What the Earliest Historical Evidence Shows

Elvis Lucas

05 Oct 2025 — 8 min read

1. The Earliest Jewish Christians Rejected Jesus's Divinity

The Ebionites and Nazarenes were the earliest Jewish Christian sects in Palestine. These groups believed Jesus was the Messiah and followed his teachings, but they explicitly rejected his divinity, the virgin birth, and the doctrine of the Trinity. They believed Jesus was a fully human prophet who became the Messiah through obedience to God's law.

Critical fact: The Ebionites rejected what later became core Christian doctrines like Jesus's pre-existence and incarnation, viewing him instead as a mere man chosen by God through strict observance of Mosaic Law.

These weren't heretics who came later—according to early church accounts, the Nazarenes were the original Jewish converts of the Apostles who fled Jerusalem before its destruction in 70 AD. They were the direct continuation of Jesus's original followers.

2. First-Century Jewish Messianic Expectations

In first-century Judaism, Jews expected God to intervene in history and restore Israel. While some expected a messiah figure, many did not expect a divine being. The expectations varied widely among different Jewish groups.

Jewish theology has always rejected the idea that the Messiah would be divine or that God could be a trinity. The belief that the Messiah is God is considered incompatible with Judaism's core monotheism based on Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one."

The context matters: Jesus and his apostles were Jews operating within strict Jewish monotheism. The idea that they suddenly started worshiping Jesus as God would have been considered blasphemy and idolatry to them.

3. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's Bombshell

Here's perhaps the most important scholarly admission:

"No theologian in the first three Christian centuries was a trinitarian in the sense of believing that the one God is tripersonal, containing equally divine 'Persons', Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The terms translated as "Trinity" only came into use in the last two decades of the second century, and this early usage doesn't reflect trinitarian belief.

Let that sink in. No one in the first 300 years of Christianity believed what is now called "orthodox" Trinitarianism. Not one theologian.

Early catholic Christianity contained divergent views about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While Jesus came to be called "God" or "a god" in the second and third centuries, he was not considered "the one true God."

4. The Historical Development Shows Human Construction

The Trinity doctrine was formally defined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. Various competing views existed before this, including Adoptionism (Jesus became divine at baptism) and Arianism (Jesus was a created being, not eternal God).

The church father Tertullian (160-225 AD) appears to have been the first to apply the term "Trinity" to God, writing against contemporary heresies.

Timeline that matters:

30-33 AD: Jesus's ministry and crucifixion
70 AD: Temple destroyed; original Jewish Christians flee to Pella
~170 AD: Word "Trinity" first used
325 AD: Council of Nicaea formally defines Jesus as "of the same substance" as God
381 AD: Council of Constantinople completes Trinity doctrine

That's a 300-year development from Jesus to the formalized Trinity doctrine.

5. What Early Manuscripts Actually Say

The earliest Gospel (Mark, written 60-80 AD) has the lowest Christology—Jesus is portrayed more as a human prophet. John's Gospel (75-90 AD), written last, has the highest Christology with more divine language.

This shows theological development over time, not a clear teaching from the beginning.

The Archaeological Evidence: Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls, dating from the third century BC to 68 AD, reveal Jewish expectations about the Messiah. They show an apocalyptic worldview and messianic expectations, but they do not describe Jesus and were written before or during his ministry.

First-century Jewish messianic expectations varied widely. Some groups expected a military leader, others a priestly figure. The Dead Sea sect expected TWO messiahs—one royal and one priestly—but the Messiah was to lead in battle and restore Israel, not to be God incarnate.

The Honest Scholarly Consensus

When you remove church bias and look at what historians and biblical scholars across all backgrounds now admit:

The earliest followers of Jesus (Ebionites/Nazarenes) did NOT believe he was God
Jewish messianic expectations did NOT include God becoming human
The Trinity was developed gradually over 300+ years
No explicit Trinity teaching exists in the Bible itself
The theological development moves from lower to higher Christology over time

What This Means

The Unitarian view—that God is one (the Father) and Jesus is the human Messiah—matches the historical evidence better than Trinitarianism for these reasons:

1. It aligns with what Jesus's original followers believed (the Ebionites/Nazarenes who knew the apostles directly)

2. It matches first-century Jewish context and expectations (strict monotheism, human messiah)

3. It explains why the doctrine took 300 years to formalize (it wasn't there originally and had to be developed)

4. It accounts for Jesus's own statements more naturally (calling the Father "the only true God," saying the Father is "greater," not knowing certain things)

5. It avoids the logical contradictions that required centuries of philosophical gymnastics to explain

The Uncomfortable Truth

In the second and third centuries, catholic Christianity came to attribute "a divine nature" to Jesus and firmly established calling him "God." However, language calling Jesus "God" had been very unusual in the first century but became the norm later.

This shows evolution, not original teaching.

The Trinity wasn't "hidden in Scripture waiting to be discovered"—it was constructed over centuries through Greek philosophical categories (logos, substance, essence, persons) that were foreign to Jesus's Jewish context.

The Answer

Can the truth be found? Yes. And the historical, manuscript, and archaeological evidence points more strongly toward:

God is one person (the Father)
Jesus is the human Messiah, the Son of God
This was the belief of Jesus's earliest followers
The Trinity was a later theological development

The evidence is clear enough that even mainstream scholarly sources like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy now openly admit that no one believed modern Trinitarianism for the first 300 years.

This isn't fringe scholarship. This is what the primary sources, earliest manuscripts, and historical context actually show when examined honestly. This isn't academic—it's about eternal truth. Let's see what the historical evidence actually reveals.