Was Jesus made divine by humans?

A recent discussion that I had was interesting, where the question arose as to whether Jesus is/was "God" or he was made divine by Paul or by the Council of Nicea formed under Constantine. This has been a huge debate among many for years.  Jesus said , "During this very night, all of you will reject me, as the Scriptures say, 'I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' (Mat 26:31) and this was to his own disciples. So, doubting Him, was something that even Jesus said would happen.The question is, whether the hypothesis presented is true. Was Jesus made divine by humans, did He claim to be divine, and then finally WAS He divine.

Needless to say, this is not something that can be diligently considered in one article, so I am going to try to approach this in several different articles. As such, I encourage you to follow them. This particular article will center on whether His disciples or Paul made Him Divine, or was it the Council of Nicea under Constantine that made Jesus divine.

The Council of Nicea in 321, arose partially because of what was known of as the Arian

controversy. Arius was a "presbyter" in Alexandria, who because of disputes over the words "begotten," "born" "created," "essence," "substance," nature," and "person" began to postulate that The Father alone was divine and since Jesus was "born" of a human mother he could not be divine or God.  The majority of the council argued against this, stating that the scriptures clearly stated Jesus' divinity therefore Arius' argument was rejected. The Council therefore adapted a "tenet" that Jesus was the "true Son of God" ergo divine, therefore as with Php.2:7-10 He was God. It was not the Council that made Him God, but they were simply agreeing with what was already in the scripture of that day (300's A.D.) and putting down an argument they considered to be in controversy to that. 

This brings us to another consideration in this, what were the scriptures between the first and third centuries?  It is a foregone conclusion, that the Old Testament as we have it in our own bibles today, was in existence even in the time of Jesus, and was quoted by Jesus and his Disciples in the New Testament. There were even Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek versions of the Old Testament that existed and were quoted within the time frame of the first century. But what about the New Testament (33 A.D.-100 A.D.)?  There has been much controversy over this as well, as well as many spurious books that came up in the latter first century through fourth centuries. All making their claim for a position to be recognized as "true" scripture. So, this section will deal with how do we establish the books of the New Testament and the second part of this shall be do they proclaim Jesus as God or divine.

What is called by scholars as the "canon" of the New Testament, are the 26 books or letters

that we have assembled in our bibles today. This was formalized in the Second Council of Trullan of the Year 692, although it was universally accepted in the mid 300's to be the most accurate records of Jesus and his apostles. The "original" letters written by the apostles (gospels and letters) have not been authenticated of found. What we do have though are copies written by fellow Christians so that they could be circulated among the numerous churches of the day. The latest substantial find was in 2008, when 47 new manuscripts were discovered in Albania; at least seventeen of these were unknown to Western scholars. In 1937 a manuscript containing the majority of the letters written by Paul were discovered and are on display at housed in part at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland. While the earliest manuscript is dated to 175 A.D., it is interesting that Polycarp (69-156 AD) quoted from 2 Thessalonians, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, 3 John. Paul is said to have  penned the letter to the Philippians in 62 A.D. which is only 29 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and Polycarp is quoting this in the mid First Century. What is the point of all of this tracking and dating?  It shows that the text of Php.2:7-10 existed in the form that we have it without change or alteration. So it wasn't the Nicean Council that was proclaiming Jesus as God, they were quoting Paul who penned it in 62 A.D.

Now we come to another argument raised, that it was Paul that made Jesus "divine" and that before Paul neither Jesus or his apostles taught such. That - we shall examine in the next article. 

Jim