It is possible because in that period (the 2nd temple period), believing Jesus was God wasn't a strange thing, as many Jews at that time believed in a second Yhwh as evident in a plethora of ancient Jewish texts. Philo of Alexandria, also a monotheistic Jew in the first century, believed in a "second God" (deuteros theos). Scholars formally called this as the "Second Power" which only deemed heretical by the Jews in the late second century A.D.
"The binitarian portrayal of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible was motivated
by this belief. The ancient Israelite knew two Yahwehs—one invisible,
a spirit, the other visible, often in human form. The two Yahwehs at
times appear together in the text, at times being distinguished, at
other times not. Early Judaism understood this portrayal and its
rationale. There was no sense of a violation of monotheism since
either figure was indeed Yahweh. There was no second distinct god
running the affairs of the cosmos. During the Second Temple period,
Jewish theologians and writers speculated on an identity for the
second Yahweh" (UW-Madison, 2004).
The consensus today among Bible scholars wassay that Jesus was worshiped
as God quite rapidly (within months after Jesus' ascension).
To underscore the
chronological point here, this body of beliefs and practices clearly
emerged and became familiar features of circles of believers within
the scarcely two decades between Jesus’ crucifixion and the earliest
of Paul’s letters.
Indeed, we should probably judge that this remarkable development
emerged within the very earliest years, perhaps more accurately within
the earliest months, after Jesus’ death, ca. 30 A.D. (The Origins of
Devotion to Jesus in its Ancient Context, Larry Hurtado).
Monotheism in early Judaism and Christianity is inclusive and it isn't unitarian so that is why therePlus, the emerging consensus among scholars today was no controversy when Christians preached and worshipedthat Jesus was not a mere man, but had preexistence as God, which was known in the Jewish Templescholarly term as ''early high christology''.
The recent work of Larry hurtado and Richard Baukham on the shape and
origins of early Christology has led to an emerging consensus. Few
would now doubt that a 'high' Christology is present in the earliest
text of the New Testament (Crispin Fletcher-Louis, 2015).
"I have been trying to explain the unusually important statement about
Christ in Paul’s “Christ Poem” in Phil. 2:6-10. It’s an extremely high
Christology. Christ is a divine being before coming into the world;
and at his exaltation he was made equal with God" (Bart Ehrman, Paul’s
Incredibly High Christology, 2020).
"The experiences of the risen Jesus were crucial; a “high” view of Jesus erupted early (i.e., a view of Jesus as worthy of divine honors and reverence); the notion of “pre-existence” likewise was early. I don’t find plausible his claim that Paul saw Jesus as an angel, or that the view of Jesus as installed as God’s “Son” and the “Lord” at his resurrection and the view that Jesus was “pre-existent” were two separate strands of thought. The latter seems to me to have emerged quite readily from the former". (Larry Hurtado, Oct. 2016).
Monotheism in early Judaism and Christianity is inclusive and it isn't unitarian so that is why there was no controversy when Christians preached and worshiped Jesus as God in the Jewish Temple.
