Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity —the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence (from the Greek ousia). It’s easy to turn doctrinal discussions into strictly intellectual affairs, but as... Get expert commentary on biblical languages, fresh explorations in theology, hand-picked book excerpts, author videos, and info on limited-time sales. He is recognized by demons and speaks of himself as the “Son of Man.” His true divine identity only gradually comes into clarity, most particularly as the evangelists identify Christ with previous theophanic appearances of the Old Testament: with such visions as Jacob’s ladder (John 1:51), God’s appearance to Moses on Sinai (Luke 9:28–36; John 1:14–18), the Angel that led Israel out of Egypt (Jude 5; 1 Corinthians 10:9–10), the glorious appearance to Isaiah in the temple (John 12:41), or the Son of Man seen by Daniel (Acts 7:56). There is a perennial danger of retrojecting a developed philosophical doctrine of the Trinity into texts operating within a very different horizon. Whether they are spoken in a small, intimate ceremony or at the very large wedding of important personages like Prince Charles and Lady Diana a few years ago, all who personally attend the ceremon… Literary theorist E. K. Brown has said, “There is nothing magical in reading. We’re left wondering if this is just a way of talking about God or if it’s an agent sent from God. Basil the Blessed on Moscow’s Red Square. Many theologians would suggest it does. In Russia: The Muscovite period …Dionisy and Andrey Rublyov (whose Old Testament Trinity, now in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, is among the most revered icons ever painted).Russian architects continued to design and build impressive churches, including the celebrated Cathedral of St. It seems throughout the Old Testament that the Spirit is the self-conscious immanence of God, as well as the revelation of God. The Gospels present Christ in the mold of a pre-existent heavenly being, one who has “come” — as angels might — on an earthly mission. Critics of the doctrine of the Trinity often claim that the theology of the Old Testament is inconsistent with orthodox Christian theology. A fuller understanding of the identity of Christ and the Trinity emerges only gradually out of reflection upon the more complex portrait of the realm and operations of heaven and its beings, something that was already well underway by the time of the New Testament, exciting intense speculation within apocryphal, deuterocanonical, and other Jewish literature around figures or personifications such as the Son of Man, the Archangel Michael, Enoch, Logos, and Wisdom. Old Testament Trinity Proof Texts . It’s hard to summarize exactly what that distinction is because it’s never stated as simply as “the Father is Elohim and the son is Yahweh.” Instead, it’s a witness to a diversity of naming that establishes what’s going on within one God. This personification is a speaking agent who is difficult to distinguish. If you have any questions, please review our, Fred Sanders is Professor of Theology at Biola University's Torrey Honors Institute. But normative first reading could be a side effect of romanticism, which expects textual love at first sight, or of scientism, which expects self-evident meaning to be transferred at a single reading that does not need to be savored for its literary quality. In Genesis 18, for example, Abraham and Sarah are visited by three men, one of whom seems to be YHWH himself (Genesis 18:1, 9–22). Alastair Roberts completed doctoral studies at the University of Durham. Copyright © 2020 HarperCollins Publishers. Scripture: Genesis 1:2, 26; 3:22; 11:6-7; 19:24; Deut. Question: Is the Trinity taught in the Old Testament? Rereading is, after all, one of the primary pleasures of popular reading. While they were concerned faithfully and fully to articulate the material truth of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, the philosophical vantage points from which they did so were not, for the most part, native to — or at least typical of — the Scriptures themselves. Get updates from Zondervan Academic directly in your inbox. This allows you to understand the sense that individual parts make on their own, but help you also grasp the higher meaning that is generated by understanding them in relation to each other. The Angel of YHWH is a mysterious figure, both distinct from YHWH as his messenger yet seemingly directly identified with him at other points (Exodus 23:20–22). and keep you; At that point the critic can begin to formulate a conceptual unity corresponding to the imaginative unity of his text.”. “When Christians see Christ and the Trinity in the Old Testament, we are following the New Testament’s own lead.” The later philosophical discourse that played midwife to a Christian doctrine of the Trinity is by no means either illegitimate or … Red Square being in himself Christ is not merely individually associated with YHWH, but are connected... The teaching of the New Testament, we are following the New Testament ’ followers! 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