Historical Jesus

I find in my conversations with close friends who are self proclaimed Atheists that many of them actully believe Jesus as a man never existed at all, that he is completely forged literary character. When I ask the follow up question, what is the evidence to prove that Jesus never existed I more often than not hear, "The Gospels are myths, only moral codes." First of all, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are just as much historical manuscripts as the works Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, or Herodotous. In fact, there are more copies of the New Testamnent than any of the works of the previous historical figures mentioned. If the same literary scrutiny were placed on any historical manuscript pre Middle Ages as what is placed on the Gospels we would have reason to doubt the Magna Carta, Caesar crossing theRubicon, Rome Fire, etc. But, for those who want extra-Biblical sources of the histrocity of Jesus of Nazerath I have good news for you.The Jewish-Roman historian Josephesus (37 AD-100AD), in his history of the Jews (The Antiquity of the Jews) cites Jesus by name and that he was worshiped by his followers as a deity, that it was Pilate that sentenced him to crucifixion, that He appeared to his followers after three days alive, and that the "tribe" of Christians were still active. The Roman historian Tacitus (56AD-117AD) wrote in the Annals of a Jewish man refered to as the "Christos" who started a cult in Judea and was executed by Pilate. Tacitus mentions this "Christos" in the context of Nero punishing/ torturuing the Christians of Rome for presumably startring the Great Fire of Rome. Tacitus himself was a pagan and despised the Christians as a most "mischieveous superstition" and regarded Judea as a place of where all things  "hideous and shameful" originate. There are many other extra-Biblical accounts that mention Jesus by name or strongly hint as to him being the subject. In addition to the Synoptic Gospels and John we have several Gnostic gospels and other heretical gospels that mention Christ. These Gospels are by no measure canon but my point is that the Jesus of the Bible is  saturated throughout the Mederterranian world of the 1st ,2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries. There is absolutly no debate among historians, secular or otherwise, as to whether Jesus of Nazerth indeed existed in 1st century Palestine. The debate is on whether he was divine. I will try to answer that in my next post.