Did Jesus exist?

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I am not interested in debating whether or not he was the son of god, or whether god exists. I am curious if Jesus actually existed as a historical figure.

I have read, in various places, that there really is no secular written account of his existence that would have been contemporary to him. Moreover there are supposedly glaring omissions in records that would have been made of certain events that he participated in, such as the offense in the Jewish market that got him crucified.

I've also seen these claims rebutted by the logic that we accept non contemporary accounts of plenty of historical events and figures as fact, simply because that's the best we have to go on.

It seems like its a subject that will cause otherwise rational people to respond irrationally. When you suggest that many (most?) of the stories in the bible clearly just could not be true, reasonable Christians will say, "well ya, but these are just stories, metaphors for how to live a good Christian life." But when the existence of Jesus is brought into question its another story. I guess this is understandable, because without Jesus being a real man, born of a virgin, the son of god, on this earth.. they are essentially just Jews. So I can understand why this would make any Christian uncomfortable. However, it does not make the question any less valid and their lack of comfort on the subject is not a substitute for evidence of him having really existed.

So being less than a biblical era scholar, I figured I'd open the question up to the commune and see how you guys filter the evidence for and against his existence.