Before we undertake any explication of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, including an investigation of the biblical materials related to this significant subject, it is appropriate to ask and answer two basic and preliminary questions:

1. The location or positionizing of the doctrine of the Trinity in a systematic theology

2. The relation between the doctrine of the Trinity and the phenomenon of divine revelation

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE TRINITY#

A. WHERE IN A CHRISTIAN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY SHOULD THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY BE LOCATED?#

F. D. E. Schleiermacher placed the Trinity in the final subsection of The Christian Faith.

Albrecht Ritschl did not treat the Trinity in systematic fashion.

On the other hand, Charles Wesley Lowry (1905-1998) stated that “the most important question that a theologian can ask is: Is the Christian Religion a Trinitarian Religion?”

Karl Barth in his Church Dogmatics placed the Trinity at the very outset of his system (ch. 2), or at least immediately after the doctrine of the Word of God (ch. 1).

In addition to an awareness of the radical divergence between Barth and Liberal Protestants as to the placement of and emphasis on the doctrine of the Trinity, one needs to know that numerous other systematic theologians have placed the Trinity in locations between the prioritizing of Barth and the making an addendum of Schleiermacher.

B. WHAT IS THE TRUE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PHENOMENON OF DIVINE REVELATION AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY?#

1. Karl Barth taught that the Three-in-Oneness of God is “an immediate implication of revelation, and therefore … [is] essentially identical with the content ofrevelation.” Consequently for Barth Trinitarian truth did not await some later patristic or conciliar formulation but was immediately derived from God’s revelatory activity in Christ and by the Spirit. For Barth there is no Christian apprehension of God that is not Trinitarian.

2. Emil Brunner regarded the Trinity as “an ultimate theoretically necessary implication of the primary data of faith and … a synthesis of those data” or as “a theologically defensive doctrine (Schutzlehre) for the biblical and ecclesiastical faith-center.” Hence, for Brunner, the Three-in-Oneness of God was not immediately derived from the phenomenon of revelation in Christ and by the Spirit but was like a protecting wall erected against heresies by the Church Fathers.

3. Conservative and Fundamentalist Protestants and traditional pre-Vatican Council II Roman Catholic dogmaticians normally looked upon the Trinity as a doctrinal truth derived from apostolic truth.

For the Protestants the Trinity was seen “as one of the truths revealed in the Bible.” Because of its biblical base, therefore, it belonged to Protestant theology.

For the Roman Catholics the Trinity was to be accepted as part of the “eternal deposit of truth” preserved in the Bible and “entrusted to” and “infallibly defined by the [Roman Catholic] Church.”

Some evaluation of these three approaches to the relationship between the phenomenon of revelation and the doctrine of the Trinity is needed.

• First, the third view rightly allows the Three-in-Oneness of God to be a revealed truth but fails to stress that the term “trinity” does not appear in the Bible and that the shaping of the doctrine came during the patristic age.

• Second, the second view, while rightly acknowledging the contribution of the church fathers, by reckoning the Trinity to be a defensive weapon against heresy or a rational reflection of the divine manifestations in Jesus and by the Spirit tends to lose the Three-in-Oneness that is implied in various New Testament passages.

• Third, the first view rightly interprets the Christian doctrine of God as Trinitarian but limits too severely its transmission to an “immediate implication of revelation” and does not differentiate the Three-inOneness in various New Testament passages from the fully formulated patristic doctrine of the Trinity.

II. THE BIBLICAL WITNESS TO THE TRIUNE NATURE OF GOD#

A. OLD TESTAMENT#

1. Is There an Old Testament Witness to or Apprehension of the Threefold Nature of the One God?

a. Certain passages are often quoted to suggest that there is an Old Testament “doctrine” of the Trinity, but such texts seemingly do not specifically teach such. These passages may be identified as the “us” and “our” texts.

• “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26, RSV).

• “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:22, NIV).

• “Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language…” (Gen. 11:7, RSV).

• “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isa. 6:8, RSV)

1. Such texts may be understood as expressive of the plural of majesty, as some understand the plural form of ‘El, that is, Elohim.

Walther Eichrodt referred to the usage of Elohim as the “abstract plural” or the “plural ofintensity.” Theodorus Christian Vriezen (1899-) rejected the idea that Gen. 1:26 involves a still lingering “polytheism” and held that in Isa. 6:8 “us” means Yahweh as “surrounded by angels.” Umberto Cassuto (1883-1951), Bruce Vawter, and Claus Westermann (1909-2000) have preferred a plural of exhortation. But G. A F. Knight rejected the plural of majesty and held instead to the “quantitative plural.”

2. These texts may also be regarded as consonant with the New Testament’s differentiation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the Christian interpreter of the Old Testament.

3. Yet it is very doubtful that such texts should be understood as teaching, by the intention of their authors, the Three-in-Oneness of God. How can we be certain that the “us” and “our” in these texts were intended to refer to three and not to four or to more?

b. The Old Testament concepts of “Word,” “Spirit,” and “Wisdom” anticipated the concept of the Trinity by being pointers toward hypostatization, but the Old Testament teachings about these three were hardly constitutive of Trinitarian teaching per se for the authors, the compilers, or the users of the Old Testament books.

According to Robert Sleighthome Franks (1871-1963), “Word” was hypostatized in Ps. 147:15-18 and “Spirit” was hypostatized in Ps. 104:30, 19 but even more complete hypostatization occurred with “Wisdom” in Prov. 8 and in the noncanonical Wisd. of Sol. 7:22-23. If, however, Prov. 8:22 should be correctly interpreted as teaching that Wisdom was created, then it is difficult to press such a passage as a prooftext for the Trinity.

There have been those who have concluded that the Old Testament does teach a doctrine of the Trinity but have based such a conclusion on materials other than the “us” and “our” texts quoted above. Those materials have normally included the nature and activity of the Word and of the Spirit of Yahweh.

• Antonio Neves de Mesquita, having collected materials from seven periods of Old Testament literature, concluded that the Old Testament teaches both the deity and personality of the Messiah and the deity and personality of the Spirit of God.

• Aubrey Rodway Johnson (1901-85) stressed that the “extension of personality,” as in the Achan story, and “collective personality,” as seen in the actions of the Spirit and of the Word, apply to God as well as to man in the Old Testament.

It is, therefore, one thing to conclude that the Old Testament contains pointers toward the differentiation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which are consistent with the Christian doctrine of the Three-in-Oneness of God. It is quite another thing to assert that the writers of the Old Testament intended to speak about and explicate this doctrine. It seems, therefore, that the former option rather than the latter must be taken.

2. The Old Testament Teaches and the New Testament Retains the Teaching That God (Yahweh) is One and the One God for All Humankind

a. The Old Testament Teaching

There are two strands of teaching or two motifs:

• Yahweh is unique, possibly a henotheistic teaching

• Yahweh is the sole deity, necessarily a monotheistic teaching

1) Yahweh is unique or incomparable (“none like me”)

The plauge of frogs in Egypt was designed to shwo Pharaoh that “there is no one like the LORD our God” (Exod. 8:10). The same was true of the plague of hail (Exod. 9:14).

Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel sought to make clear who was God in Israel (1 Kings 18:36-37, 39).

“To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?… To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One” (Isa. 40:18, 25).

2) Yahweh is the sole deity (“none besides me”)

The “great and awesome deeds” that constituted the Exodus from Egypt were made known to the Israelites so that they would know that “besides him [Yahweh] there is no other” (Deut. 4:34-35, NIV).

He is God of both heaven and earth (Deut. 4:39).

“Hear, 0 Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut. 6:4a, RSV).

The Shema is “the fundamental article of the Jewish faith” and “the cry which for centuries has been recited twice each day in the Jewish liturgy.”

“I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior” (Isa. 43: 11 ). “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God” (Isa. 45:5a).

“And there is no god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me” (Isa. 45:2lc).

The two motifs, Yahweh is unique and Yahweh is sole deity, both appear in Isa. 46:9b: “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.”

b. The New Testament Retention of the Old Testament Teaching of the Oneness and Sole Deity of God

1. In Jesus’ reiteration and application of the Shema the oneness and sole deity of the Lord are reaffirmed: “And the scribe said to him, You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he” (Mark 12:32).

2. The unity of the moral law rests upon the oneness of the Lawgiver. “For he who said, Do not commit adultery, said also Do not kill” (Jas. 2:lla).

3. The oneness of God is connected with mediation. Moses as the “mediator” of the law did not “represent just one party; but God is one” (Gal. 3:20, NIV). “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5, RSV).

4. The one God and the one Lord stand in contrast to polytheism.

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth - as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords” - yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and from whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist (1 Cor. 8:4-6).

Furthermore, the early Christians were not charged by unbelieving Jews with polytheism or idolatry.

B. NEW TESTAMENT#

1. The Advent of Jesus and the Holy Spirit

Three-in-Oneness in God is made explicit in the New Testament by virtue of the advent, the “personhood”, and the deity of Jesus and by the advent, the “personhood”, and the deity of the Holy Spirit.

a. Jesus

1) Jesus is distinct from the Father

Both in the Synoptics and in John this distinction is made clear.

• “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matt. 11 :27, RSV).

• “For the Father loves the Son… The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:20, 22).

• Jesus promised, “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor,” (John 14:16).

• The prayers of Jesus were addressed to God the Father. The distinction is clearly seen in the cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46).

2) Jesus is divine and one with the Father

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… [and] we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:1, 14b)

“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)

B. The Holy Spirit

1) The Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and from the Son

In Jesus’ Farewell Discourse the distinctiveness of the Counselor is evident. Jesus will ask the Father to give “another Counselor” (John 14:16), the Father will send the Counselor in Jesus name (14:26), and this Spirit “proceeds from the Father” (15:26).

Jesus will go to the Father, and then the Counselor will come (16:7-11), and “the Spirit of truth” will teach what belongs to the Father and the Son (16:13-15).

2) The Holy Spirit is God

Paul implied the deity of the Spirit

• “God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:10-11).

• Relative to spiritual gifts, Paul alluded to “the same Spirit”, “the same Lord”, “and the same God” (1 Cor. 12:4-6)

2. Distinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Recognized in the New Testament

a. Some passages merely mention the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the same context but without any statement or implication of the signifcance of their being three yet one.

1) Synoptic Gospels

At Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a heavenly voice declared, “This is my beloved Son” (Matt. 3:16-17)

Jesus expelled demons “by the Spirit of God” so that “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28)

Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit that the Father had revealed his truth to “babes” instead of the wise (Luke 10:21)

2) Acts

Jesus charged his disciples to remain in Jerusalem “to wait for the promise of the Father” and hence shortly to “be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (1:4-5)

Stephen, “full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (7:55)

3) Pauline Epistles

At the outset of his first Thessalonian letter Paul alluded to “our God and Father,” “our Lord Jesus Christ,” and “the Holy Spirit” in an extended statement (1:3, 5).

Also, “this is the will of God Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit” (5:18b-19). The apostle gave thanks to God for “brethren beloved by the Lord [Jesus],” whose salvation was “through sanctification by the Spirit” (2 Thess. 2: 13).

“God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Gal. 4:6b).

God and Christ are mentioned in connection with the sealing of the Spirit and the Spirit as “guarantee” (2 Cor. 1:21-22).

Paul had been liberated from “the law of sin and death” through “the law of the Spirit oflife in Christ Jesus” and by God’s sending of his Son (Rom. 8:2-3).

In the same passage reference is made to “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead” (Rom. 8:11a).

In one of his prayers Paul mentioned “the Father,” “his Spirit” and “Christ” (Eph. 3:14, 16, 17, NIV).

Believers are to “be filled with the Spirit” and to give “thanks to the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:18, 20).

Furthermore, “God our Savior,” “the Holy Spirit,” and “Jesus Christ our Savior” are named in a salvation text (Tit. 3:4-6).

4) General Epistles

In a context pertaining to Jesus’ death, reference was made to “the blood of Christ”, “the eternal Spirit”, and “God” (Heb. 9:14)

The elect of God “have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience of Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2)

5) John’s Gospel and First Epistle

Of Jesus who “comes from heaven” it was said: “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit” (John 3:34, RSV).

The same distinctions may be found in John 16:7-11, 13-15. “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you… Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21b, 22b).

Christians “have confidence before God,” “believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ,” and know his abiding presence “by the Spirit” given to them (1 John 3:21, 23, 24).

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:2).

“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (l John 4:13-14, NIV).

6) Revelation

John was “on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” and “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (1:9b-10a)

In the letters to the churches in Sardis and in Laodicea, there are contexts in which Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit are mentioned (3:5b-6, 21-22)

b. Other passages present the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit although not always in that order, so as to affirm or imply a relationship among the three. These passages are of special importance for ascertaining to what extent Three-in-Oneness is found in the New Testament writings.

Among these New Testament texts quoted in the latter group, every possible order of the three is employed except the one order: Father, Spirit, and Son. The latter order can be found among the texts cited in the former group.

The New Testament writings did not use the term “Trinity”.

• Theophilus of Antioch (c. A.D. 180) was seemingly the first Christian writer to use the Greek term trias of the Godhead.

• Tertullian, writing after A.D. 213, was presumably the first Christian writer to use the Latin term trinitas of the Godhead.

The New Testament writers did witness to a relationship involving Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but they did not define or elaborate upon the precise nature of that relationship. They bore witness to the Three-in-Oneness of God in his historical activity or manifestation.

Leonard Hodgson has insisted that “Christianity began as a Trinity religion with a unitarian theology”. This was true in the sense that Christians inherited from Judaism and retained a basic monotheism. But the alteration of what Hodgson called “unitarian theology” into Trinitarian theology has already begun with the New Testament writers, especially Paul and John.

Arthur W. Wainwright has made the case strongly for Three-in-Oneness in the New Testament. He prefers to speak of the “problem” of the Trinity in the New Testament rather than the “doctrine” of the Trinity in the New Testament.

Whether one adopts Wainwright’s term “problem” or not, his recognition that Three-in-Oneness was acknowledged by the writers of the New Testament but that the formal formulation of the doctrine came later during the patristic age is a position which the facts seem to make tenable.