Jesus is God (even before Constantine!)

[amergina]

This is a little on the old side, and a lot of us knew this from the Early Church Fathers and from church tradition, et al, but there is archeological proof of Jesus being referred to as God as early as the 3rd century (the excavators date it to the first half of the third century, around 230 A.D

Comments

[flipao_maria]

Just because people referred to Jesus as God as early as the third century, does not mean that all Christians or even most Christians believed Jesus to be God. Furthermore, I think it is a misnomer that people say that "Constantine made Jesus God". He clearly did not in the sense that before he became emperor, no one believed Jesus was God. Constantine, however, ensured that God was properly worshiped in his empire; what proper worship consisted of was for the Church to determine. Also, he called the Council of Nicaea to deal with Arian Christianity. So, I think it is fair to say he did a lot to push an "Orthodox" form of Christianity.

[amergina]

Furthermore, I think it is a misnomer that people say that "Constantine made Jesus God".

It is one of the (simplified) claims modern non-Trinitarians tend to make, though.

Otherwise, I agree with you.

[palehorse13]

I wouldn't say the purpose of Nicaea was to "deal with Arian Christianity" -- the point was to settle the dispute one way or the other. It doesn't seem that Constantine himself much cared which one won out, as long as his empire was unified. This is evidenced by the fact that Arius had just met with Constantine himself and was a day away from being restored to full communion, when he was murdered.

[underlankers]

That was the basic point of the First Council of Nicaea, yes. Constantine I wanted a quick fix to the problems of the empire, looked at the Church, said "This'll do," saddled the Church with administrative duties that were IMHO bad for Christianity, and thus the whole misery of the Inquisition. All because one emperor needed a quick fix.

That's a huge oversimplification, but to go into full detail on the rationale of the Edict of Milan would probably be a post in and of itself, and I don't have the time for such a thing right now.

[spyro_prime]

I never heard of this before.

[pastorlenny]

Neato.

[underlankers]

Very cool.

Always nice to have archaeology agree with the Scriptures. I'm surprised none of the Newage/Sewage (credit to Dogemperor) types have pointed to Kuntiljnet Arjud (probably misspelled) as evidence of Jewish polytheism on this site. Something like that, with their biases behind it (as opposed to my own biases that I know are 100% correct because they're mine) would be right up their alley.

If you look at the earliest archaeology, I think there's the Greek phrase ICTYS on it (I could be wrong), and that is an acronym of the Koine phrase "Iesous Christos Theos Yious Soter," or Jesus, Son of God, Savior. I think some of that is in the Colosseum.

More wise folks than I shall no doubt come along and correct this.

[underlankers]

Should be *Catacombs, not the Flavian Amphitheatre.

[martiancyclist]

My first reaction: "Ann really ought to know better than to post something with this much potential for flaggelation of deceased equines."

My second reaction: "Now I'll get to say all the things about Emperor Saint Isapostolos Constantine that I've learned since last time around!"

[amergina]

I honestly didn't expect an archeological dig to cause so much trouble. :)

If you dig through the articles, there's a lot of other interesting stuff... like the fact that there was an altar (basically, it's a chapel) and that it was in a compound for Roman soldiers, but locals also worshiped there.

But I should know invoking Constantine causes issues, huh?

[martiancyclist]

Maybe it's just me who tends to get in long arguments about St. Constantine here...

[paedraggaidin]

Nope. :)

I feel a storm brewing in my Roman Empire class when we get to the subject, as it's obvious the professor is rather hostile to Christianity....