What most people (scholars), participating in the historical vs mythical debate about Jesus, do not say is that, if one considers Jesus to be a historical person, then the gospels are by far the most ample account of his life. But there is a catch. The supernatural is hardly separable from the gospels, or rather, if one removes the supernatural from them, they become senseless. (#)
If, on the other hand, one opts for the myth hypothesis, there are, as far as I can see, two distinct ways to approach it:
1. Either resort to the "Christ myth theory", pure and simple. With it, of course, every claim about Jesus becomes possible.
2. Or resort to the same theory, with the further assumption that the Christ myth is not some sort of spontaneously concocted and gradually established myth: no, it is the fruit of a deliberate conspiracy. This, for instance, is the central thesis of American author Dorothy M. Murdock bka "Acharya S", especially in her book The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (1999).
While option no.1 may seem more soberly "scholarly", I find option no.2 more credible, once one chooses to renounce the pure and simple "truth hypothesis" of the gospels, and realises that the historical Jesus, expunged from the supernatural, creates more problems than it solves. (Of course, unlike Acharya S, one does not need to believe that Jesus is nothing but an Egyptian Horus in Jewish sauce.)
(#) I know that Bart Ehrmann - see, in particular his How Jesus became God, 2014 - thinks he has a sound story, but I think all the problems he thinks to have sorted out are still there. See also the review of his book by Larry Hurtado.
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