I've read it all the way through three times, starting as a schoolgirl. I've also read many commentaries, I follow up when I hear of fresh discoveries, and I look into the wider social and political contexts. I am an atheist.
I can't be bothered to dispute the multiple inaccuracies and no-sequiturs in these posts by devoted Christians - long experience tells me they get hurt & angry, and I'm not trying to 'evangelise' atheism. Believe what you like, but only as far as your faiths don't aspire to control the beliefs and actions of other people.
you're an atheist, why are you even on this board?
Although we live in a secular society, our culture's saturated with christianity. We have to know a fair bit about it if we want to understand our own world. There's also the inescapable fact that wars are still being fought, cruelties enacted and atrocities committed in the names of various religions. No rational person could pretend doesn't matter. Therefore it makes sense to discuss it.
It is well known that nothing ever was written down at the life time of Jesus
This is the bit I find absolutely hilarious! This world-changing preacher posed such an existential threat to the Romans and Pharisees/Sadducees that they conspired to hold a show trial and execution. The Romans wrote everything down, from tax records and requisition lists to military updates and political commentary.
The Sadducees wrote a lot, too, but their records seem to have been destroyed in the various sackings of Jerusalem. The Romans, by contrast, had an efficient international postal service. Yet not a single word of anything to do with this troublesome preacher was written for fifty (ish) years after his death, when a flood of 'witness' accounts suddenly began? Yeah. Nah.
Josephus was a two-faced military politician, utterly selfish and with a good eye for the main chance. He mentioned Jesus in passing, a century after the supposed crucifixion. The gospel of Mark is not believed to have been written by that Mark, and probably post-dates Josephus.
But it's all quite interesting as a live example of how religions are built (and why), what they tell us about human power games and the 'need to believe'.