|
In Light of Tanakh The Trinity
Hear, O Israel (Shema Yisrael): The Lord our God (Adonai Eloheinu), the Lord is one (Adonai
Ehad). Deuteronomy (Humesh Devarim) 6:4. Upon the
rock of this declaration rests the second of the Thirteen Principles of Jewish
Faith: "I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be
His name, is a Unity, and that there is no unity in any manner like unto His,
and that He alone is our God who was, is, and will be." From where, then, comes
the doctrine of the Trinity? A large part of the world, though professing to
worship the God who is revealed in the writings of Moses and the prophets,
nevertheless believes in God as a Trinity. Although
it may be granted that the
Christian's New Testament teaches that the term God may
be applied to God the Father, to God the Son, and to God
the Holy Spirit, the Christian should cease to claim
that he worships the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of
Moses and the prophets, the God of
the Torah, the Neviim, and the Ketuvim, unless there is found in the Tenach (Old
Testament), indisputable evidence that God exists in more than one personality. The first words of the Torah declare: "In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens (hashamayim)
and the earth." It must be admitted
that the word for God here is in the plural form, even as is
the word for heavens, and that it is the same as used in the first
commandment: "You shall have no other gods (Elohim)
before me" (Exodus 20:3). Likewise in
Deuteronomy 13:2 (v. 6 in Hebrew
text): "If he (a false prophet) says, 'Let us follow other gods. '" Elohim is invariably a plural form.
Additionally, when speaking of the act of
creation performed in the beginning by Elohim the Triune
God, Moses used a verb in the singular number, bara (created). It
is reasoned by some that the plural Elohim is the "plural of majesty," used to ascribe majesty to one
who is never the less a single individual, and that therefore the use of the
singular verb would be entirely reasonable. But a
singular verb is not invariably used with the plural Elohim. Readers familiar with the Hebrew
text can check the plural verbs used in Genesis 20:13 and in Genesis 35:7.
Plural adjectives are also used to describe this Elohim.
For examples see Deuteronomy 4:7, Elohim krovim (God is near), and Joshua
24:19, Elohim kedoshim (a holy God). The
plurality of the name Elohim leads naturally to a consideration of the fact that other plural
words are also used in referring to God. In Genesis
1 :26 God said:' "Let us make man in our image." In Genesis 3:22 God
said: "The man has now become like one of
us." And in Genesis 11:7 We
have seen in Genesis 1: 1 that Elohim (plural) created the heavens and the earth; and in the next verse we
read: "And the Spirit of God (Ruah Elohim) was hovering
over the waters." Was it speaking for himself and his Spirit that God (Elohim) said in verse 26: "Let us make man in our image?" Is this why Solomon
said: "Remember your Creator (plural, in the literal translation of
Ecclesiastes 12:1)? In
Proverbs 30:4 the challenging question is presented to mankind: "Who has
gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow
of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has
established all the ends of the earth? What is his
name, and the name of his Son? Tell me if you know!" Does God have a
Son? In
Psalm 2 we have a prophetic picture which should be read in its entirety. In
it is described (vv. 2 and 3) the time when the nations will declare
themselves against God, and against his Anointed One (Mashiho, from which
our English word Messiah comes). God says in verse 6 that he will
nevertheless establish this Messiah as his King on Zion, his holy hill. In
verse 7 Messiah steps forward to declare the decree
by which his coronation shall be accomplished saying: "I will proclaim
the decree of the Lord: "He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have
become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations (goyim)
your inheritance. '" Furthermore,
in Psalm 2:11-12 we are solemnly instructed: "Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son (nashqu
bar), lest he be angry and you be destroyed in
your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed
are all who take refuge in him." The
Hebrew for "kiss the Son" is nashqu
bar. Even if
this is translated, as some would have it, "Do homage
in purity," the homage is to the Lord of verse 11 and to the Son of
verse 7. The Tanakh clearly
indicates that there is a divine personality who is called the Son of God,
who is worthy of homage, and if we put our trust in him, we are blessed. In
Psalm 110, the one who is in a future day to rule in Zion is addressed as a
divine personality by another who is also deity. "The Lord says to my
Lord," writes David the psalmist, "sit at my
right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord
will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your
enemies" (psalm 110:1-2). Here is one who is "the Lord" speaking to David's Lord and
telling him to sit at his right hand until the time comes for him to rule in
the midst of some who are now his enemies. Surely the psalm is speaking of two divine personalities,
one whom is yet to be Israel's King! "And the Lord shall be king over
all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9). "At that time they will call
Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to
honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of
their evil hearts" (Jeremiah 3: 17). Does
the Tanakh indicate how
a divine eternal personality can be a Son? Is this not a great problem, since being a son suggests the idea of
generation and birth? The divine solution: deity becomes a Son by way of
incarnation, God taking upon himself humanity. Hear
the words of the prophet Isaiah: "For to us a child is born, to us a son
is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, "Hear
now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will
you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you
a sign (no ordinary birth, but something so unusual,
remarkable, and miraculous as to constitute a sign: The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel" (Isaiah
7:13-14). Immanuel means
"God with us," deity incarnate, dwelling
with men! Who
are the three divine personalities Isaiah 48:11-18 (Yeshaiah Hanavii
speaks about? "Listen to me, 0 Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last. (Only
God is eternal.) My own hand laid the
foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens (the Creator is speaking); ... And now
the Sovereign Lord (one divine personality) has sent me (the speaker is eternal and the
Creator, and therefore a second divine personality), with his Spirit (a third
divine personality). "This
is what the Lord says -- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best
for you, who directs you in the way you should go. (This divine personality,
the sent one, calls himself the Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel; and he says that he and God's Spirit have been sent by
the Sovereign Lord.) If only you had paid attention to
my commands, your peace would have been like a
river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” Not
only has Israel failed to listen to him, but mankind generally has failed to
heed the Redeemer; and until men turn to him wholeheartedly, there will be no
peace. Many
Jewish people express the lament that if there is a God, he seems to have
forgotten the Jews; but Israel’s long night of suffering is not without
purpose. God permits her hardship in order that Israel may be brought to acknowledge her rejection of her God
and return to him. In Micah 5:2 (verse 1 in Hebrew text) we read: “But you, Bethlehem
Ephrathah, though you are small among
the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over
Israel, whose origins are from of old, from
ancient times.” Thus
we have corroboration of other
predictions already considered concerning Messiah: 1) that he was to appear
in human form; 2) that he was to be rejected (see Isaiah 53 and
Psalm 22); 3) that he was to be born in Bethlehem (and every year the
world celebrates the birth which took place there more than nineteen hundred years
ago, before the dispersion of the Jewish nation); 4) this
one is to be Israel’s King; and 5) that he is
deity, for his “origins are
from of old, from ancient times.” But
if three divine personalities are
revealed in the Tanakh, why does Moses speak of God as one? The second of the Thirteen
Principles of Jewish Faith says: “The Creator, blessed
be His name, is a Unity, and there
is no unity in any manner like unto His.”
The
Hebrew word Maimonides used
in the Principles of Faith for unity is
the word yahid. The word yahid carries the thought of absolute oneness
rather than unity. True, yahid
always means oneness in the
absolute sense. But the appeal of every honest
seeker after truth is not to the Thirteen
Principles of Faith, but to the Holy
Scriptures, the Tanakh. The
seventh of those Principles states: “I believe with perfect faith
that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be to him, was
true, and that he was the chief of the
prophets, both of those that preached and of
those that followed him.” Therefore,
to Moses we turn in Deuteronomy (Humesh Devarim)
6:4, and read: “Shema Yisrael (Hear, 0 Israel): Adonai Eloheinu (the Lord our
God or Gods), Adonai ehad (the Lord a unity; not yahid, an absolute
one, an only, but ehad).
Ehad is the word
that Moses also uses in Genesis 2:24, when he says: “And they (husband
and wife) will become one flesh (basar ehad). Ehad is the word
that God uses when he tells Ezekiel: “Join them together into
one stick so that they (the two sticks for Israel and Judah) will become one (ehad) in your hand”
(Ezekiel 37: 17). Truly,
“there is no unity in any manner like unto His,” for the unity
which is God’s transcends all other unity. So unique is his unity, that the virgin born son, Immanuel, of whom we read
in a former paragraph, is by the same prophet (Isaiah) called the Mighty God and Everlasting Father. So completely
are the divine and timeless eternal personalities joined, that although one
of them appeared in time as an incarnate Son, yet, being equally and
eternally self-existent with the Father, he is said to exist eternally as the
Son. At the same time he was, is, and
ever will be one with the mighty God, the
everlasting Father. Is
it not also a remarkable fact that
the eternal one’s appearance in time
nineteen hundred [plus] years ago marks the focal point of all
history, so that all the world reckons time as either before or after
his coming, B.C. or A.D.? Jewish people may prefer the
designations B.C.E. (before the common era) and C.E. (the common
era), but the dividing point between the eras is the
same. The
careful and honest inquirer therefore comes to the conclusion that the
Tenach teaches the Trinity as well as the Unity of God. God
declared unto Moses: “I will raise up for them
a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his
mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone
does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself
will call him to .account” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19). “Seek
the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked
forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let ‘him turn to the Lord, and
he will have mercy on him, and to our God (Eloheinu),
for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7). Used for educational purposes from AMF International (Life In Messiah International) www.lifeinmessiah.org For further information contact: To
return to The Trinity Page To
return to MENORAH'S
HOME PAGE |
