Christians worshipped Jesus as divine centuries before the Council of Nicaea.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Pliny, Letters 10.96; Philippians 2:6-11; Ignatius, Ephesians
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Did Nicaea Invent the Divinity of Jesus?
Did Nicaea Invent the Divinity of Jesus?
The current answer
The vote that made Jesus God is a novel’s invention. The worship is two centuries older.
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What the bishops said to each other inside the hall in 325 survives only in partisan reports and is marked below as reconstruction.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Eusebius; Socrates, Ecclesiastical History 1.8, reconstruction
Pliny had no theology to defend and no reason to flatter the sect he was executing.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97
Justin Martyr around 150 calls the Logos "another God" beside the Maker of all; Origen around 240 calls the Son "a second God".
Imported citation, not independently checked: Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 56, 62; Origen, Against Celsus 5.39
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