Here a few reasons I believe it is likely that Jesus did exist as a historical figure:

1. It is very likely the historical Jesus was born and raised in Nazareth.

In both gospels of Luke and Matthew contradictory stories were created to explain how Jesus was still born in Bethlehem but ended up growing up in Nazareth (Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 2:1-52). Seeing as the authors wanted Jesus born in Bethlehem because of the prophecy by Micha in the Old Testament (Micha 5:1-2), it is very unlikely the authors would have invented the unnecessary idea that Jesus was born and raised in Nazareth. In fact, a prophecy not found in the Old Testament seems to be created out of this air to justify Jesus growing up in Nazareth (Matthew 2:21-23).

In the Gospel of John it is also mention that the Messiah is supposed to come from Bethlehem and the religious rulers are confused because Jesus was not from there. (John 7:40-44)

2. There is very strong evidence throughout the synoptic gospels that Jesus was a Jewish Apocalyptic Prophet who believed that God would return with the Son of Man, overthrow the evil forces ruling the world, and set up a physical Kingdom on the earth. He taught parables that clearly taught living right would allow one to enter into that Kingdom when God returns (Luke 12:35-47; Matthew 24:42; Matthew 25:31-46). He clearly seemed to believe this would happen during his generation (Matthew 24:32-35). This contradictory to later Christian theology which teaches salvation by grace through faith and that not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The strong evidence throughout the gospels of Jesus being a Jewish apocalyptic prophet clearly paint a picture of a historical Jesus whose followers later added fabrications and embellishments to his ministry and even changed the entire meaning of his message.

It also seems likely that these were historical teachings taught by a historical Jesus that remained in the gospel accounts when the oral traditions were written down, despite the fact that they went against the grain of later Christian teaching. If Jesus did not exist we would not expect to find contradictory teachings to other Christian sources.

3. In the epistles thought to be genuinely written by Paul (1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, etc.), Paul mentions the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) and even claims to have met Jesus's own brother James and the apostle Peter, claiming even further that he had a confrontation with the Apostle Peter (Galatians 2:11-21). While Paul could have made these connections up, it seems more likley to myself that a historical Paul really did meet with and know these apostles.

4. It is very possible that some of the disciples did not believe Jesus resurrected from the dead (Matthew 28:16-17).

This would more likely be a historical remnant that made into the gospels as it does not seem likely to be something that would have been made up had Jesus not existed historically.

All this information is taken from and credited to Bart Erhman's books "Did Jesus Exist?" as well as "Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium".

Andrew