It was of course not all smooth sailing from Nazareth to Nicea. Complicating factors included varied presentations of Jesus’s person in light of diverse interpretations of Israel’s Scriptures, the struggle of the Judean and trans-Jordan churches to find legitimation for their messianic faith within common Judaism (pre-70 CE), and then antagonism with proto-rabbinic Judaism (post-70 CE). In addition, by the middle of the first century we already see the first phase of an extended encounter with Hellenism
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