It was long held believe that Jesus was God, The disciples of John himself, who wrote the gospel of John understood full well what John meant, its not a matter of what we think or spin we put on scripture.
Even Heresies like modalism ( late 2nd century and 3rd century) very early on believed that Jesus was a mode of God's operation, modalists such as Noetus, Praxeas, and Sabellius explained the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as the one God revealing himself in different ways or modes:
Then Arian came along yet with a different concept to what the churches causing great confusion, the Church was 100% correct to define and set their believe, to combat anyone else teaching differently.
From the book the Early Church Fathers under Ignatious P41+
Ignatius, along with his friend Polycarp, were disciples of John the Apostle
This is what he wrote: around 115AD
Avoid heretics like wild beast; for they are mad dogs, biting secretly. You must be on your guard against them; their bite is not easily cured, there is only one physician, a physician who is at once fleshly and spiritual, generated and ingenerated, God in man, true life in death, born of Mary and God. For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived of Mary according to God’s plan, of the seed of David but also of the Holy Ghost.
