Human or divine?

Deifying any human, worshipping and praying to them as if they were God, is supposed to be unthinkable in monotheism. But it was a common pagan practice.

Roman emperors, Pharaohs and Alexander the Great were worshipped as gods. Caesar Augustus, who was Emperor when Jesus was born, was the adopted son of deified Julius Caesar. His official title was Divi Filius, “Son of God.” Alexander the Great’s mother claimed she conceived Alexander not by her husband King Philip, but when she was struck by a thunderbolt from Zeus.

When Rome adopted Christianity, the Roman imperial apparatus remained the same, and was retained by the Vatican after Rome fell. The Roman hats, the titles (the pontiff or pontifex maximus was the chief pagan priest), the pageantry, philosophy, architecture, and even the borders of the “dioceses” that had been run by Roman governors were all retained, only now it was all draped onto Jesus, depicted as an enthroned Emperor.

Early followers of Christ were seen as a Jewish sect and therefore were exempt from Emperor worship at first, but they lost the exemption over the issue of Jesus’ divinity. This issue created irreconcilable conflict with the Jews, so c. 90 AD, followers of Jesus were expelled and banned from all synagogues. While trying to collect a new tax to pay for Jupiter’s temple being built on the ruins of Solomon’s temple, Rome found out about the schism and stripped those called Christians (whose religion was Judaism, even if increasing numbers of gentiles joined) of their Jewish exemption. From there, “Christians” would soon face sporadic persecution.

Seeing Jesus as God (part of the Trinity) is still one of the biggest sticking points many Jews consider proof that Jesus is false and Christianity is wrong. They truly know better than anyone that the prophesied Messiah cannot be a god, much less God. No human in Judaism (or Islam) was ever deified, not even Elijah who never tasted death but ascended into heaven on a chariot of fire.

This mess of problems resulted from trying to make Jesus God. The concept would continue to bear bad fruit as it was bitterly disputed into the 4th century.

Today most Christians probably believe Jesus is fully human and fully divine. It’s not a bad way to view the great mystery of who Jesus is in the spirit world as made clear when a man with an unclean spirit cries out in terror as Jesus enters the synagogue: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" —Mark 1:23-24