Did the divinity of Jesus emerge slowly after many years of embellishments?

Skeptics often say that the stories of Jesus were embellished upon for years. They speak along the lines of books like The Da Vinci Code, which (though fictional) proposes that Jesus was voted a god at Nicea. Before that council of the early church, no one believed that he was divine.

Fellow apologist, the anonymous but wonderful Wintery Knight, defends the notion that Jesus was considered divine from the get-go.

WINTERY KNIGHT

How early is the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus?

When I answer this question, I only want to use the earliest, most reliable sources – so I can defend them on historical grounds using the standard rules of historiography.

The 4 sources that I would use are as follows:

  • The early creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, and 1 Corinthians 1
  • A passage in Philippians 2
  • Two passages from Mark, the earliest gospel
  • A passage from Q, which is an early source of Matthew and Luke

So let’s see the passages.

1 Corinthians

I’ve written before about the early creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, which skeptical scholars date to 1-3 years after the death of Jesus, for a variety of reasons I covered in the previous post. Here’s the creed which definitely makes Jesus out to be more than an ordinary man. Ordinary men don’t get resurrection bodies after…

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About Cory Tucholski

I'm a born-again Christian, amateur apologist and philosopher, father of 3. Want to know more? Check the "About" page!

Posted on December 2, 2013, in Apologetics. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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