Ancient Rabbis: The Trinity in the Hebrew Scriptures
I. Passages and/or titles in the Law and the Prophets teaching a plurality of Persons in the Godhead and identifying the number and roles of three Persons.
A. Elohim. Used throughout the OT. It is the tri-plural form of a word meaning "god, authority, etc." Several references make the point.
Gen 1:1. By the Beginning [One] created (singular) the Gods (plural) ...
The preposition bet is either locative "in" or instrumental "by," but "in" is not possible it makes the verse tautologous since the creation is the beginning of time; so this is the instrumental case "by" [cf. Augustine, Confessions, XIII.5 and Prov. 8:22-36, Rev. 3:14]. Is "Gods" the "plural of majesty" only and not God-Persons?
(1) No, because even the unitarian rabbis in Talmud conceded that Elohim indicates three persons. See II.G. below.
(2) No, because Moses had at his disposal singular words which can only refer to Absolute Deity: Jehovah, Eloah, Adoni, El Shaddai, etc., but did not use them.
(3) No, because the grammar in passages now considered forbids such a view.
Job 40:15-24. Behold now Beasts (plural) which I made with thee ... his (singular personal pronoun) strength ... his (singular personal pronoun) force ... He (singular personal pronoun) is chief of the way of God ... [throughout the passage].
Beasts is the plural of majesty indicating the largest animal made on the sixth day of creation. This passage and other (cf. Gen 1:25 2:20 6:20 7:14 (cattle translates beasts)) establish: mere plurals of majesty cannot take plural pronouns they must take singular pronouns. Plural nouns taking plural personal pronouns must refer to plural persons.
Gen. 1:26-7. And the Gods (plural) said (singular), "Let us make (singular) ran in our (plural) image (singular), after our (plural) likeness (singular) ... And the Gods (plural) created (singular) the man in His (singular) image (singular), in the image (singular) of the Gods (plural) created (singular) Be (singular) him ...
Note: angels cannot create de novo; man is not made in the image of angels (but land animals are made in the images of various ranks of cherubim Verse 27 expressly excludes the angels (made in His image) and us/our cannot refer to Adam and/or Eve, creating sin of tautology. Therefore make, image, likeness, etc. refer exclusively to Deity; and so the grammatical rules for the plural of majesty apply to say that God is truly tri-plural in Person since the tri-plural Elohim is the antecedent of tri-plural personal pronouns.
Gen. 3:22 11:7 Isaiah 6:8, etc. As above.
Conclusion for A. God is tri-plural as to Person; this is proved by the use of the tri-plural in conjunction with tri-plural personal pronouns, and two of these Persons are identified - the Beginning One Who is the Word (Who speaks in Gen. 1:3,26, etc), and the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2). And God is singular in Being and Substance as proved by the singularity of image, likeness, created, make. The grammar of plural of majesty, the mere creaturehood of angels, and the ban against tautology completely refute the careless rebuttals of the unitarian rabbis [scrutinize Sanhedrin 244-6 Midrashim I. 59-60].
B. HaShema - Deut. 6:4. Hear, O Israel: Jehovah (singular) our Gods (plural) [is] a unioned/unified Jehovah (singular).
There are two Hebrew words for one: achad, used here and meaning a "collection or union of diverse objects"; and yachid, meaning "absolute singularity" (yachid also meant originally "a collection or union ...", by the time the Hebrew Scriptures were written its meaning had changed). Below are Biblical references supporting these claims:
(1) Moses had available a word indicating "absolute singularity", but eschewed it in favor of the word which implies plurality within unity.
(2) This adds to,confirms the plural-of-majesty grammatical argument given above that Elohim indicates the Three Persons of the Godhead.
(3) This verse is an explicit statement of the Doctrine of the Trinity - it teaches the plurality of the Persons and Their unity as One Being. Jehovah indicates the unity of Substance and Elohim indicates tri-plurality of Persons. Thus Jehovah Elohim, or "LORD God" in the KJV NAS etc is the Hebraic way of saying "Trinity."
(4) This is the first fundamental tenet of the Mosaic faith. Moses is explicitly denying the unitarian, impersonal, Absolute Oneness and pantheism of the pagans on one hand, and the chaotic polytheism of the pagans on the other. Furthermore, the Trinity is fundamental to law, and hence it is appropriate that the Trinity be emphatically stated at the beginning of the giving of the Second Law, as Israel is about to enter the land and function as a society: community, community laws, love, mercy, justice, etc are all social issues implying a plurality of persons; and the God Who regulates them understands these issues perfectly since He is a "community" of Persons in the Divine Essence. [See Shedd, Dogmatic Theology I. 244-5]
Ached: Representative Usage
Gen. 1:5 2:24 29:20 32:8 34:16,22 41:5,25-6 48:22 Ex. 12:46,49 16:22 24:3 26:6,8,10,11,16-17,19,21, 25 Num. 10:4 13:23 14:15 Josh 3:13,16 6:3,11,14 Jud. 6:16, etc.
Yachid: Complete Concordance
Gen. 22:2,12,16 Judges 11:34 Ps. 22: 20(21) 25:16 35:17 68:6(7) Prov. 4:3 Jer. 6:26 Amos 8:10 Zech. 12:10.
In most of C - I below, the form of the argument is the same: the Person with the title under consideration is identified in a given passage as Deity, and yet that Person is distinguished in that passage from another Person also identified as Deity. This argument is obvious in most passages cited under each heading, so the passages are simply listed with only occasional comment.
C. The Angel Jehovah / Angel of His Presence / Sent Jehovah. Each passage which asserts the Deity of a Person called the Angel of Jehovah (or equivalent terminology) a fortiori implies Personal Distinction within the Godhead: Angel (Malak) means Sent One; the genitive of Jehovah is the genitive of source indicating the One doing the sending; hence Angel of Jehovah indicates a person being sent - Angel - who is distinct from another person - Jehovah - who does the sending; and if the text in question identifies Angel as Deity, then the text implies One Person of Deity is sending Another Person of Deity. Not every occurrence of an angel or of the phrase "angel of Jehovah" is Deity or a reference to Deity, respectively; but the Scriptures frequently describe a Person as Angel of Jehovah (or the equivalent) Who in context is given the Divine Name or Divine Titles (recall Isa. 42:8;48:11), Who is worshiped, sacrificed to, described as doing that which only God can do (redeeming, saving, ...), etc, and such passages unanswerably imply the Doctrine of the Trinity, many such passages are listed below.
Gen. 16:7-14 18:1-33 21:17-21 22:11-12 32:24-32 35:3,9-15 48:15-16
Ex. 3:1-18/4:1-13 13:21/14:19 19:18-20/24:9-12 23:20-23
Num. 22:22-35
Josh. 5:13-6:5,
Jud. 2:1-5 6:11-24 13:23 (note In Jud. 13:18, secret should be translated wonderful, a Hebrew word occurring 71 times, all of which refer to Deity, and occurs as a name only here and in Isa. 9:6 (!))
Isa. 48:12-17 (Verse 16 reads in the original and now Adoni Jehovah has sent We and His Spirit), Isa.63:9-10 (all Three Persons explicitly mentioned).
Zech. 3:1-4 (cf. Isa. 61:10)
Mal. 3:1.
Angel Jehovah is identified with the Man of Sorrows: Isa. 52:10;53:1-12 and note the Hebraism - "baring/revealing the arm" is the mark of the messenger (Angel) of Jehovah.
D. The Word of Jehovah. Implicitly, the Jehovah Angel is the One Who speaks for God and is His Personal Word. But to the passages of C above a few more are added that actually use the terminology Word of Jehovah (or the equivalent). The Word (Memra) of Jehovah in Targumim is taken up in II.A.
Gen. 3:8. The Voice of Jehovah = the Word of Jehovah.
I Sam. 3:1,3,6-8,10. The Word appeared to Samuel.
E. The Son of Jehovah. These are explicit.
II Sam. 7:14. From the standpoint of the long-term, a Messianic prophecy.
Ps. 2:7-12. Verse 12 should read Kiss the Son's feet ... The parallelism between Verse 11 (Serve Jehovah) and Verse 12 (Kiss the Son's feet) identifies the two. Verse 12 ascribes attributes of Deity to the Son.
Prov. 30:4. The Spirit does not record facetious questions about nothing, - the Son is a Person within the Divine Essence.
Isa. 9:6. The Son is expressly called Eloah (singular), the title of God used frequently in Scripture, and the Everlasting Creator, a title only usable of Deity.
F. The King of God. Ps. 45:2,6-7. The title God is used of two distinct Persons of Deity, One of Whom is the King.
G. The Wisdom of Jehovah. Prov. 8:12-36. In this passage, Wisdom is described as a person, and hence as a Person of Deity in a certain relationship with another Person of Deity. Time is part of Creation and therefore precisely co-extensive with Creation; hence that which happens before creation is timeless, and so has happened from eternity and continues to happens.
Verse 22. Before His works of old implies the possession of one Person by the other. Person is timeless, always has been and always will be.
Verse 23. Set-up is a mistranslation. The Hebrew verb is used almost universally in Scripture (and translated) as POURED-OUT. Since this is a timeless pouring out, He is saying I am being poured-out from everlasting. There is no plainer language: Wisdom is the eternally begotten and generated Son of Jehovah.
Verse 24. Brought forth is literally twisted-out or twirled-out. Now twisted-out is here translated travail (of labor) in [J. Green, The Interlinear Bible] and is paralleled in the Hebrew text with beget in Isa. 45:10. This explicitly confirms the teaching above: I am being born when there were no depths.
Verses 25-6. Same verb used in Verse 24, with same ramifications.
Verse 27. Was is not in the Hebrew text there is no verb to be in Hebrew; the proper verb must be supplied from the context, which is the timelessness of eternity past. The idea is: I was already there in eternity, i.e. I AM there.
Verse 30. With Him is literally at His Side, i.e. as a full and equal Joint-Participant and Agent. Brought-up translates a Hebrew word different from that used in Verses 24-6: the word here means parented/fostered; so the Brought-up One is literally the Parented One, i.e. SON.
There is no equal to this passage in the N. T. or even any systematic theology for the precise theological statement of the eternal begetting and generating of the Son by the Father.
H. Immanuel. The name means "God personally among us which implies "God as one of us : see Isa. 7:14 in the extended prophetic context of 8:8 9:6.
I. Branch of Jehovah. Jer. 23:5-6; cf. Isa. 42:8 48:11; and note that the Branch is distinguished from Jehovah. I
J. Adonim. Mal. 1:6. Master is plural: Adonim or Lords - If I am Lords; cf. Ps. 110:1. Adon means "personal master"; this strengthens the notion of Personal Plurality in the Godhead.
K. The Spirit of Jehovah / The Holy Spirit. Many passages use "Spirit of Jehovah" of an angel working as an invisible spirit. But many others refer to Deity in a personal way, and/or as distinct from other Persons of Deity. See the references of L below; to these are added Gen. 1:2 6:3 II Sam. 23:2-3 II Chron. 18:23 Neh. 9:20, Ps. 33:6 104:30 139:7-8 Isa. 40:13- 4 63:10 Ezek. 37:9-14.
L. Other important passages.
(1) Passages specifying or implying the Three Persons.
Isa. 48:16 (see corrected translation given in C above).
Haggai 2:4-5. The particle et indicates either accusative or with. The context clearly favors with the Word for several reasons: the point is not the covenant but the presence of God among them; this is the sense of et at the end of Verse 4 (with you); this passage refers to and fits beautifully with Ex. 23:20- 3. Hence Verses 4b-5 should be translated:
For I am with you, says Jehovah of hosts, with the Word [by] Whom I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and My Spirit abides among you: fear not.
This is precisely the rendering in the Targum Onkelos of Num. 14:30 - you shall [not] come into the land in which I: covenanted by My Word to cause you to dwell.
Ex. 3:2 4:23:20 32:34 (God and the Angel of God bring Israel out of Egypt), Isa. 63:7-14 (The Spirit of God brought Israel out).
Num. 6:24-6 Isa. 6:3. Further proof that Elohim was to be understood as precisely Three.
(2) Passages specifying or implying distinct Persons in the Godhead.
Gen. 19:24. Unavoidable distinction between Two Persons of Jehovah.
Isa. 41:21-3 In context Jehovah refers to Himself as we and us. Note the argument given in A above on the use of plural pronouns.
Isa. 44:6 Jehovah ... and His redeemer Jehovah of Hosts.
II. Rabbinical Citations. The most ancient scribes and rabbis taught the Trinity; these generally predate 200 C. E.. The less ancient rabbis, those generally associated with post-Christian compilation of Talmud (ending 400 C. E. for the Palestinian, 500 C. E. for Babylonian) and Midrashim (from 200 C.E. to 900 C. E.) are unitarian. The shift is based on factors including the following: the abandonment of the normative hermeneutic or grammatico-historical method in interpreting Scripture in favor of the allegorical method governed by Oral Tradition, and the debates within the Church; i.e., the abandonment of Scriptura Sola coupled with the desire to defend the Pharasaic tradition.
A. The Targumim. Translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Chaldee (or Aramaic or Syriac), when compared with the Hebrew, give a crystal clear indication of what many ancient rabbis taught concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. Especially clear is their perception of the Word of Jehovah called The Memra of Jehovah as a distinctive Person of Deity Who personally articulates and manifests the Father to His People. They understood this Person to be the same as Angel Jehovah.
The weight of historical evidence clearly places these works prior to the "Christian" era; this proves that ancient rabbis understood the Trinity on the basis of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
Still confused how the Jews had a special relationship with God but never picked up on His being a threesome...