I repeat: if Jesus did not exist, how come within a few decades of his death there were lots of people, both Christian and non-Christian, writing about him? Yes there were lots of messianic pretenders, but only one connected with the movement called Christianity! And Christianity itself could not have arisen but for a charismatic founding leader. It's one thing to talk about Judaism, where the earliest texts date from long after the time of Moses), or King Arthur, or Theseus; it's quite another to talk about Christianity, where people were writing about it within a few decades of the movement's foundation. Do you not believe that Mohammed existed? What about the Báb (the nineteenth-century founder of Baha'ianism)?

As for crucifixion, of course the Talmud does not talk about it: it's a Roman punishment, not a Jewish one; and it was the Romans, not the Jews, who put Jesus to death.