Johnnie Ellington II August 18, 2015 at 2:19pm · The Alexandrians pray to Jesus, whereas in Edessa all prayers are addressed solely to God the Father.... Both are shocked at the practices and beliefs of the others. Given this great diversity among early Christians, at what point did the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity actually develop? And what were the factors contributing to the spread and eventual formalization of this doctrine? Searching for the answers to these questions is especially difficult because there are no known surviving documents from the ‘Mother Church’, the original Christian community in Jerusalem. For an extensive discussion of this point, see S.G.F. Brandon’s book JESUS AND THE ZEALOTS (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967, pp. 148-159). We will review his arguments in a few pages. But first, we need to look more closely at the differences that Paul had with other followers of Christ. Remember that Paul never met Jesus, nor did he stud...