Traditional Trinitarian Texts

Baptism “in the name of”
February 25, 2023
Trans-human Jesus
May 23, 2023
Baptism “in the name of”
February 25, 2023
Trans-human Jesus
May 23, 2023

Traditional Trinitarian Texts

The “Us” verses: Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa 6:8

Scripture describes God as “I”, “He,” “Him,” “Me” repeatedly. When on a very rare occasion God says, “Let us…” it means that God, who is one Person, involves others with Him. How is it that Bible readers imagine “Let us…” to mean “Let us three…”?

  • NIV Study Bible (on Gen. 1:26) points out that God involved His angels in some way with creation. Both man and angels bear a resemblance to God Himself. In a similar “let us” statement (there are only four) in Isaiah 6:8, “Who will go for us?” the address is obviously to attendant angelic beings.
  • The Word Biblical Commentary “It is now universally admitted that this [foreshadowing of the Trinity] was not what the plural meant to the original author…When angels do appear in the OT they are frequently described as men (e.g., Gen. 18:2). And in fact the use of the singular verb “create” in 1:27 does, in fact, suggest that God worked alone in the creation of mankind. “Let us create man” should therefore be regarded as a divine announcement to the heavenly court, drawing the angelic host’s attention to the master stroke of creation, man. As Job 38:4, 7 puts it: “When I laid the foundation of the earth…all the sons of God shouted for joy” (cf. Luke 2:13-14).

Abraham meets 3 visitors: Genesis 18-19

In Genesis 18:2 there are three “men” who visit Abraham. Only one of them is addressed as Adonai (Lord God), in verse 3: “Lord, if indeed you [singular, one person] have favored me…” On the principle that the name and authority of God Himself is in the angel (Exod. 23:21), on this occasion the one agent is addressed as Adonai. Later on in Genesis 19:2 two of the angels are addressed as “my lords,” which is the plural of adoni, my lord, always a non-Deity title. So God is speaking in 18:3 through one of the three angels as His special agent.

Yahweh rained down…from Yahweh: Genesis 19:24

These are special Hebrew idioms and easily explained as such by other examples throughout the OT:

  • Lamech said to his wives….You wives of Lamech. Genesis 4:23
  • The LORD said, Moses shall come near to the LORD. Exodus 24:1-2
  • Solomon assembled the people…before Solomon. 1 Kings 8:1
  • The LORD said, I will deliver them by the LORD. Hosea 1:6-7
  • I will make them strong in the LORD’says the LORD. Zechariah 10:12
  • The LORD said to Satan, The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Zecheriah 3:2
  • Jonathan speaking to David about himself: 1 Samuel 20.12-13
  • David says, May God curse David. 1 Samuel 25.22
  • Abner says, May God punish Abner. 2 Samuel 3.8-9
  • Anthony on Too Many Yahwehs!

Lady Wisdom: Proverbs 8:23

It is commonly known to Bible readers that in Proverbs 8 wisdom was “with [Hebrew, etzel; LXX, para] God.” That is to say, God’s wisdom is personified. It is treated as if it were a person, not that Lady Wisdom was really a female personage alongside God. We accept this sort of language, usually without any confusion. We do not suppose that Prudence, who is said to be dwelling with Wisdom (Prov. 8:12), was herself literally a person.

  • The “wisdom” of God in some passages is no more an attribute of God, but a personification of His thought. In Proverbs 8 “wisdom” is God’s world-plan or conception, the articulated framework of the universe as a moral organism. Its creation is the first movement of the divine mind outward. Being projected outside of the mind of God, it becomes the subject of His own contemplation; it is “with” God [cf. John 1:1: “the word was with God,” which does not mean that the word was another person]. Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible, 2:205
  • Anthony on pre-human Jesus in Proverbs 8.

What is the name of his Son? Proverbs 30:4

  • The Christian reader naturally thinks of the Son of God, but the purpose of the words here is simply to say that no mere human being (whether father or son) has done these things, and that God is “the Holy One” (v. 3) whose ways are high and exalted, infinitely greater than “the understanding of man” (v. 2). ESV Study Bible
  • Anthony video on Proverbs 30:4

Mighty God: Isaiah 9:6

Driver & Briggs, Hebrew & English Lexicon of the OT, 1995, p. 42: [el gibbor] “mighty hero or divine hero, as reflecting the divine majesty.”

The LORD, the Spirit, has sent me: Isaiah 48:16

Many of the reformers, and others since their time have supposed that this refers to the Messiah, and have endeavored to derive a demonstration from this verse of the doctrine of the Trinity. The argument which it has been supposed these words furnish on that subject is, that three persons are here spoken of, the person who sends, that is, God the Father; the person who is sent, that is, the Messiah; and the Spirit, who concurs in sending him, or by whom he is endowed. But the evidence that this refers to the Messiah is too slight to lay the foundation for such an argument; and nothing is gained to the cause of truth by such forced interpretations. (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible)

Yahweh refers to Yahweh: Zechariah 1.17; 2.11; 14.5

The prophets also employ what some scholars call “blending” or “mixing pronouns.” That is, “in poetic or prophetic language there sometimes occurs a more or less abrupt transition from one person to another.”

The one they pierced: Zechariah 12:10

Here Yahweh is speaking; yet it was the Son who was pierced and will be seen. Yahweh was pierced, so to speak, when the Son was pierced. This does not make Jesus God in the absolute sense, YHWH.

  • There is no reason why the words should not be understood of the Father speaking in his own name, who would consider the offences which the Jews should commit against his Son, as offences against himself; in the same sense as the Son declares that whatever is done to those who believed in him, is done to himself. Matt. 25:35, 40, “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat . . . inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” An instance of the same kind occurs, Acts 9:4, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Secondly, they pierced him who “poured upon them the spirit of grace,” Zech. 12:10. Now it was the Father who poured the spirit of grace through the Son; Acts 2:33, “having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this.” Therefore it was the Father whom they pierced in the Son. (John Milton, Of the Son and Of the Holy Spirit part 3)
  • Anthony on How should we translate?
  • Anthony on John 19:34

From the day of eternity. Micah 5:2

  • This text is referring to the Messiah’s ancient Davidic lineage, confirming that the ancient covenantal promises made to David still stand. The Hebrew “from ancient days”; mime ‘olam refers to ancient historical times in Micah 7:14; cf. 7:20. (ESV Study Bible)
  • Anthony on translation issues.

He is God with us. Matthew 1:23

The Messianic title Immanuel, “God with us,” does not of course mean that the Son of God is God, making two GODS! It describes the function of Jesus as God’s unique agent and revealer of God’s will for humankind. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). “God was in Christ,” not “God was Christ.” A lady in Proverbs 30:1 named her son Ithiel, which is Hebrew for “God is with me.” No one imagined the child was actually God! It was descriptive of the mother’s conviction that God had given her a son. No one in NT times imagined that God could be born, much less that He could die or be tempted!

In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit: Matthew 28:19

This is neither Trinitarian nor a fixed verbal formula and is therefore not in any way a contradiction of the practice in Acts of baptizing “in the name of Jesus.” Only when the phrase is woodenly forced into being a precise “formula of words” is a contradiction unnecessarily created. The linking of Father, Son and holy spirit in no way implies a triune God. 2 Cor. 13:14 links God, Jesus and holy spirit in the same way.

Prepare the way of the Lord. Mark 1:3

Mark makes slight, yet important changes to some of these texts from the Hebrew and Old Greek translation. For example, Mark changes Mal 3:1 from “prepare the way before me” (in ref. to YHWH, the one God) to “prepare your way” (in ref. to Jesus, the messenger of the covenant). The reason for the change was to allow for a messianic interpretation of the text as opposed to Mark using them to somehow prove Jesus was literally YHWH. That would make 1 YHWH too many according to the Shema of Deut 6:4 (which Jesus himself calls the most important of all the commandments in Mar 12.29).

Only God can forgive sins. Mark 2:7

Some Pharisees suffered from the same spiritual deficiency as “orthodox” people today. They could not believe the amazing power and authority which the One God, the Father of Jesus, had conferred on the man Messiah.

The word was with God. John 1:1

It would be a fatal contradiction to introduce a second “God, Person” in John 1. If we look for parallels in the Hebrew OT, we find “the word of the Lord was with him” (2 Kings 3:12), or “with whom is a dream” (Jer. 23:28). In no case does word mean a person in the OT. The word or dream can be “with” a person, meaning that a person has the word in his mind, or that he experiences a dream. Cp. “with” connected to plan in Job 10:13; 12:13; 23:14; 27:11.

All things came into being through Him: John 1:3

There is an obvious parallel to John 1:1-3 at Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, I QS 11.11: “By his knowledge everything has been brought into being. And everything that is, He established by His purpose and apart from Him nothing is done.”

He existed before me. John 1:15, 30

The Greek protos mou means here “my superior,” but many translations force a meaning on it which would contradict the rest of Scripture, i.e., “he was before me,” or “existed before me.”

  • “A follower of mine has taken precedence of me for he (always) was my superior. Some take first to mean not first in time but ‘first in importance’” (Leon Morris, New International Critical Commentary on John, p. 109).
  • Others translate “my Chief.” Schonfield, Authentic New Testament: “After me will come a man who ranks before me; for he is my superior.”
  • Translators’ Corruption video.

God the only Son. John 1:18

Some manuscripts say “a god.” It is much disputed as to whether John wrote that word. If he did the text does not say that the Son was “God the Son” from eternity. A person who is begotten is brought into existence and this is not true of the One God. The Father in John 17:3 is in the plain words of Jesus “the only one who is true God.” This is an explicitly unitarian proposition, quite unarguable. Dr. Hort says that if “an only begotten god” is right, “it would point to the highest form of derived being.” This is certainly not GOD in the Trinitarian sense.

  • The Greek monogenes theos, only-begotten God, can only mean “an only-begotten God”; to render “an only begotten, one who is God,” is an exegetical invention. It can hardly be credited of Jn., who is distinguished by monumental simplicity of expression. An only-begotten God corresponds to the weakening of monotheism in Gnosticism. It derives from this, and came into the Egyptian texts by way of its influence on the theology of Alexandria. (TDNT vol. 4 p. 740).
  • Orthodox Corruption video

I will raise it up: John 2:19

Jesus did not say, “I will raise myself up.” The word translated “raise” [egeiro] simply means to get up or to wake up. So when we normally speak of someone waking up from sleep, we have no problem. But because the context here has to do with the resurrection, many in the Jesus-is-God movement have tried to use it as some sort of “proof text.” This view is propagated by the Orthodox teaching of the immortal soul that clearly contradicts the biblical view of the state of the dead as total inactivity in the grave (Eccl 9.5, 10).

No one has gone to heaven: John 3:13

“No one has ascended to heaven,” i.e., gained access to the secrets of God. Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth. Jesus is the human being seen in advance in a vision in Daniel 7.

I came down out of heaven: John 6:38, 41-42, 51

To “come down from heaven” is Hebrew idiom for being God’s gift to us. James says that “every good gift comes down from heaven” and noted that true wisdom “comes down from heaven” (1:17; 3:15).

  • “To come into the world is used in the Talmud of certain persons (e.g. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) or of men generally who come into the world, i.e. men; all who come into the world. It is also used of events (punishment comes into the world) and of things: something which has not come into the world, i.e. which does not exist. Corresponding phrases for to go out of the world (to die) are to leave the world. In such phrases kosmos [world] is mostly used without emphasis to denote the theatre of human life. When it is said that man is born into the world, (eis ton kosmon) or that we bring nothing into the world (1Tim. 6:7), or when death is called a departing  out of  the world (ek tou kosmou), such expressions have no specific cosmological or theological content.” (TDNT “kosmos” Vol. 3, p. 889.)
  • In carrying out our study of Johannine theology, it is important to understand his use of the word “world,” kosmos…..The earth is frequently referred to as the dwelling place of humanity in language that is paralleled in Jewish idiom: coming into the world (6:14; 9:39; 11:27; 18:37), being in the world (9:5a), departing out of the world (13:1; 16:28b)….the idiom itself is familiar Jewish terminology. To come into the world means merely to be born; to be in the world is to exist; and to depart from the world is to die.’ There is no element of cosmological dualism or of world denial in John. (G.E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 1993, p 261.)
  • Anthony video on John 6:62

Before Abraham was I AM: John 8:58

The “I am [he]” (Greek ego eimi) of John 4:26 retains the meaning John assigned to it at its first occurrence — “I am the Messiah.” It is also possible to translate the Greek, “Before Abraham comes to be [in the resurrection] I am already alive.” Thus Jesus proved his superiority to Abraham by alone being resurrected on the third day. Abraham will rise from death at the future resurrection when Jesus returns (1 Cor. 15:23).

I and the Father are one: John 10:30

“My Father and I are one” (en, neuter in Greek), one thing, not one Person (eis). The sense is that they are in perfect agreement, hand in glove. The relationship of unity is predicated of true believers in John 17:11, 22 and so the statement in 10:30 has nothing whatsoever to do with a unity in the Trinity. Jesus endorsed the unitary monotheism of his Jewish heritage (Mk. 12:29; Jn. 17:3, etc.). This text is not remotely connected to the idea of “one philosophical essence.” 1 Cor. 3:8 shows that those who “plant” and those who “water” for the Gospel are one.

Isaiah saw his glory: John 12:41

The vision of the glory of his Kingdom which Isaiah spoke of often, especially in Isa. 4:5; 24:16, 23; 40:5; 44:23; 62:2; 66:18-19. This is not a reference to Isaiah seeing the Lord God (Adonai) in ch. 6. Jesus is never called the Lord of Hosts. This is a title used only of the Father, the one God. John cites two references to Isaiah. Jesus nowhere claimed to be the Lord God and is never called “the Lord God,” nor the Almighty. Rev. 1:8 is no exception (though some red-letter Bibles wrongly lead readers to think that Jesus is called the Almighty there), since the Almighty is the Father there as distinct from the Messiah.

The glory I had with you before the world: John 17:5

Jesus is not returning to a position relinquished but one he had not previously occupied, i.e., in the presence of the Father, at his side (Ps. 110:1). The phrase “to have with God” (para theo) is a common Hebrew idiom for having something as promised and stored up for the future as a reward (see Mt. 6:1-2). Cp. Isa.49:4: “the justice due to me is with the LORD, and my reward with my God” and 2 Cor. 5:1: “we have” a spiritual body, i.e. prepared for the future when we receive it.

My Lord and My God: John 20:28

Finally seeing what he had earlier in ch. 14 missed, that in seeing Jesus you see God the Father in action and word. This of course does not mean that Jesus is the Father! No son is his own father! Thomas certainly did not think that the creed of Israel and Jesus (Mk. 12:29) was suddenly destroyed! John 17:3 defines the Father as “the only one who is true GOD.” John wrote his whole book to prove that Jesus is the Messiah (20:31). And thus, Jesus implies, you have seen God in seeing me. This is what Thomas had earlier in ch. 14 not believed, i.e., that Jesus is the perfect image of his Father who is the only true God (17:3).

Who is over all, God: Romans 9:5

This is a doxology to God the Father, as shown by the parallels in 1:25; 11:36; 2 Cor. 11:31.

confess Jesus as Lord; call on the name: Romans 10:9, 13

Joel 2:32 quoted here refers to the Lord God. It is applied to Jesus, the lord Messiah, in the NT, since Jesus works as the perfect agent of the one God, and as Son perfectly represents his Father.

The rock that followed Israel was Christ: 1 Corinthians 10:4

Paul did not believe in a literal Messiah living in OT times! His language is clear here: the rock and other events and items in the history of Israel were foreshadowing of the NT and of Messiah. There was no literal “walking rock.” Baptism is not literally in a cloud — or in the Red Sea!

Did Paul split the Shema? 1 Corinthians 8:6

It is one of the most disastrous misunderstandings of the NT to claim with some exegetes today that Paul has “split the shema” (the creed of Deut. 6:4) between God and the Son, calling Jesus YHVH and the Father GOD! This is an assault on biblical monotheism (and common sense!), which is always unitary monotheism and not Trinitarian.

for by Him all things were created: Colossians 1:16

“In him.” This is certainly not “by him.” “en auto. This does not mean ‘by him’” (Expositors Greek Testament, Vol. 3, p. 504). I take en here as causal, i.e., because of him, for his sake, with him in view, with him in intention. “We must render [en] ‘because of’ in Col. 1:16” (Turner, A Grammar of NT Greek, Vol. 3, p. 253). James Dunn translates “in him in intention” (Christology in the Making, p. 190). Christians were also “en” Christ before the world began (Eph. 1:4). This is existence in the divine plan, not actual existence (cp. 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Pet. 1:2, 20).

The fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form: Colossians 2:9

To say that Jesus is not God is not to deny that he is uniquely invested with the divine nature. Divinity is, so to speak, “built in” to him by virtue of his unique conception under the influence of the Holy Spirit, as well as by the Spirit which dwelt in him in full measure (John 3:34). Paul recognizes that the “fullness of the Godhead dwells in him” (Col. 1:19; 2:9). In seeing the man Jesus we see the glory of his Father (John 1:14). We perceive that God Himself was “in the Messiah reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).

In the form of God; emptied Himself; became human: Philippians 2:6-8

The portrait of the Messiah is drawn from Isa. 53:12; the servant poured himself out in service to others. Note also 52:14; 53:2: “form,” “appearance.”

God was manifest in flesh: 1 Timothy 3:16

The KJV is based on a corrupted manuscript here, reading “God was manifested…” The Greek has “he who was manifested…” referring to Jesus as the Son of God, defined by Luke 1:35.

Your throne, o God: Hebrews 1:8

The word “god” here is one of only two (for certain) uses of the word theos (God) for Jesus. The quotation is from Ps. 45:6 where the NAB translation correctly translates as “god” (not God), explaining that the king is “representing God to the people.”

The Son created the heavens and the earth: Hebrews 1:10

This passage needs very careful study since it quotes the LXX (Greek Septuagint) and not the version found in standard OT translations from the Hebrew.

The spirit of Christ in them: 1 Peter 1:11

The Messianic spirit is the spirit of everything to do with God’s Messianic program in His Son. The patriarchs were “messiahs” also (Ps. 105:15), sharing the same anointing of the spirit.

  • The Messianic spirit: 1 Peter 1, the Holy Spirit and Christ video

Paul called Jesus God: 2 Peter 1:1; Titus 2:13

Master and Lord Jesus; led them out of Egypt: Jude 4-5

Jude 4 applies “Master” to God and “lord” to the Messiah due to the closest antecedent, “the grace of our God.” And the Vulgate and Douay-Rheims has corrupted texts “Jesus”; p 72 reads “God Christ”; all other versions read “the Lord.”

Jesus, the only true God? 1 John 5:20

This is an exact repetition of the words of Jesus in John 17:3. “This is the true GOD” is a reference here, as in John 17:3, to the Father who is “the only one who is true God.” The word “this” in John must sometimes be understood in context and not by the immediately preceding subject. See for example 1 John 2:22 and 2 John 7, where if we take the closest antecedent, Christ would be antichrist!

Alpha and Omega: Revelation 1:8

This is of course a reference to the Father, not Jesus who is mentioned separately in v. 5. Jesusis nowhere called “the Lord God,” and never called the Almighty, pantokrator in Greek or El Shaddai in Hebrew.

  • “Ambrose to prove the Omnipotence of Christ cites Apoc. 1.8 in these words, ‘I am Alpha & Omega saith the Lord Jesus who is & who was & who is to come, the Omnipotent’. Whereas the true reading is not, the Lord Jesus, but, the Lord God, that is, God the father. Again in Apoc. 1.11, the words of the son of man, ‘I am Alpha & Omega the first & the last’, have crept erroneously into some few Greek MSS, out of one of which Erasmus printed it, & into the Arabic version. For they are wanting in the Alexandrine MS & most others, & in the Syriac Latin & Æthiopic, & in the Commentaries of Arethas & Primasius, & in the Complutensian Edition.” Newton, Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (part 4: ff. 70-83).
  • Dr. Larry Hurtado on Almighty video.
  • Pantokrator in Revelation video.
  • Anthony video.

God and the Lamb worship: Revelation 5:13-14

Jesus as the Alpha and Omega: Revelation 21:6; 22:13

In Revelation 22:12-13 it may well be that the angel (the “he” of verse 10) speaks, as in the Old Testament, as God, representing Him. The Alpha and Omega of verse 13 probably refers, as does Revelation 1:8 and 21:6, to the Father for whom the angel is speaking. The Almighty God is the one “who comes” in Revelation 1:8, and His coming may be described also in Revelation 22:12, followed by the divine title in verse 13. Jesus is the speaker again from verse 16.

The one throne of God and the Lamb: Revelation 22:3

Xavier
Xavier
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