Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are "mythologized history." In other words, based on the evidence available they think that around the start of the first century a controversial Jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provide...
That much is obvious, if you read Lucian, street prophets with followers were a mundane thing to see.
Actually now when the fine tradition of burning heretics is all but gone in the European cultures, this trait of Antique Mediterranean is slowly coming back.