Jesus as an Archetype

One idea that I have been contemplating lately is that Jesus may have been viewed as a sort of archetype. If you read the link and understand the definition of an archetype, it makes sense to think that this is what Jesus was to early Christians. For example, Jesus is baptized even though he did not sin (according to the gospels). Why? I've always thought that he was portrayed this way in the gospels as a man setting an example for what Christians were supposed to do. And how would this bear on the resurrection issue? Christians believed that at the end of time they would be resurrected, and so it only makes sense that Jesus would have been said to have been resurrected after his death.