing a Christian Conspiracy who invented an earthly Jesus by the Earliest Gospel)
3) therefore, the people are inclined to reject the claims of the Mythicists.
In the words of Simon J. Joseph:
How does Simon J. Joseph resolve this contradiction?A conspiracy theory, in other words, is often thought to be illegitimate knowledge.
He describes the Jewish Conspiracy in the Gospels as a tragic collateral effect of a precise theological move by ''Mark'':
So there are two conspiracies in Mark:The Gospels portray the Jewish high priest – among other Jewish religious leaders – as secretly plotting Jesus’ death. Did the author of Mark invent this “conspiracy?” Or was Jesus’ death the result of an “institutional conspiracy” orchestrated in secret? The author of Mark presented Jesus’ death as part of a divine plan: the son of man must suffer and die at the hands of the religious leaders. This explained why Jesus died ("for our sins"), but did so by constructing a conspiratorial narrative that over-exaggerated a political conspiracy between the high priests into a full-blown drama involving all "The Jews" (Matt 27:25).
1) a divine Conspiracy: the plan of God for the Son of Man
2) a Jewish Conspiracy: the plan of the Jews against the Son of God
The Mythicists would add a third Conspiracy:
3) a Christian Conspiracy: an earthly Jesus for the simple brothers of the Lord.
In other terms, the Mythicists think that the Christian ''Mark'' was a real conspirator who invented the two conspiracies described so well by Simon J. Joseph.
It is a fact that Josephus was a Conspirator just as the ''Mark'' of the Mythicists:
1) he invented a Jewish Conspiracy against the Pax Romana, based on 'an obscure prophecy about men coming from Judea''.
What transformed Josephus in a Conspirator who invented a Conspiracy was the tragic historical event called Destruction of Jerusalem, in 70 CE.
Hence, it is very probable that the same event - the destruction of Jerusalem - transformed also ''Mark'' in a Conspirator who invented a Conspiracy.