In a previous post, I discussed some of the exegetical difficulties associated with the popular Trinitarian claim that the expression, "baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" in Matt 28:19 is evidence, if not biblical proof, of the New Testament authors holding to the Trinitarian dogma. In this post, I would like to add some further evidence against the strained Trinitarian eisegesis of this verse.
Recently, Robert Bowman, in an interview with Dale Tuggy (see here) has argued that being baptised into the name of “x” presupposes the “divinity” (understood within the Trinitarian understanding of such a concept) of “x.” However, this is greatly flawed. For instance, in 1 Cor 10:2, the Israelites were baptised into Moses:
And were all baptised unto Moses (εις τον Μωυσην) in the cloud and in the sea.
Another problem with the argument of Bowman and other Trinitarians who claim that the triadic expression in Matt 28:19 is proof (whether implicit or explicit) of creedal/Latin Trinitarianism is that it makes nonsense of other triadic verses. Notice the following locution that is common in the Bible, “God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.” Does that mean that mean that the “God” of Abraham is a different divine person from the God of Isaac, who is a different person from the God of Jacob? Or that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are three persons who share the same “divine being”? Such leads to all types of interpretive and theological nonsense!
Lest a Trinitarian read the phrase, “God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob” as somehow evidence of the Trinity (three divine persons in the one God), Jesus is distinguished from this triadic phrase, not included in it (or “the divine identity” to use Richard Bauckham’s term); notice the following verse:
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. (Acts 3:13)
In this verse, Jesus is distinguished, not just from the person of the Father (tolerated, albeit ambiguously, by Trinitarians), but God, which is unacceptable in Trinitarian theology.
While much more could be said, Matt 28:19 is clearly not evidence of Trinitarianism.
