Ken Smith, good letter. There are additional early sources beyond those you mention, hostile to Christianity (the best witnesses), who also testify to Jesus's existence, and as you said, "It is also compelling that hundreds of followers of Jesus died horrific deaths in loyalty and praise to someone who never existed". Yes, people will die for a lie, but almost never for what they know to be a lie. You aren't going to argue people into faith who don't want to (don't want, not can't) believe because they don't want to deal with Christ's teachings about their souls, eternity, and the consequences of dying unreconciled with God, in their sins; it's the cheap easy shortcut to try to claim Jesus never even existed, then they don't even need to get into dealing with anything else concerning Him, or so they hope. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" vs "yet you refuse to come to me to have life".