Monday, February 14, 2022

The National Bible Society of Ireland: Nothing in the Old Testament "even remotely prepares us for the doctrine of the Trinity"

  

Encountering the Trinity in Scripture

 

In the religion of the Old Testament, God is one and there is no other: “Hera, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone [or one]” (Deuteronomy Ch. 6 v. 4). There is nothing in the Old Testament that even remotely prepares us for the doctrine of the Trinity. The Old Testament does speak of the Spirit and of the Word and of Wisdom almost as if they were separate entities or persons having distinct personalities. But these are always attributes or manifestations of the One God. They are never separate divine beings in their own right. In Genesis Ch. 18 vv. 1-15 an incident is described in which the LORD appears to Abraham. The text goes on to add that Abraham “looked up and saw three men standing near him”. At first, Abraham sees his guests as mere human beings and he accordingly welcomes them warmly and bestows on them the same generous hospitality he might show to any human visitor. Yet it is clear from the overall context that the three strangers described are not earthly beings. They are of heavenly origin. Abraham in the text addresses the three using the singular “As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and bowed to the ground. My Lord, he said, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant.” Although the Fathers of the early Church saw in this text a foreshadowing of the mystery of the Trinity, it would be reading too much into the text to assume that the writer was speaking of God as being three separate and equal persons. If there was any one thing more than anything else that led to the separation of church and synagogue, it was the belief of the early Christians in the divinity of Jesus. To the Jews this seemed to indicate the existence of at least two Gods. (National Bible Society of Ireland, Meeting God in the Trinity [Baldoyle, Dublin: ColourBooks Ltd., 2000], 29-30, emphasis added)