DId Jesus' disciples believe Jesus was God or a prophet?

Question

Did the disciples believe that Jesus was God or a prophet? I presume that their opinion changed when he died. They called Jesus lord, however lord is a somewhat common title back then.

Answer 1

Matthew 16:16 is perhaps the most prominent answer to this question.

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16 ESV

So, the disciples became convinced by the miracles, the teachings, and the character of Jesus through His ministry that Jesus was the very Son of God.

Yet, it wasn't when Jesus died that their belief and understanding became solidified, but after His resurrection. The disciples were fearful prior to that. In fact, many were hiding while He was being crucified. All fled at His arrest, even though Peter made one valiant act in His defense.

If Jesus had only died, Christianity would not exist. It was the resurrection that turned "unschooled, ordinary men" into bold witnesses of Jesus who willingly faced persecution and death for their teaching that Jesus is Lord.

Answer 2

Yes - they thought many things, and at various stages in His ministry, differing "circles" of His disciples expressed different things.

Of His closest disciples (those we generally associate with the term "disciple", aka The Twelve), Peter declared Jesus to be the Christ first:

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." {Matthew 16:16}

This is the same Peter who went on to deny Jesus three times during His trial before His crucifixion.

It took Thomas seeing the resurrected Jesus to realize who He is:

"Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." .. Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." {John 20:24-29}

Certainly they recognized Jesus to be "important" early on (see how fast they respond to His calls of them), for example when they ask to learn how to pray:

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples." {Luke 11:1}

When each of the twelve became "aware" of who Christ was is not told to us - certainly it was by Pentecost, though.

Those not close to Christ (or who were only peripherally-aware of Him), did not know who He was - but worried about Him:

And King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, "John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him." But others were saying, "He is Elijah." And others were saying, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, "John, whom I beheaded, has risen!" {Mark 6:14-16}

Answer 3

In addition to the great answers here, I would like to answer the "being God" bit. When John wrote his gospel (a long time after Jesus' death and resurrection), he wrote these famous words (John 1:1):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Answer 4

Maybe this is what Dan Andrews was trying to ask (I could be wrong), "did the disciples believed Jesus was God ONLY after the resurrection or was it before drawing from the statement in Mathew 16:16 as Narnian was pointing out?

To answer that question we would have to know what Peter meant by "Son of God" - there are at least two possibilities:

A) Peter believed Jesus was the Messiah prophesied to save Israel who was appointed by / from God or;

B) Peter believed Jesus was the Messiah prophesied and was God himself in the flesh

the choice, I would imagine, would need to be decided by looking at the Greek and the context of this statement in the Gospel of Matthew.