Adoptionism

Adoptionism, sometimes called dynamic monarchianism, is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was adopted as God's Son either at his baptism, his resurrection, or his ascension. According to Epiphanius's account of the Ebionites, the group believed that Jesus was chosen because of his sinless devotion to the will of God.

Adoptionism was declared heresy at the end of the 2nd century and was rejected by the First Council of Nicaea, which defined the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and identified the man Jesus with the eternally begotten Son or Word of God.

Some scholars see Adoptionist concepts in the Gospel of Mark and in the writings of the Apostle Paul. According to this view, though Mark has Jesus as the Son of God, references occurring at the strategic points in 1:1 ("The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God", but not in all versions, see Mark 1), 5:7 ("What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?") and 15:39 ("Surely this man was the Son of God!"), the concept of the Virgin Birth of Jesus had not been developed or elucidated at the time of the writing of this early Christian text. By the time the Gospels of Luke and Matthew were written, Jesus is portrayed as being the Son of God from the time of birth, and finally the Gospel of John portrays him as the pre-existent Word (Greek: λόγος) as existing "in the beginning".