JESUS DIVINITY DEBATE: THE HARD TRUTH
JESUS DIVINITY DEBATE AND CONNECTED TRADITIONS
Early Jewish-Christian groups—including the Ebionites, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Paul of Samosata—held an adoptionist view of Jesus. Rooted in strict Jewish monotheism, specific readings of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Synoptic Gospels, they maintained that Jesus was a fully human man empowered or adopted by God rather than a pre-existent divine being.
Strict Monotheism and the Jewish Messiah
Monotheistic Foundation: Jewish Christians anchored their theology in the Shema (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” — Deuteronomy 6:4) and Isaiah 45:5 (“I am the Lord, and there is no other”).
Rejection of Ditheism: Both the Ebionites and Dynamic Monarchians argued that calling Jesus “God” in his own right violated strict monotheism and created two gods (ditheism).
