What effect would this have on history? What is Pontius Pilate hadn't ordered Jesus to be crucified? Would there still be a foundation for the Christian Church?
Assuming for the purpose of discussion that the historical end of the biblical narrative is accurate, it sort of hinges on what happens to Jesus after this. Does his movement wind up snowballing? If it does, maybe we get an earlier Bar-Kochba revolt-like event or it splits between the more strictly religious elements and the more politicized elements.
Does it not? In that case, he gets filed under "yet another messianic weirdo" and nothing much changes.
Not to get too far into a thorny topic, but you might want to familiarize yourself with at least the arguments being made by contemporary historians who think there might not have been a real Jesus at all ("Christ Myth theory"). Two you might want to check out are Robert M. Price and Earl Doherty.
Anyway, I'm not saying you need to be persuaded by Christ Myth theory, but if you're going to do an alt-Jesus TL, you might at least want to familiarize yourself with those who think we're already living in that TL.
Those two aside, I was under the impression the Jesus Myth theory was not widely accepted by experts in their field.
(And some of the modern Jesus Myth Theory devotees believe that because they hate Christianity, not because they have evidence against His existence. Go to the site "Jesusneverexisted.com" and they spend a lot of time harping on crimes done in the name of Christ, which are irrelevant to whether He existed or not.)
Given how a large amount of what those who have written on it has been with taking what it says on faith (which is not the is counter to study of it as a matter of weighing what it says for objective purposes), I think calling it the most studied book ever written is a bit much.Agreed. The Bible is the most heavily studied book ever written. Whether or not you believe in the miracles of Jesus is an act of faith and a personal choice, but in more than 2,000 years no one has put forth conclusive evidence demonstrating that Jesus did not exist.
Those two aside, I was under the impression the Jesus Myth theory was not widely accepted by experts in their field.
(And some of the modern Jesus Myth Theory devotees believe that because they hate Christianity, not because they have evidence against His existence. Go to the site "Jesusneverexisted.com" and they spend a lot of time harping on crimes done in the name of Christ, which are irrelevant to whether He existed or not.)