Beyond Constantine

Christians Worshipped Jesus as God from the Beginning

When discussing the history of Christianity, a common question arises: Did the Emperor Constantine invent the divinity of Jesus at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD? It is a popular myth fueled by novels and documentaries, but the historical and scholarly consensus tells a very different story.

The evidence is overwhelming that Christians were not only calling Jesus “Lord” and “God” but were actively worshipping him as a divine being within the first few years after his crucifixion—long before Constantine was even born. Constantine did not invent Jesus’s divinity; rather, he presided over a council that had to define it because the belief was already so widespread and universally accepted.

Let’s explore the historical timeline to separate fact from fiction.

📜 The Earliest Christians: A “Binitarian” Worship

For decades, critical scholars have debated exactly when Jesus began to be treated as divine. However, a growing majority of historians—including prominent scholars like Larry W. Hurtado—have shifted the timeline back to the very beginning .

It started in a Jewish context. This is crucial because first-century Judaism was fiercely monotheistic. Yet, within this strictly monotheistic environment, something unprecedented happened: Jesus began to be included in the very identity of the one God.

How do we know this?

• The “Maranatha” Prayer: The Apostle Paul, writing in the 50s AD (just 20 years after the crucifixion), references an Aramaic phrase used in worship: “Maranatha,” which means “Our Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:22) . This shows that the earliest, Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christians in Palestine were already praying to the risen Jesus and invoking his presence .

• Binitarian Worship: Scholar Simon Gathercole, reviewing Hurtado’s work, notes that from the very earliest layers of the church, there is evidence of “binitarian worship”—that is, devotion that includes Jesus as worthy of worship alongside God the Father .

• Hymns and Creeds: Paul’s letters contain quotations of even earlier Christian hymns (such as Philippians 2:6-11) that describe Jesus as “existing in the form of God” and deserving of every knee bowing in heaven and on earth .

In short, the belief that Jesus was somehow “God with us” was not a late 4th-century development. It was the explosive core of the Christian faith from day one .

🤔 So, Why Was the Council of Nicaea Needed in 325 AD?

If everyone already believed Jesus was God, why did Constantine have to call a council? The answer lies in the difference between belief and definition.

Before the 4th century, the Church had used various language to describe Jesus. Most early theologians (like Justin Martyr or Tertullian) held a view scholars call “subordinationist” —they believed Jesus was divine, but in some way subordinate to the Father. It was a high view of Christ, but it wasn’t yet philosophically precise.

Then came a man named Arius.

⚔️ The Arian Controversy: The Spark That Ignited Nicaea

In the early 300s, a popular presbyter (priest) named Arius in Alexandria, Egypt, began teaching a view that threatened to tear the Church apart . He argued that if the Father “begot” the Son, then there must have been a time when the Son did not exist.

Arius’s logic was simple: “There was when He was not.” He taught that Jesus was a magnificent creation—the first and greatest being God ever made—but he was not the eternal, uncreated God . He was of a different substance than the Father.

To Arius, Jesus was a creature. A perfect creature, but a creature nonetheless.

Standing against Arius was a deacon (later bishop) named Athanasius. Athanasius argued that if Jesus was not fully God, then humanity could not be fully saved. Only if God himself entered creation could creation be redeemed. He maintained that the Son was co-eternal and of the same substance as the Father .

The debate became so fierce that it caused riots in the streets of Alexandria. The future of the Empire was at stake.

👑 Constantine and the Council of Nicaea (325 AD)

Emperor Constantine had recently legalized Christianity (Edict of Milan, 313 AD). He saw the Church as a force for unity in the Roman Empire, but this theological bickering was causing division . So, in 325 AD, he summoned all the bishops to his palace in Nicaea to settle the matter once and for all .

Approximately 300 bishops attended . Constantine presided not as a theologian, but as a facilitator of unity .

What did they decide?
After weeks of debate, the vast majority of bishops rejected Arius’s teaching. They created a creed—the Nicene Creed—to establish a universal standard .

To do this, they had to use a word that was not found in Scripture but clarified the meaning of Scripture: Homoousios (Greek for “one substance” or “consubstantial” ) .

They declared that Jesus Christ is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

Arius and his followers were condemned and exiled .

📝 What Nicaea Did (and Did Not Do)

The Council did NOT:

• Invent the divinity of Jesus.

• Decide which books belonged in the Bible.

• Change the text of Scripture.

The Council DID:

• Define the divinity of Jesus in precise language (homoousios) .

• Condemn Arianism as a heresy .

• Set a unified date for Easter .

• Establish disciplinary canons for clergy .

🕊️ The Aftermath: A Long Fight

The story didn’t end in 325 AD. Despite the council’s decision, Arianism didn’t disappear. In fact, it became incredibly powerful. For decades after Nicaea, political winds shifted, and sometimes the “orthodox” bishops (like Athanasius) were exiled while Arian bishops took over the churches .

The controversy raged for over 55 years . It wasn’t until the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD that the Nicene faith was finally confirmed and Arianism was effectively defeated within the Empire . It was at this council that the Creed was expanded to include a full statement on the Holy Spirit, giving us the version we know today .

✅ Conclusion: Before and After

So, Yes, Christians worshipped Jesus as God long before Constantine.

• Before Nicaea (30 AD - 325 AD): Worship was present, vibrant, and central to Christian life. It was a devotion rooted in the experience of the first apostles and expressed in prayers like Maranatha . However, the theological vocabulary to describe how Jesus was divine was still being developed, leading to various interpretations.

• After Nicaea (325 AD onward): The Church, now backed by the Roman state, used the language of philosophy (homoousios) to build a fence around the apostolic faith. They drew a line in the sand and said: “If you cannot say that Jesus is of one substance with the Father, you are not in the stream of apostolic Christianity.”

The Council of Nicaea was not the invention of Christian faith. It was the preservation of it.

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The Gospels’ Witness to the Divinity of Jesus

The Gospel of Matthew

• Matthew 1:22-23 – The angel declares that Jesus will be called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.”

• Matthew 2:2 – The Magi arrive in Jerusalem saying, “We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Worship directed to a king, but in Matthew’s Jewish context, the word implies divine homage).

• Matthew 2:11 – The Magi “fell down and worshiped him,” presenting gifts fit for a king, but the act of prostration (proskuneo) is the same word used for worship of God.

• Matthew 4:8-10 – Jesus rejects Satan’s offer of the world’s kingdoms, quoting, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” By implication, Jesus himself will later accept such worship, showing he accepts the place of God.

• Matthew 11:27 – Jesus claims, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” This is a claim to an exclusive, mutual knowledge shared only between the Father and the Son, placing Jesus in a unique divine relationship.

• Matthew 14:33 – After Jesus walks on water and calms the storm, the disciples in the boat “worshiped him,” saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” They are not merely respecting a prophet; they are reverencing one who exercises divine power over nature.

• Matthew 16:16 – Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” While “Son of God” can sometimes refer to Israel’s king, Peter’s confession, blessed by Jesus as a divine revelation, carries the weight of unique divine sonship.

• Matthew 28:9 – The women encounter the risen Jesus, “and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.” Jesus accepts their worship without hesitation.

• Matthew 28:17-20 – The disciples worship the risen Jesus, and he declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” He claims universal, divine authority and places his name on equal footing with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the baptismal formula.

The Gospel of Mark

• Mark 1:1-3 – Mark opens by calling his work “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” and then applies a prophecy about “the Lord” (Yahweh) to Jesus, identifying him as the divine figure who comes to visit his people.

• Mark 2:5-12 – Jesus tells a paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The scribes object, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus then proves his authority by healing the man, demonstrating that he possesses a divine prerogative.

• Mark 2:27-28 – Jesus declares, “The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was a divine institution established by God at creation. By claiming lordship over it, Jesus claims authority equal to the one who instituted it.

• Mark 14:61-64 – When the high priest asks, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus replies, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tears his robes and accuses him of blasphemy because Jesus was combining a divine title (Son of Man from Daniel 7) with a claim to sit at God’s right hand, a clear assertion of divinity.

The Gospel of Luke

• Luke 1:35 – The angel Gabriel tells Mary, “The child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” His conception is directly attributed to the power of the Most High, indicating his unique divine origin.

• Luke 2:11 – The angel announces to the shepherds, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The title “Lord” (Kyrios) is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) to translate the divine name Yahweh.

• Luke 5:20-24 – (Parallel to Mark 2) Jesus forgives sins, and the Pharisees object, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus, knowing their thoughts, heals the man to demonstrate his divine authority.

• Luke 7:48-50 – Jesus tells a sinful woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests react by asking, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” Again, Jesus exercises a divine prerogative.

• Luke 8:24-25 – Jesus rebukes the wind and waves, and they obey him. The disciples respond, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” In the Old Testament, only God has power over the chaotic sea (Psalm 107:29).

• Luke 10:22 – (Parallel to Matthew 11:27) Jesus declares, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” This claim to mutual and exclusive knowledge places Jesus in the divine identity.

• Luke 24:52 – After Jesus ascends, the disciples “worshiped him“ and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. The Gospel ends with the disciples giving Jesus the worship due to God.

The Gospel of John

• John 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The most direct statement of Jesus’s (the Word’s) deity and pre-existence.

• John 1:18 – “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Many early and reliable manuscripts identify Jesus as “the only God” or “the unique God” who reveals the Father.

• John 5:17-18 – Jesus says, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” The Jewish leaders seek to kill him because he was “calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” John confirms that this was understood as a claim to equality.

• John 5:23 – Jesus says, “that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” Jesus claims the same honor due to the Father.

• John 8:19 – “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Jesus equates knowledge of himself with knowledge of God.

• John 8:23-24 – “You are from below; I am from above... unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Jesus uses the divine name “I am” (Egō eimi) absolutely, claiming that belief in his divine identity is necessary for salvation.

• John 8:58 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” A direct claim to pre-existence and an explicit use of the divine name, echoing God’s self-identification in Exodus 3:14. The Jews immediately picked up stones to kill him.

• John 10:30-33 – “I and the Father are one.” The Jews pick up stones to kill him, explaining, “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

• John 10:38 – “The Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Jesus describes a mutual indwelling with the Father that indicates unity of being.

• John 12:41 – John comments that the prophet Isaiah “saw Jesus’ glory and spoke of him.” He is referring to Isaiah’s vision of the glory of the Lord (Yahweh) in Isaiah 6, explicitly identifying Jesus as the divine figure Isaiah saw.

• John 14:6-7 – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.” Jesus claims to be the exclusive path to God and equates knowledge of himself with knowledge of the Father.

• John 14:9-11 – “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus states that to see him is to see God, and that the Father dwells in him and he in the Father.

• John 17:5 – Jesus prays, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” He claims pre-existent divine glory shared with the Father.

• John 17:10 – “All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” Jesus speaks of a shared ownership with the Father over all things.

• John 20:28 – Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and my God! “ The most explicit confession of Jesus’s divinity by a disciple, and Jesus accepts it without correction.

• John 20:29 – Jesus blesses those who believe without seeing, affirming Thomas’s confession as true faith.