Many critics of Christianity claim that the view of Jesus as the divine son of God, resurrected from the dead developed over time. However, the earliest accounts of Jesus strongly contradict this notion. Below are perhaps the two most ancient sources on how Christ’s earliest followers viewed him.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
–1 Corinthians 15:3-8, ESV
1 Corinthians was probably written between 53 and 57 A.D. Paul, its author, here references what he had received– the gospel he had heard. When did he hear it? Well, he converted to Christianity some time between 33 and 36 A.D. According to Galatians 1:18, three years after his conversion he went and talked to Jesus’ original disciples, which is most likely when he “received” the creed he recounts in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. In other words, this creed– which teaches that Christ died for our sins and was raised up again in history– can be said to date to around 36-39 A.D.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
–Philippians 2:5-11, ESV
Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written between 50 and 62 A.D. Because of the structure of this passage (it is poetic in style), many biblical scholars have claimed that Paul is here quoting an even earlier Christian hymn. It is perhaps a hymn like this that Pliny the Younger referenced in his letter to emperor Trajan written around 106 AD which reported that Christians, “sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god, and bound themselves to a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up.” Even if Paul was not quoting another hymn, we still have a very clear and early witness here to the deity of Christ and his death for the sake of others.