Mythicism doesn’t paint any better of a picture of whoever came up with the “teachings”.
Either way, whoever started it was scamming people. (I would suggest Paul was from the get go, too, even if Jesus was real.)
That said, if Jesus was real and he claimed to be a messiah, then he would have been expected to do miracles to prove it. So if the most basic part of his claim is true, he’d have had to do a little sumth’n sumth’n
Those gospels were all written well after his death. They’re probably about as accurate as George Washington chopping down the cherry tree.
Mythicism doesn’t paint any better of a picture of whoever came up with the “teachings”.
Either way, whoever started it was scamming people. (I would suggest Paul was from the get go, too, even if Jesus was real.)
That said, if Jesus was real and he claimed to be a messiah, then he would have been expected to do miracles to prove it. So if the most basic part of his claim is true, he’d have had to do a little sumth’n sumth’n