Kutbethel, you wrote, in regard to the persona or character named Jesus - "Even if he never existed, he would have been invented anyway." Good point! That is exactly what the French philosophe, Voltaire, wrote: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer" ["If God didn't exist, He would have to be invented"]. Or, by slightlly altering the verb tenses, one could say: "Si Dieu n'avait pas existe, il aurait fallu l'inventer" [If God had not existed, he would have had to have been invented"].
In fact, if one were to believe Carl Jung, the idea of Jesus was present in the minds of humans long, long before he appeared in stories about 2,000 years ago. According to Jung, and his theories of archetypes, since the beginning of the species homo sapiens, humans possess innate, inborn patterns of thought called archetypes. These "archetypes" have manifested themselves in the literature [first oral, and then written] of all societies and all cultures from time immemorial. Example of such "archetyes" are The Scapegoat, The Harrowing of Hell, The Devouring Mother, The Hero, and The Savior [or Redeemer]. The "archetypes" are imagistic "stamps" on the human psyche. These archetypes manifest themselves in varying ways in different cultures and different historica eras, but they do find a way of manifesting themselves. They appear in all literature; and they appeared in the oral traditions of pre-literate peoples. In the mythology of many peoples, we find examples of a "god" who dies and is then resurrected. Often, this "god" has a "virgin" as a mother. It was inevitable that such a "savior archetye" would appear in Christian mythology.The Argentinian writer, Borges, once wrote that throughout all of human history, all stories have been merely variations of two Stories - the Story of Odysseus and the Story of Golgotha. These two stories - the Story of Wandering followed by a settling/return home, and the story of Redemption - are really at the heart of all other stories. As the mythologist, Joseph Cambell, pointed out, it is a question of The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
As a final note, Voltaire also wrote: "If God has created us in his image, we have returned the favor."
