Christian answers

Should we belive in Trinity-three Divine persons within the one being of God?

I feel immense pleasure to convey my heartfelt thanks to my wife for her constant encouragement and valuable suggestions endowed during the course
of my writing. Christian world today witnesses a number of heresies. The teaching that Jesus is an exalted created being or Michael the Archangel is an
old, tired Arian argument propagated by Adventist pioneer Ellen G White even in the modern Christian world. This doctrine is sometime called
Arianism which teaches that Jesus is not God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity. Those who believe this false doctrine deny the deity of Christ.
Nearly every theological heresy begins with the misconception of the nature of God and the Jehovahs Witnesses (JWs), Christadelphians, Oneness
UPC, Sacred Name Movement, Islam, Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) and many Sabbath Keepers are not exception. If you look at the
modern cults, they somehow have connection with Mrs. Ellen G White that is why these people have a different gospel of Jesus. Almost all the modern
heretics reject the biblical doctrine of Trinity. In this article we will examine the orthodox Christain claim of the doctrine of Trinity.

Serial nos.

Topic

Introduction; should we belive in Trinity?

The refutation of anti-Trinitarains claim; Gen 1:26, Gen 19:24, and biblical doctrine of Godhead

Introduction: Because God is impossible to define, members of the early church faced many differences regarding the nature of God. They were afraid
that the teaching of the Apostles was being distorted. God had revealed Himself in different ways in the Scriptures and some had difficulty making sense out
of these differences. To help resolve such problems, the early Church Fathers engaged in an effort to set a boundary around this great mystery of who is
God. They did not define God, but provided a framework to help us to know God as He has been revealed. The result is not a simple statement that can be
fully explained, because there still remains the mystery of the essence of God. The resulting doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a gift to help us know more fully
the living reality of our God. The word Trinity is a combination of two words meaning three and unity. This word is not found in the bible which some antiTrinitarains based their argument. Yet even the word Bible, Rapture, mode, three manifestation, three mode, Unitarains, omnipotent, omnipresent etc are not
found yet we understood and accept the term but why not Trnity? The doctrine is definitely taught in the scripture. The wod Trinity was used firs time by
Theophillus of Antioch 150 AD: the three days before the luminaries were created are types of the Trinity, God, his Word, and his Wisdom. To
Autolycus 2:15. Although he is known to be the first person to used the term, he used it in such a way that the term was very well understood by people of
his day that he did not have to explain the meaning. In the early 3rd century Tertullian and Hippolytus of Rome wrote Against Praxeas and Against Noetus,
respectively, which are sometimes considered the first extant expository treatments of Trinitarian theology.
Tertullian 200 AD: And at the same time the mystery of the oikonomia is safeguarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order, the three
are the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being,
however, and one condition and one power, because he is one God of whom degrees and forms and kinds are taken into account in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.( Against Praxeas 2)
Hippolytus 220 AD: The Father's Word, therefore, knowing the economy and the will of the Father, to wit, that the Father seeks to be worshipped in none
other way than this, gave this charge to the disciples after he rose from the dead: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt 28:19). And by this he showed that whosoever omitted any one of these, failed in glorifying God perfectly. For it
is through the Trinity that the Father is glorified. For the Father willed, the Son did and the Spirit manifested (Against Noetus). Later on the term Trinity
appears in every early church fathers writings. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity tells us that God is three persons in total unity. He is one in essence, but has
shown Himself to us as three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These are distinct persons (hypostasis) with individual (hypostatic) attributes,
yet all one in essence. Make sense? Probably not completely, because there is a mystery involved that cannot be totally explained. How can it be one yet be
three persons? This is the unexplainable mystery. It is the boundary we have been given. There is not more than one God. Yet, God does not appear to us as
only one divine Person. Think about what kind of relationship would exists between three persons who are really one in essence? Meditating on this question
will give you an idea of the kind of relationship we can have with God and the true meaning of Gods infinite love. There have been many
misunderstandings about the nature of the Trinity. One is that the Father is God and the Son and Holy Spirit are only creations of the Father. But, this makes
them creatures. The revealed word shows us that both the Son and the Holy Spirit are uncreated and divine along with the Father. They act with the Father in
the act of Creation so cannot be created. The sricpture clearly defined them as eternally existing with the Father and so they are not creatures. Another
misunderstanding is the idea that God merely appears in different forms - sometimes as Father, others as the Son, or sometimes as the Holy Spirit which
modern Oneness UPC believed. But, Scripture clearly says that both the Son and Spirit are of God and not merely aspects of God. Both the Son and Holy
Spirit are realities with different personalities. They are not just different forms. The doctrine of Holy Trinity is mystery that the bible revealed after the
incarnation and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This was the mystery that was fully not understood by even the OT prophets but became must clear with the
final revelation from the NT. Our final solution and final answers lies within the NT in its fuller sense. Here are few quotes: 1) Col 1:26: the mystery that
has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people.2) Ephe 3:9: and to make plain to everyone the administration
of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. 3) Col 2:2: My goal is that they may be encouraged
in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely,
Christ. 4) Roman 16:25 mystery kept secret since the world began revealed to us for obedient to God by Faith.5) Ephesian 3:5 which in other ages was
not made known to the sons of men, as it has been revealed by the Spirit to His Holy apostles and prophets

Is Trinity from Pagan?

So many people choose to argue that the Trinity is a Pagan concept. You have to remember that tri-theisms are a subset of polytheistic pantheons. Tritheisms such as those in the Hindu Greek pantheons were not actual triads. You won't find one tri-theism where the members of that pantheon subset
consisted of two or more individual entities that were of equal nature. Nor will you find a tri-theism consisting two or more individuals who manifested one
entity such as the Trinity teaches. Members of pagan pantheons were often not omnipresent, omnipotent, had a beginning, were capricious, etc. Nothing
even remotely close to the Hebrew-Christian teachings of the Trinity. The early church fathers were strongly opposed against Greek pagan teachings and
could have not possibly made a mixture of Christian and pagan teachings. Also, you have to remember that to invent the Trinity is beyond the capacity of
man or even Satan. Man cannot possibly conceive of the inconceivable. Man cannot conceive of anything non-intelligible or beyond the physical realm that
exists outside of the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell). Therefore, the Trinity has to exist outside of man's capacity to invent concepts. The fact
pagan concepts predate a Biblical concept doesn't demonstrate that concept to be unscriptural or borrowed. I would submit that Pagan concepts are nothing

more than a distortion of the truth as opposed to being the other way around. After all no lie exists which cannot be said to be finite. If the Anti-Trinitarian or
Unitarian logic were consistent, then they should dismiss their own beliefs as being pagan in origin.
Monothesim (Unitarains) began at Egypt
Please allow me to explain. Before Moses was born, there was a Pharaoh who ruled in Egypt named Akhenaton. King Akhenaton destroyed every statue and
image of every Egyptian deity except for the Sun God Horus. This means that Akhenaton promoted monotheistic Unitarian worship before Moses was born.
Therefore, since Moses wrote the Pentateuch or the first five books of scripture (Genesis through Deuteronomy) this means that this took place well before
the Bible was written. If Unitarian logic were consistent, they should reject their own beliefs since a pagan promoted monotheistic anti-Trinitarian worship
prior to the writing of scripture. Bible-bashing professing Atheists and Agnostics often make much of the fact there were flood and creation stories which
were written prior to the writing of scripture. And because of that fact, they use the same logic that well-intended Unitarians use. The faulty logic that a
pagan concept exists prior to a Christian concept demonstrates the Christian concept was borrowed from paganism. Sadly, such logic ultimately leads to
unbelief of scripture as a whole.
Where did Pagan get the idea why not four or five why only Three?
Where did the pagans get a concept of three? Why not two or four? Where did they get the idea of a God in heaven anyway? What about their belief in a
virgin and a son? where did that originate from? Rom.1:20-25 tells us that man from the beginning knew God."... 'and their foolish hearts were darkened"
vs.25 "they exchanged the truth for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator." When mankind fell into darkness of sin, they still
retained some elements of the truth but distorted its meaning and it became lost. The doctrine of trinity is so true that even the pagan themselves understood
and yet they distort the truth and divert from the real doctrine. It will be unlogical to say that since pagan does it must be from pagan. The same logic should
therefore be applied for entire bible story which are seen even before the bible was written yet. Babylonian have many story like the biblical story yet differ
from the true story, almost every Jewish feast was long observed even before God command Moses and the list goes on.
Firstly, we will move to OT references where pluarity of God is stress which anti-Trinitarains comes up with bad and unlogical explanation.
A) Gen. 1:26-27: And God said: Let US (plural) make (plural) man in OUR image, after OUR likeness; and let THEM have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created
(singular) MAN in HIS OWN image (Singular), in the image of GOD created He HIM (Singualr); MALE and FEMALE created HE THEM. (plural)". This
verse is skillfully twisted by Unitarains and anti-Trinitarain to nullify the actual message. We will discuss one by one.
1) Editorail WE: One claim the anachronistic attempt to employ this device to obfuscate the clear teaching of these texts rests on further obfuscation:
namely, the false idea that an editorial we refers to one person for Gen 1:26 We and Our. This, however, is far from true. In newspapers, for example, the
editor is a representative of others, i.e. he is giving the official view of those behind the papers production. As The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language says, Editorial we: The first-person plural pronoun used by an editorialist in expressing the opinion or point of view of a publication's
management. Or again, Merriam-Websters Dictionary of English Usage: The "editorial we," which has been on record for at least 1,000 years, is at least
as old as the "royal we." It gets its name from the understanding that the "we" in newspaper editorials reflects a collective, not an individual opinion. It's
generally used to give writing a somewhat formal tone, one that says "We know what we're talking about." Sometimes we indicates that an author identifies
with a particular group, and occasionally it's used playfully in casual writing, perhaps with overtones of the royal we. (Mark Twain reportedly said once,
Only presidents, editors and people with tapeworm have the right to use the editorial 'we.). But another and final criticism of this argument is that these
words US and We were spoken by God Himself in Gen 1:26, not Moses who wrote after 4000 years and, at least in the case of the Genesis passages,
before Moses (the editor) was even around; thus, the editorial we explanation is a day late and a rupee short.
2) God was speaking with his angelic hosts
This interpretation is ruled out by the fact that the text says that man was created in God's own image. Man is never said to be created in the image of angels.
Other passages affirm this point Genesis 9:6: "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in THE IMAGE OF GOD made HE
man... Furthermore, we are clearly told in Genesis 2 that God alone created man: Genesis 2:7, 21-22: "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul... And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he
slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made He a
woman, and brought her unto the man.". The Scriptures are also clear that angels took no part in creation: Job 9:7-9: "Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth
not; and sealeth up the stars. Who ALONE stretcheth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. Who maketh the Bear, Orion, and the
Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.". Isaiah 44:24: "Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb: I am the Lord, that
maketh all things; that stretched forth the heavens ALONE; that spread abroad the earth by MYSELF;" Since angels cannot be included in OUR, US then
God is speaking to the other members of the Godhead. There are at least two reasons why this interpretation is correct. First, in Genesis we saw that God's
Spirit was involved in the creation process, a point reiterated elsewhere in the Holy Bible: "Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created; and Thou
renewest the face of the earth." Psalm 104:30
"The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty given me life." Job 33:4

Job states that God's Spirit made him, affirming that the Spirit of God was involved in the creation of man. This definitely shows that God was speaking to at
least one other Person in Genesis 1:26. The second line of evidence comes from Genesis 1:26-27 itself. There we are told that God created MAN (singular).
And yet the one man is actually more than one person, since the passage shows that the one man is both male and female. This is reiterated in the following
passages: Genesis 5:1-3: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created MAN, in the likeness of God made He him (Singular);
MALE AND FEMALE created He THEM (plural), and blessed them, AND CALLED THEIR NAME ADAM (man), in the day when they were created. And
Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth." And God created (singular) MAN in
HIS OWN image (Singular), in the image of GOD created He HIM (Singualr); MALE and FEMALE created HE THEM (plural)". Anti-Trinitarains group
like Oneness UPC even claim that God was beforehand looking down and uttering what he would then accomplished as human and so he could have used
US and OUR in in Gen 1:26. However the bible says that man is a living being only after when soul was given and obviously God cannot refer to uncreated
human flesh which is without soul yet to be US. Furthermore, according to the Bible, a human being is considered a living entity when it has a soul:
Genesis 2:7: "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
In fact, death occurs the moment the soul departs from a person: Genesis 35:16-19:"..And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing--for she died--that
she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath--the same is Beth-lehem."
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21: "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they
have all one breath; so that man hath no pre-eminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all return to dust. Who
knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth?" So God could never used US or Our
to human before he created them without living soul. It is clear that God never used US and Our to human even after they were created having reasonable
soul atleast in Genesis. This view of created angel as Us and We originated with and has been popular among certain strains of apostate Judaism (the
Palestinian Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud, et. al.), but it has also been surreptitiously picked up by a number of other groups and individuals. According to
this view, since angels were present when God laid the foundations of the earth (Job 38:4, 7), and since God is sometimes found to speak in their company (1
Kings 22:19-23; 2 Chron. 18:18-22), quite possibly he was consulting them on this particular occasion. Many derive a moral from the story: Scripture
thereby informs us that the greater should always consult and receive permission of the lesser. So long as one abstracts the plural terms from the context, it
is easy to see how many can be satisfied with this explanation. As soon as we try to place these terms, so defined, back into the surrounding context
however, we meet with several insuperable difficulties. First, there is not a single reference to any angelic being in the creation story of Genesis 1. Neither
Yahweh's heavenly council nor angels are explicitly mentioned anywhere during the six days of creation. Now this in itself is not conclusive proof against
this view since one can infer on the basis of other texts such as Job 38:4-7 that spirit creatures were present at the time of man's creation:
Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a
measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone- while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy? Job 38:4-7. Moreover, Genesis does mention the cherubim: Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good
and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever -- therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the
garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a
flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:22-24
This leads us to our second point. According to Genesis God created man by himself and in his own image:
Genesis 1:27; God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 2:7-8, 18, 21-22: Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living being. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed Then the LORD God said, It
is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;
then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and
brought her to the man.
Genesis 5:1-2: This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male
and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
We are further told that Yahweh not only made all things by himself but that he didn't consult anyone when he did, which answers any possible attempt to
mitigate the force of the above observations by saying that God wasnt exhorting the angels to assist Him in the work of creation but was only conferring
with them: Isaiah 40:22-28: It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a
curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaninglessTo whom then
will you liken Me That I would be his equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth
their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing. Why
do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God? Do you not know?
Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired His understanding is
inscrutable.

Isaiah 42:5: Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the
people on it And spirit to those who walk in it.
Isaiah 45:12, 18: It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host For thus
says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed
it to be inhabited), I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isaiah 44:24: Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out
the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,
Jeremiah 27:5: I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will
give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight.
In light of the preceding texts it cannot be a reference to God commanding a group of spirit creatures to come together with him to create mankind. It is quite
possible that this anti-Trinitarain are aware of these problems, which accounts for the fact that after they offered no solution which the bible itself will
contradicts if God consult or suggest help from any creatures. If God consult any created hosts to make mankind we would have to believe that the
archetypical pattern after which man is made is that of God and the angels, a thought nowhere expressed in the sacred record. Note well: Genesis 1:26 does
not say, Let Us make man in My image, but Let Us make man in Our image. If angels are elevated to this position, consistency requires that obedience
and worship be accorded them as well. After all, a reason repeatedly given in Scripture for obedience to God is that we were created in His image (Gen. 9:6;
Jms. 3:8-10; Eph. 4:24). As His image bearers, we are expected to image Him, to reflect His character, for His stamp is upon our nature. This is also an
underlying assumption of many, many passages (e.g., Lev. 19:2; Matt. 5:48; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). Thus, if we accept the angelic host interpretation, the angels
have such a claim upon us as well; we would not exclusively belong to and owe our ultimate obedience to God. And what is this but worship? No wonder
the apostle Paul, in counteracting a view conducive to angel worship (Col 2:18 let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and
worshiping of angels), reminded the saints at Colosse that the archetypal image in which men were made is that of Lord Jesus Christ, not angels: He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Col. 1:15-16: For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through Him.
Second, it is impossible on this reading to consistently avoid the conclusion that the angels are co-creators with God (contra Isa. 44:24 and countless
passages), though some have tried. Usually, those who hold this view argue from Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image, that, though
God spoke to the angels (vs. 26), He alone did the work (vs. 27). We noted already the peculiar three-fold repetition of God created in verse 27, but that
curiosity aside, the hortative of verse 26 will not permit passivity on the part of those to whom God is speaking. Does anyone holding this view really want
to say that God said to the angels Let Us make, yet, for all his huffing and puffing, the angels did nothing but watch? It doesnt take a Trinitarian to
observe that this attempt to negate verse 26 by calling attention to verse 27 is a mere makeshift.
Third, the idea that the only wise God sought counsel from angels is neither necessary nor possible. That this is not necessary most people will surely grant;
that it is not even possible God Himself has declared through the prophet. It is clear from this and other passages that God does not need or even seek
counsel from any other, except for His own consubstantial Word and Spirit, for no one is like Him. Isaiah 40:13-14: Who has directed the Spirit of the
LORD Or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice
and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding? The Triune God alone is the original, the pattern, the archetype of all who bear
His image; that original image is not an image that is common to God and angels or any other creatures. No one is like Him. Even men only bear this image
in a derivative, finite, and ectypal fashion. Even as man, so understood, cannot give counsel to or direct the most high, so can no other creature, heavenly or
otherwise: All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of
earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have You done? (Dan. 4:35)
As for the passages suggested in favor of this view those that speak of an angelic presence at the time of mans creation and those that record God
speaking, post-creation, in the presence of the angels they can do nothing to overturn such considerations. Worse than this, they even lend support to the
point here being made. Where mention is made in Job of the angels shouting for joy when God laid the cornerstone of the earth, the context of the passage is
an indictment on Job, a creature, for presuming to insinuate Himself into Gods counsel. Though the angels were present at the time in question and Job was
not, surely the principle obtains in their case, for they, too, are mere creatures. Who are the angels that they should venture to inform the Most High? It is
much sounder to say with Paul, He works all things after the counsel of His will. (Eph. 1:11), clarifying that God does not take counsel with his creature.
Furthermore, the only activity of the angels at the time in question is to sing the wonders of God, not join Him in His creative work. Job 38:4-7: Where
were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line
across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone- while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? There
is also no mention in these passages of an image that is common to God and angels that could serve as the prototype for man; indeed, a vast gulf is assumed.
And just where do these passages with all their passing allusions to angels, something that the passages in Genesis do not contain, have God referring to
Himself and the angels as Us and Our. Where do they say, Let Us do this or that divine work? Nowhere! Isnt this phenomenon what these passages
were marshaled in to explain? None of this is to deny that angels or prophets can have Gods counsel revealed to them. This, at least, is evident from those

passages where God speaks to the angels, even eliciting certain responses from them (1 Kings 22:19-23; 2 Chron. 18:18-22), or from those passages that
speak of the prophets as those who see and hear the Lords counsel (Jer. 23:18). Ultimately, however, Gods counsel, as far as it is reflected in time, is the
outworking or revelation of His own eternal decree, His sovereign will and determination of what shall be. Angels and man can only know of such counsel
as God deigns to make it known to them; they cannot determine it, inform it, or otherwise participate in it; they can only be subject to it.
So, the Unitarians and Christadelphians are wrong because they say Us refers to God and the Angels. But man is not created in the image of angels, but of
God. Jesus is not included in their view of US. The Jehovah's Witnesses are right to include Jesus and the Father in the US of Gen 1:26, but make Jesus the
created arch-angel Michael. But Heb 1:5 proves Jesus cannot be, nor ever has been an angel. Further, in their self contradictory doctrine, they have Jesus the
creature, as our co-creator (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16). But this violates Rom 1:25: "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator". This passage
teaches that if Jesus is the creator, as the Bible says he is, then he cannot be a creature. Jesus cannot be creator and creature at the same time.

The word US and OUR cannot include angels: here are some refuting texts:
1. Genesis 18:16-17: Then the [three] men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.
The LORD said, Shall I [not we] hide from Abraham what I am about to do.
2. Micah said, Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and
on His left. "The LORD said, Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said this while another said that. "Then a spirit came
forward and stood before the LORD and said, I will entice him. "The LORD said to him, How? And he said, I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in
the mouth of all his prophets. Then He said, You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so (1 Kings 22:19-22). The spirit used Iwhen he
referred to himself; The LORD never used We or Our here.
3. Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who performs His word, Obeying the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you
who serve Him, doing His will. Psalm 103:20-21. We have seen that the angels are excluded when the LORD use I and We. (D) A river of fire was
flowing and coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him; and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court
sat, and the books were opened.(Daniel 7:10). Distinction is clearly seen with the Son of Man and the hosts of heaven. Hence, the use of US and OUR
by God to his angels is not supported from the bible.
Hebrews 1:5 proves Jehovah's Witnesses false teachers when they say Jesus is an angel: "For to which of the angels did He ever say, "You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You"? And again, "I will be a Father to Him And He shall be a Son to Me"? Of course the answer is rhetorical: God never said to any
angels "Today I have begotten You". But he did say this to Jesus. Therefore Jesus cannot be an angel, but He begotten at his resurrection as Acts 13:33 says,
thereby fulfilling Ps 2:7. The self contradictory doctrine of the Watchtower has Jesus the creature, functioning as our co-creator (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16). But this
violates Rom 1:25: "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator". This passage teaches that if Jesus is the creator, as the Bible says he is,
then he cannot be a creature. Jesus cannot be creator and creature at the same time! Jesus was worship by men whehn he was on this earth. He is again
worship in Revelation 5:13-14 : Then i heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to
Him who sit on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and gory and might forever and ever Amen! Jesus cannot be the creature in any case.
The only example of a plural pronoun is one that includes God and men, never angels: ""Come now, and let us [God and man] reason together," Says the
LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow" Isaiah 1:18. This is also 4000 years after the Genesis account of creation. The US
used by God here is to fallen man who was called by God. Since God used Us in reference to another third party, it is absolutely true that he used Us and
Our in reference to another person within the Godhead which exclude angels.

3) Plural of Majesty", "pluralis majestaticus", "singular of intensity", the "Royal we"

Anti-Trinitarians and Unitarians alike, try to explain away the plural references to God in the Old Testament Gen. 1:26-27: And God said: Let US (plural)
make (plural) man in OUR image, after OUR likeness; and let THEM have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created (singular) MAN in HIS OWN image (Singular), in the
image of GOD created He HIM (Singualr); MALE and FEMALE created HE THEM (plural)". Many Unitarians insist that God here using US and OUR is
God descriding himelf as; plural of Majesty or plural Majestaticus to himself to deny the triune God. This is the most cited argumnet to nullify the
truineness of God. While Trinitarians expect to find such plural pronouns and verbs used in reference to God at face value, anti-Trinitarians fall all over
themselves trying to find a way to avoid the obvious truth that there are three persons in the one God. As we will see, all of the Anti-Trinitarian arguments
are invalid leaving us with no other conclusion then the fact that God is a plurality of persons, just as the Biblical trinity teaches. It is clear that these plural
references to God in the Old Testament were hidden until fully revealed by Christ and his apostles with the proclamation of the deity of Jesus. Jews could
look back and see Jesus there in Genesis! Despite saying that the use of the singular forms rules out God being a Trinity, some modern Jews then goes on to
posit the possibility that God may have been consulting the angels in the creation of man which is already discussed. If the use of singular verbs and the
singular "God" rule out the possibility of God being a multi-personal Being, then the same logic must apply to Unitarains claim that God was consulting
angels. But if Unitarains allows for the possibility that God was addressing the angelic host, despite the use of singular verbs and God being spoken of in the
singular, then on what grounds do they wish to rule out the Trinitarian interpretation, that God is addressing the other members of the Godhead? It clearly
doesn't have anything to do with the use of the singular. Even more: Not only God is spoken about in singular and plural in these verses; man is too. God
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refers to himself in the plural in verse 26, but Uniatraians claims that the singular in 27 "undoes" the plural in vs 26. Would they similarly argue, that the
singular for man in the first part of verse 27 (man, him) "undoes" the plural for man in the last part of verse 27 (male and female, them; both of which are
clearly seen as part of the singular mentioning of man that came before? Vs 27: And God created (singular) MAN in HIS OWN image (Singular), in the
image of GOD created He HIM (Singualr); MALE and FEMALE created HE THEM. (plural)". If they would not argue that way for the statement about man
in the very same verse, why should we accept such an argument as proof against the Trinitarian understanding? Here, now, is our exegesis of Genesis 1:2627, taken and modified from one of our rebuttals in a very short statement. To begin with, the very chapter of Genesis 1 provides evidence that the one God
who was responsible for creating man is actually a multi-personal being. We read in verse 2: "Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters." Genesis 1:2. Here, we see the Spirit of God hovering over the primordial
waters, an indication that God's Spirit was involved in the creation process. With the foregoing in mind, we can now take another look at Genesis 1:26-27:
"And God said: 'Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness; and let THEM have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And God created man in HIS OWN IMAGE, in THE
IMAGE OF GOD created HE him; male and female created HE THEM." Genesis 1:26-27.

The Plural of Majesty Flounders on the Contrast in Genesis 3:22, 11:7, Isaiah 6:1-9
1) Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand,
and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.
It is often overlooked that even if certain uses of the words Us and Our are susceptible to a figurative use again, assuming, contrary to fact, such a
convention as the plural of majesty was then in existence not all of the occasions when God says Us and Our are even grammatically consistent with
such an idiom. For example, when the LORD used the word Us in Genesis 3:22, He didnt simply say that man has become like us, but that man has
become like one of Us, a construction that certainly indicates that more than one person is in view. If this is plural of majesty, why would God allow sinful
man after violating his commandment to share his majesty? This does not make sense. Fallen man sharing the majesty of God??
2) Genesis 11:1-9: Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the
land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they used brick for stone, and they
used tar for mortar. They said, 'Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name,
otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.' The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
The LORD said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose
to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse [first person plural verb] their language, so that they will not understand one
another's speech.' So the LORD scattered [third person singular verb] them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the
city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused [third person singular verb] the language of the whole earth; and from there
the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. Here in 11:3-4 the cohortative mood refers to a group, i.e., one people (v. 6), speaking
among themselves since the verb is third person masculine plural, e.g., They said. In 11:7 the cohortative mood (let Us go down) is the same as Genesis
1:26, namely a third person masculine singular verb, since verse 6 reads, Yahweh said. Moreover, the verb which Yahweh uses for confuse in verse 7 is
plural. Since the cohortative mood in the first part of the text is used in relation to a group exhorting one another to carry out a specific task Yahweh must
also be speaking to a group. However, the difference in the two cases is that Yahweh is only one singular Being since the context shows that he alone came
down and scattered the people by confusing them by himself. And as we noted, the verbs used are third person masculine singular. Also to run contrary to
the obvious and intended contrast found in Genesis 11, where the divine Us is set over and against a rebellious humanity. The latter said, and surely there
is no hint of a plural of majesty here, Come, let US build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens (v. 3); to which the divine response is,
Come, let Us go down and confuse their language (v. 7). Was it really a single person who pursued the building of a city and a tower that would reach to
the heavens, as the plural of majesty view suggests if applied consistently? Or is there some non question-begging reason to say that the phrase let us in
the first part of the verse carries an entirely different connotation from the same words when they are used in the second part of the verse? Obviuosly, this
verse in Gen 11:7 cannot be plural of majesty or otherwise the man coming together saying Let Us build must be different meaning. Will anti-Trinitrains
interprete this as single person using plural of majesty?
3) Isaiah 6:1-9 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 3. And
they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. 5...my eyes has seen the King, the LORD of
hosts 8.Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for US?"9. He said, "Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but
never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Isaiah talks about the LORD of hosts whom he saw (not in vision) seated on His throne with all
His glory. We know that God cannot be seen but what Isaiah saw was the person of Christ. But how do we know that what Isaiah saw was God the Son? The
NT confirms to us that what the prophet saw was Jesus, God the Son in John 12:41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
Isaiah heard the Lord saying who shall I Send? Who will go for US?. The word US used by the Lord indicates they are three separate persons. The Lord
was not speaking to prophet Isaiah; rather the prophet was hearing the conversation between the Triune God. Prophet Isaiah then voluntarily gave himself to
them to be sent. All this indicates the plurality of God. The passage in vs 9 He said, Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be
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ever seeing, but never perceiving was the word spoken by the Holy Spirit as we can see from the NT in Acts 28:25-26 The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to
your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: Go to this people and say, You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever
seeing but never perceiving. So we see that the third person of Trinity, the Holy Spirit was also involved when the LORD appeared to Isaiah which is
confirmed to us by Paul. All the three divine persons share the same throne but the only visible person was God the Son that is why the creatures shouted
Holy Holy Holy, which is three fold Holy for each divine person. The used of Us cannot be plural of majesty.
4) Gen 2:18: And the Lord God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone, let Us make for him a help suitable to him.(LXX).
With this, the multi-personal being of God is clearly understood to be God own nature. Here is brief highlight on the plurality of Majesty:
1) Plural of Majesty comes from the Latin, "pluralis majestaticus" and is also known as "singular of intensity".
2) "Royal we" "we are not amused" (Queen Victoria)
3) History of the "Plural of Majesty" argument:

Queen Elizabeth 1st would not be amused... about the way Anti-Trinitarians twist every plural reference to God as a mere "Royal We". After all,
Elizabeth was a Trinitarian, and would not be one bit amused that her own words were being used to trash the very trinity she believed in! "Let US make
man in OUR image" (Gen 1:26) cannot be "Plural of Majesty" because this poetic device did not even exist in scripture until after the Old Testament was
completed. The apostolic fathers had never heard of "plural of majesty", much less believe it. They unanimously
interpreted Gen 1:26 as the Father
Speaking to the Son.
4) There are no examples in the either the Old or New Testament of Plural of Majesty.
5) The earliest we find this poetic device being used in about the 4th century during the Byzantine era.
6) Other cultures that lived during the time of Moses never used the plural "Elohim", the way the Bible does, but instead used the simple singular "el". This
nicely silences two different sets of heretics: First, it silences the Bible trashing liberals, who falsely claim the plural "elohim" is a carry over from a
previous polytheistic origin of Judaism. Second, it silences the anti-Trinitarians, who falsely claim "plural of majesty" was widespread in all cultures in
history.
7) The "Royal We" was made most famous by Queen Victoria when a vulgar joke was told in her presence. When she replied, "we are not amused", she
clearly intended to speak on behalf of the other ladies whom she knew were equally offended not to her ownself.
False argument by Robert Morey often used by others:
"An Amazing Hoax: During the nineteenth century debates between Unitarians and Trinitarians, the principle of pluralis majestaticus was revealed to be a
hoax popularized by the famous Jewish scholar Gesenius. It became clear that he used it as a ruse de guerre against Christianity." (Robert Morey, The
Trinity, p 95).
1) William Gesenius wrote his lexicon but died before he had it published. Others finished the work for him posthumously: The Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee
Lexicon (1846 AD) is a translation of the "Lexicon Manuale Hebraicum et Chaldaicum in Veteris Testamenti Libros," of Dr. William Gesenius.
2) William Gesenius couldn't be guilty of such a hoax, motivated by "a strategy of war", when the plural of majesty dates back to the 4th century! Even
Calvin discussed the plural of majesty.
3) Morey, although a Trinitarian, is correct in his view that Plural of Majesty is never used in the Bible, but this argument is invalid and needs to be
withdrawn. He shoots himself in the foot by creating a false argument to teach something that is otherwise true. We need to be careful.
"Plural of Majesty" did not exist in the history of ancient Jews thought
1) Every one who is acquainted with the rudiments of the Hebrew and Chaldee languages, must know that God, in the holy Writings, very often spoke of
Himself in the plural. The passages are numerous, in which, instead of a grammatical agreement between the subject and predicate, we meet with a
construction, which some modern grammarians, who possess more of the so-called philosophical than of the real knowledge of the Oriental languages,
call a pluralis excellentiae. This helps them out of every apparent difficulty. Such a pluralis excellentiae was, however, a thing unknown to Moses and
the prophets. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, David, and all the other kings, throughout TeNaKh (the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa) speak in the
singular, and not as modern kings in the plural. They do not say we, but I, command; as in Gen. xli. 41; Dan. iii. 29; Ezra i. 2, etc." (Rabbi Tzvi Nassi,
Oxford University professor, The Great Mystery, 1970, p6, )
2) "This first person plural can hardly be a mere editorial or royal plural that refers to the speaker alone, for no such usage is demonstrable anywhere else
in biblical Hebrew. Therefore, we must face the question of who are included in this "us" and "our." It could hardly include the angels in consultation
with God, for nowhere is it ever stated that man was created in the image of angels, only of God. Verse 27 then affirms: "and God [Elohim] created man
in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them" (NASB). God--the same God who spoke of Himself in the
plural--now states that He created man in His image. In other words, the plural equals the singular. This can only be understood in terms of the
Trinitarian nature of God. The one true God subsists in three Persons, Persons who are able to confer with one another and carry their plans into action
together--without ceasing to be one God." (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason Archer, p.359, commenting on whether Gen 1:26 is a "plural of
majesty")
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3) "The best answer that they [Old Hebrew lexicographers and grammarians] could give was that the plural form used for the name (or title) of God was
the 'pluralis majestatis,' that is the plural of majesty...to say nothing of the fact that it is not at all certain that the 'pluralis majestatis' is ever found in the
Old Testament, there is an explanation much nearer at hand and much simpler, and that is, that a plural name was used for the one God, in spite of the
intense monotheism of the Jews, because there is a plurality of person in the one Godhead." (The God of the Bible, R. A.Torrey, 1923, p 64)
4) "Another very popular view in modem times is that God uses the plural, just as kings do, as a mark of dignity (the so-called "plural of majesty"), but it is
only late in Jewish history that such a form of speech occurs, and then it is used by Persian and Greek rulers (Esdr. iv. 18; 1 Mace. x. 19). Nor can the
plural be regarded as merely indicating the way in which God summons Himself to energy, for the use of the language is against this (Gen. ii. 18; Is.
xxxiii. 10)." (Trinity, A Catholic Dictionary, William E. Addis & Thomas Arnold, 1960, p 822-830).

5) Rabbi Eliezar Hakkalir, AD 70, taught the doctrine of three distinct beings revealed in the Godhead in his commentary on Genesis 1:1. He wrote:
"When God created the world, He created it through the Three Sephiroth, namely, through Sepher, Sapher and Vesaphur, by which the Three twywh
(Beings) are meant . . . The Rabbi, my Lord Teacher of blessed memory, explained Sepher, Sapher, and Sippur, to be synonymous to Ya, Yehovah, and
Elohim meaning to say, that the world was created by these three names. (Rabbi Eliezer Hakkalir. The Book of Creation).
6) According to the Zohar, one day Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai was teaching his son Rabbi Eliezer about the mystery of the triune nature of God. He
instructed his pupil by saying, "Come and see the mystery of the word hwhy, Jehova: there are three steps, each existing by itself; nevertheless they are
One, and so united that one cannot be separated from the other." (Zohar, vol. iii. Amsterdam edition. 65).
7) The Zohar passage of Gen 1:26 is as follows: Jehovah, Elohaynu, Jehovah. There are three steps to accept the mystery from above. In the beginning
God created. In the beginning is the first mystery from where all else spreadsThe name takes three forms and from there the name is interpreted in
several ways Rabbi Bechai explained: Elohim is El Haym. These are Gods. Remember your creators (Ecclesiastes 12:1). The wise will understand.
8) Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman said in Rabbi Jonathan's name: "When Moses was engaged in writing the Torah, he had to write the work of each day.
When he came to the verse, AND GOD SAID; LET US MAKE MAN, etc., he said: 'Sovereign of the Universe! Why dost Thou furnish an excuse to
heretics?' (for maintaining a plurality of deity). 'Write,' replied He; 'whoever wishes to err may err.' (Genesis Rabbah, VIII.8, p. 59)
9) Rabbi Nachman commented as follows: It is said: "An Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire," and (Elohim) Myhla, "God called unto
him." This is all one, namely, whether he saith "The Angel, or (Elohim ) Myhla, "God spake to him out of the midst of the bush". . . Therefore be not
astonished that Moses hid his face before this Angel; because this Angel mentioned here is the Angel, the Redeemer, concerning whom it is written; "I
am the God of Bethel;" and here, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." It is the same of whom it is
said, "My name is in Him." (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman).
10) Rabbi Simlai said: Wherever you find a point supporting the heretics [e.g., Trinitarians], you find the refutation at its side. They asked him again:
What is meant by, AND GOD SAID: LET US MAKE MAN? Read what follows, replied he: Not, and gods created man is written here, but And
God created (Gen. 1:27). When they [the heretics] went out his disciples said to him: Them you have dismissed with a mere makeshift, but how will
you answer us? (Ibid., VIII. 9, p. 60)
11) Keil & Delitzsch: "The plural "We" was regarded by the fathers and earlier theologians almost unanimously as indicative of the Trinity" (, Genesis 1:26,
Vol. 1, Page 38) Note: after observing that that the unanimous view of the apostolic Fathers was that "we" referred to the three persons of the trinity, he
then rejects this and adopts the plural of majesty view. This is most unfortunate. If only he had known plural of majesty did not exist historically among
the Jews until after the Old Testament was written in about 200 AD.)
12) The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia relates that with the use of the word Elohim "The significant fact, however, is not the origin of the word, for this
cannot be definitely known. Rather, it is the way it is used of Israel's God in the OT. When used of Yahweh, it refers to the sole God of the world, who is
addressed in the plural as the fullness of Deity. We can be sure that no polytheistic elements are allowed to appear in Gen 1. Yet, it is here that the plural
is most obvious (Gen 1:26). Regardless of one's explanation of the reason for the plural emphasis here, he cannot ignore the plain meaning of the
passage. In some sense God is plural; yet He is also singular (cf. the singular verbs in v. 27). Although the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is not taught
in the chapter, it emerges from it (C.T. Francisco, Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, ed. C.F. Pfeiffer, J. Rhea, and H.F)
13) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised: This word is plural in form, and although it most frequently means God it can be used in
a plural sense. Thus it can refer to other gods (Ex. 20:3; Josh. 24:16), foreign gods (Jer. 5:7), gods of the nations (Isa. 36:18), etc. Sometimes it appears to
mean beings with divine qualities or authority either angelic or human (Ps. 8:5; 82:1, 6; 138:1)The use of the plural form with singular meaning is
not unique to Israel. Similar forms occur in pre-Israelite Babylonian and Canaanite texts in which a worshiper wishes to exalt a particular god above
others. This form has been called the plural of majesty or the intensive plural because it implies that all the fulness of deity is concentrated in the
one god. Elohim being the most common word for God in the OT thus conveys this idea. Some have also thought that the frequent use of Elohim
emphasizes that God is not intrinsically monistic but includes within Himself plurality of powers, attributes, and personhood. [Bromiley, Geoffrey W.
Vol. 2, Page 505-506. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1988; 2002.]
14) Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed.): But a better reason can be seen in Scripture itself where, in the very first chapter of
Gen, the necessity of a term conveying both the unity of the one God and yet allowing for a plurality of persons is found (Gen 1:2,26). This is further
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borne out by the fact that the form elohim occurs only in Hebrew and in no other Semitic language, not even in Biblical Aramaic (Gustav F.
Oehler, Theology of the Old Testament, p. 88). [Harris, R. L., Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., & Waltke, B. K. (1999, c1980). (Page 044). Chicago: Moody
Press.]
15) Martin Luther: We may note also the fact that Moses here says that the Lord (Jehovah) rained fire and brimstone from the Lord (Jehovah). This mode
of speaking greatly irks the Jews and they try in vain to explain it. But Moses mentions Jehovah twice to show that there is but one God, but that in this
one God there are three distinct persons Martin Luther, Luther's Commentary on Genesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 354).
16) Old Testament scholar Claus Westermann, who was a professor at the University of Heidelberg from 1958-1978, said:"The plural of majesty does
not occur in Hebrew" ..., so this older explanation has been completely abandoned today Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Commentary (Minneapolis:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1994), 145
17) Further, Professor of the Old Testament, Gerhard F. Hasel of Andrews University, stated: .. "there are no certain examples of plurals of majesty with
either verbs or pronouns ... the verb used in Gn 1:26 (h) is never used with a plural of majesty. There is no linguistic or grammatical basis upon
which the us can be considered to be a plural of majesty. (Hasel, The Meaning of Let Us in Gn 1:26, Andrews University Seminary Studies 13
(1975), 63-64)
18) Professor Tayler Lewis (LL.D), a classical and Biblical scholar, after mentioning several different interpretations on offer, said the following about the
plural of majesty: Of all these views the pluralis majestaticus has the least support. It is foreign to the usus loquendi of the earliest language; it is
degrading instead of honoring to Deity, and Aben Ezra shows that the few seeming examples brought from the Hebrew Scriptures, such as Num. xxii. 6;
Dan. ii. 36, do not bear it out the latter, moreover, being an Aramaic mode of speech. If we depart at all from the patristic view of an allusion to a
plurality of idea in the Deity [i.e. the Trinity], the next best is that of Maimonides (John Peter Lange, D.D., Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical,
Doctrinal and Homiletical, Vol. I, Genesis, translated from the German and edited, with additions, by Philip Schaff, D.D. (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan), p. 173)
19) F. W. Gesenius, who is credited with inaugurating the scientific approach to Semitic Philology. After the death of Gesenius, Rdiger was appointed
editor for the next editions of Gesenius Hebrew Grammar. In this capacity, he also added the following footnote that is frequently quoted:
Jewish grammarians call such plurals... plur. virium or virtutum; later grammarians call them plur. excellentiae, magnitudinis, or plur. maiestaticus. This
last name may have been suggested by the "we" used by kings when speaking of themselves (cf. already I Macc. 10:19, 11:31); and the plural used by
God in Genesis 1:26, and 11:7, Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way. It is, however, either communicative, or according to others, an
indication of the fullness of power and might; but it is best explained as a plural of self-deliberation. The use of the plural as a form of respectful
address is quite foreign to Hebrew. (Hebrew Grammar, eds. E. Kautzsch and A. E. Cowley, p. 418. This quote is often attributed to Gesenius himself,
but this is not correct. (For an excellent discussion of this and other matters of interest to this discussion, see the following article by Jochen Katz).
20) R. C. H. Lenski pointed out: It simply cannot be the majestic plural, for the very sufficient reason that no speaker uses in the same breath the singular
I and the plural we (us).(R. C. H. Lenski, The Eisenach Old Testament Selections (Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern, 1925), p. 641).
Plural of Majesty is not the correct explanation as to why plural, nouns, verbs and adjectives are applied to God, because we find similar examples in the
Hebrew language of the Old Testament that apply plurality to common creatures and things. Such occasional usage's of plural, nouns, verbs and adjectives of
God, man and material objects, are best explained as typical and normal for the Hebrew language. Its just the way they expressed things at times. The plural
nouns and pro-nouns applied to God, like WE, US, OUR, Elohim, Adonai are powerful evidence of the Trinity hidden in the Old Testament, to be
discovered after the coming of Christ. The almost exclusive use of the plural elohim for God and Adonai for Lord, make a strong case that any honest seeker
could see. This extensive pattern is hard to argue away as plural of majesty. To those who think there is not even a single example of the "Royal We" in
scripture we say: "We are not amused!"

The Aramaic Bible/Targums on Gen 1:26

Besides the well-known Greek translation of the Old Testament there are the lesser-known Aramaic translations of Diaspora Jews in the East. These are
commonly referred to as Aramaic Targums. These versions often went beyond mere translation to include paraphrastic renderings and commentary on the
text of the Old Testament. What they tell us is revealing, to say the least. In the Fragmentary Targum, Exodus 12:42 reads,: The first night, when the Word
[Heb. Dabar; Ar. Memra; Gr. Logos] of Jehovah was revealed to the world in order to create it, the world was desolate and void, and darkness spread over
the face of the abyss and the Word of the Lord was bright and illuminating and He called it the first night.
More interesting and relevant is what can be found in the Fragmentary Targum at Gen. 1:26-27: And the Word of Jehovah said: Let us create the son of
man in an image like us and let them have dominion over (all creatures). And the Word of Jehovah created Adam in his own image; in the image from
before Jehovah he created them: he created them the male and his mate.
Equally of interest is what can be found in the Jerusalem Targum at Genesis 1:27: And the Word of Jehovah created man in His likeness, in the likeness of
the presence of the Lord He created him, the male and his yoke-fellow He created them.

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In the Targum of Onkelos a relevant portion of Genesis 3 reads: And they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
evening of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called to Adam and
said to him, Where art thou? And he said, The voice of Thy Word heard I in the garden, and I was afraid, because I (was) naked, and I would hide.
In the Targum of Pseudo Jonathan, Genesis 3:24 reads: So he drove Adam out and set the Glory of his presence to the east of the Garden of Eden, between
the two cherubim For the Word of Jehovah prepared it for man to keep so that he may settle in the world to come
Many other things relevant to an overall case for the Trinity can be found in the Targums, but these are beyond the present article. What has been presented
here ought to be more than adequate to dislodge one ever too common objection to a Trinitarian reading of the plural terms surveyed in this article

What the apostolic Fathers say about Gen 1:26:

Ignatius (35-110 AD): For Moses, the faithful servant of God, when he said, The Lord thy God is one Lord, and thus proclaimed that there was only one
God, did yet forthwith confess also our Lord when he said, The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord. And again,
And God said, Let Us make man after our image: and so God made man, after the image of God made He him (the Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians,
ch. II). Ignatius was the disciple of John.
The Letter of Barnabas 74 AD: And further, my brethren, if the Lord [Jesus] endured to suffer for our soul, he being the Lord of all the world, to whom
God said at the foundation of the world, 'Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness,' understand how it was that he endured to suffer at the
hand of men" (Letter of Barnabas 5). Barnabas was the Pauls own companion.
For the Scripture says concerning us while He speaks to the Son, Let Us make man after our image and after our likeness; and let them have dominion over
the beasts of the earth and the fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea....These things were spoken to the Son. (The Epistle of Barnabas, ch. VI)
180 AD Irenaeus "It was not angels, therefore, who made us, nor who formed us, neither had angels power to make an image of God, nor any one else,
except the Word of the Lord, nor any Power remotely distant from the Father of all things. For God did not stand in need of these [beings], in order to the
accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done, as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him were
always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He
speaks, saying, "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness; " [Gen. 1:26]" (Against Heresies 4:20:1)
.Hermas 80 AD: "The Son of God is older than all his creation, so that he became the Father's adviser in his creation. Therefore also he is ancient" (The
Shepherd 12).
Justin Martyr 150 AD: In saying, therefore, 'as one of us, '[Moses] has declared that [there is a certain] number of persons associated with one another,
and that they are at least two. For I would not say that the dogma of that heresy which is said to be among you (The Jews had their own heresies which
supplied many things to the Christian heresies) is true, or that the teachers of it can prove that [God] spoke to angels, or that the human frame was the
workmanship of angels. But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures." (Dialogue of Justin
Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew: Chapter LXII.The Words "Let Us Make Man").
Justin Martyr 150 AD: "Then I replied, "Reverting to the Scriptures, I shall endeavor to persuade you, that He who is said to have appeared to Abraham,
and to Jacob, and to Moses, and who is called God, is distinct from Him who made all things, numerically, I mean, not [distinct] in will. For I affirm that
He has never at any time done anything which He who made the world above whom there is no other God has not wished Him both to do and to
engage Himself with." (Dialog of Justin with Trypho, a Jew, ch 56)
Justin Martyr 150 AD: From the writings of Moses also this will be manifest; for thus it is written in them, "And the Angel of God spake to Moses, in a
flame of fire out of the bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of thy fathers; go down into Egypt,
and bring forth My people.. proving that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God and His Apostle, being of old the Word, and appearing sometimes in the form of
fire, and sometimes in the likeness of angels; but now, by the will of God, having become man for the human race, He endured all the sufferings which the
devils instigated the senseless Jews to inflict upon Him; who, though they have it expressly affirmed in the writings of Moses, "And the Angel of God spake
to Moses in a flame of fire in a bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, And again, Jesus, as we
have already shown, while He was with them, said, "No one knoweth the Father, but the Son; nor the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Son will
reveal Him." The Jews, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the universe who spake to Moses, though He who spake to him
was indeed the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing
neither the Father nor the Son... And of old He (Jesus) appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of Angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now
in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin, according to the counsel of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe
on Him, He endured both to be set at nought and to suffer, that by dying and rising again He might conquer death. And that which was said out of the bush to
Moses, "I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers," this signified that they, even though
dead, are let in existence, and are men belonging to Christ Himself. For they were the first of all men to busy themselves in the search after God; Abraham
being the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, as Moses wrote." (Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch 63)

Mathetes 160 AD: "[The Father] sent the Word that he might be manifested to the world . . . This is he who was from the beginning, who appeared as if
new, and was found old . . . This is he who, being from everlasting, is today called the Son" (Letter to Diognetus 11).
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Irenaeus 180 AD: It was not angels, therefore, who made us, nor who formed us, neither had angels power to make an image of God, nor any one else,
except the Word of the Lord, nor any Power remotely distant from the Father of all things. For God did not stand in need of these [beings], in order to the
accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done, as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him were
always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He
speaks, saying, "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness; " [Gen. 1:26]" (Against Heresies 4:20:1). Note: Irenaeus was the disciple of Polycarp was
then the disciple of John the apostle
Irenaeus 180 AD: And again when the Son speaks to Moses, He says, 'I am come down to deliver this people,' (Exodus 3:8 the LORD said I have come
down to deliver this people). For it is He who descended and ascended for the salvation of men." (Against Heresies, Book III, ch. 6, section 2)
Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spake to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers." (Against
Heresies, Book IV, ch. 5, section 2)
Irenaeus 120-180 AD: ...Therefore neither would the Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the apostles, have ever named as God, definitely and absolutely, him
who was not God, unless he were truly God; And again, referring to the destruction of the Sodomites, the Scripture says, "Then the LORD rained upon
Sodom and upon Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the LORD out of heaven." For it here points out that the Son, who had also been talking with Abraham,
had received power to judge the Sodomites for their wickedness. And this [text following] does declare the same truth: "Thy throne, O God; is for ever and
ever; the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter.(Book 3, ch 6)
200 AD Tertullian: "If the number of the Trinity also offends you, as if it were not connected in the simple Unity, I ask you how it is possible for a Being
who is merely and absolutely One and Singular, to speak in plural phrase, saying, "Let us make man in our own image, and after our own likeness; " whereas
He ought to have said, "Let me make man in my own image, and after my own likeness," as being a unique and singular Being? In the following passage,
however, "Behold the man is become as one of us," He is either deceiving or amusing us in speaking plurally, if He is One only and singular. Or was it to the
angels that He spoke, as the Jews interpret the passage, because these also acknowledge not the Son? Or was it because He was at once the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit, that He spoke to Himself in plural terms, making Himself plural on that very account? Nay, it was because He had already His Son close at
His side, as a second Person, His own Word, and a third Person also, the Spirit in the Word, that He purposely adopted the plural phrase, "Let us make; "and,
"in our image; "and, "become as one of us." (Tertullian, Against Praxeas, Chapter XII. Other Quotations from Holy Scripture Adduced in Proof of the
Plurality of Persons in the Godhead.)
Theophilus of Antioch (100-194 AD): But as to what relates to the creation of man, his own creation cannot be explained by man, though it is a succinct
account of it which holy Scripture gives. For when God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness," He first intimates the dignity of man. For
God having made all things by His Word, and having reckoned them all mere bye-works, reckons the creation of man to be the only work worthy of His own
hands. Moreover, God is found, as if needing help, to say, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." But to no one else than to His own Word
and wisdom did He say, "Let Us make." And when He had made and blessed him, that he might increase and replenish the earth, He put all things under his
dominion, and at his service; and He appointed from the first that he should find nutriment from the fruits of the earth, and from seeds, and herbs, and
acorns, having at the same time appointed that the animals be of habits similar to man's, that they also might eat of an the seeds of the earth. (Theophilus to
Autolycus, Bk. 2, ch. XVIII)
Tertullian 200 AD: Tertullian rejects the idea that God was speaking to Angels because our head is the creator, not a creature: "Since then he is the image
of the Creator (for He, when looking on Christ His Word, who was to become man, said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness"), how can I
possibly have another head but Him whose image I am? For if I am the image of the Creator there is no room in me for another head" (Tertullian, Book V,
Elucidations, Chapter VIII.Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man.)
200 AD Tertullian: "In the first place, because all things were made by the Word of God, and without Him was nothing made. Now the flesh, too, had its
existence from the Word of God, because of the principle, that here should be nothing without that Word. "Let us make man," said He, before He created
him, and added, "with our hand," for the sake of his pre-eminence, that so he might not be compared with the rest of creation." (Tertullian: On the
Resurrection of the Flesh, Elucidations, Chapter V.Some Considerations in Reply Eulogistic of the Flesh. It Was Created by God.)
Origen (185c.254) "it was to Him that God said regarding the creation of man, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." (Origen against
Celsus, Book V, 225 AD: Chapter XXXVII)
Unlike the Egyptian Serapis] the Son of God, the firstborn of all creation, though he seemed to become man but recently, is not for that reason a new
God. For the sacred Scriptures know that he is older than all created things; and that it was to him that God said, concerning the creation of man, Let us
make man after our image and likeness. (The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection from the writings of the Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St.
Athanasius (Oxford University Press, 1956), edited and translated by Henry Bettenson, p. 334)
200 AD Athanasius: For the providence over all things belongs naturally to Him by Whom they were made; and who is this save the Word of God,
concerning Whom in another psalm he says: By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Breath of His mouth. For He
tells us that all things were made in Him and through Him. Wherefore He also persuades us and says, He spake and they were made, He commanded and
they were created; as the illustrious Moses also at the beginning of his account of Creation confirms what we say by his narrative, saying: and God said, let
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us make man in our image and after our likeness: for also when He was carrying out the creation of the heaven and earth and all things, the Father said to
Him, Let the heaven be made, and let the waters be gathered together and let the dry land appear, and let the earth bring forth herb and every green
thing: so that one must convict Jews also of not genuinely attending to the Scriptures. For one might ask them to whom was God speaking, to use the
imperative mood? If He were commanding and addressing the things He was creating, the utterance would be redundant, for they were not yet in being, but
were about to be made; but no one speaks to what does not exist, nor addresses to what is not yet made a command to be made. For if God were giving a
command to the things that were to be, He must have said, Be made, heaven, and be made, earth, and come forth, green herb, and be created, O man. But
in fact He did not do so; but He gives the command thus: Let us make man, and let the green herb come forth. By which God is proved to be speaking
about them to some one at hand: it follows then that some one was with Him to Whom He spoke when He made all things. Who then could it be, save His
Word? (Against the Heathen, ch. 46, sec. 3-6)
Chrysostom (347-407 AD): In the beginning, God shaped man, and man was an image of both the Father and the Son. For God said: Let us make man to
our image and likeness.( On the Incomprehensible Nature of God, Homily IX, sec. 15, as found in The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 72 (Washington D.C.:
The Catholic University of America, 1984), pg. 239)
When God was about to mold him, he said: Let us make man in our image and likeness. To whom did he say this: It is quite clear that he was speaking to
his only begotten. God did not say, Make. He would not have you think that what he said was a command given to a slave or servant. He said, Let us
make, so that, from the character of the consultation indicated by his words, he might reveal the equality of honor which belonged to him to whom he
spoke. . . . Do you see that the words, Do this are the words of command spoken by a master to his servant? Therefore, Let us make this are the words
spoken by one who is equal in honor with him to whom he speaks them. When a master speaks to his servant, he says, Make this. But when the Father
speaks to the Son, he says, Let us make. . . . Suppose Christ did make man but, in making him, he acted only as a subordinate. Enough of this quarrelsome
dispute! For when God said: Let us make man, he did not add: According to your image which is less than mine. Nor did he say: According to my
image which is greater than yours. What did God say? According to our image and likeness. And by speaking in this way, he showed that there is a single
image of the Father and the Son. For he did not say images but our image. There are not two unequal images but one and the same equal image of the
Son and the Father. This is why the Son is said to sit at the right hand of the Father that you may learn that they are the same in honor and exactly alike in
power. For a subordinate does not sit with his superior but stands alongside him (Ibid, Homily XI, sec. 13-24, p. 275-279)
Ambrose (340-370 AD): More might I set down from the Son's testimony; howbeit, lest He perchance appear to have asserted Himself overmuch let us
enquire of the Father. For the Father said, Let us make man in Our image and likeness. The Father saith to the Son in Our image and likeness, and thou
sayest that the Son of God is unlike the Father. John saith, Beloved, we are sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: we know that if He be
revealed, we shall be like Him. O blind madness! O shameless obstinacy! We are men, and, so far as we may, we shall be in the likeness of God: dare we
deny that the Son is like God? Therefore the Father hath said: Let us make man in Our image and likeness. At the beginning of the universe itself, as I read,
the Father and the Son existed, and I see one creation. I hear Him that speaketh. I acknowledge Him that doeth: but it is of one image, one likeness, that I
read. This likeness belongs not to diversity but to unity. What, therefore, thou claimest for thyself, thou takest from the Son of God, seeing, indeed, that thou
canst not be in the image of God, save by help of the image of God (Exposition of the Faith, Bk. 1, ch. VII, sec. 51-53).
But if the Arians acknowledge not the Son's nature, if they believe not the Scriptures, let them at least believe the mighty works. To whom doth the Father
say, "Let us make man?" save to Him Whom He knew to be His true Son? In Whom, save in one who was true, could He recognize His Image? The son by
adoption is not the same as the true Son; nor would the Son say, "I and the Father are one," if He, being Himself not true, were measuring Himself with One
Who is true. The Father, therefore, says, "Let us make." He Who spake is true; can He, then, Who made be not true? Shall the honour rendered to Him Who
speaks be withheld from Him Who makes? (Ibid, Bk. 1, ch. XVII, sec. 111)
Augustine (354-430 AD): We might have supposed that the words uttered at the creation of man, Let us, and not Let me, make man, were addressed to
the angels, had He not added in our image; but as we cannot believe that man was made in the image of angels, or that the image of God is the same as that
of angels, it is proper to refer this expression to the plurality of the Trinity. And yet this Trinity, being one God, even after saying Let us make, goes on to
say, And God made man in His image, and not Gods made, or in their image(City of God, Bk. XVI, ch. VI)
For if the Father alone had made man without the Son, it would not have been written, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.( On the Trinity,
Bk. I, ch. VII)
Sometimes the meaning is altogether latent, as in Genesis: Let us make man after our image and likeness. Both let us make and our is said in the plural, and
ought not to be received except as of relatives. For it was not that gods might make, or make after the image and likeness of gods; but that the Father, and
Son, and Holy Spirit might make after the image of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, that man might subsist as the image of God. And God is the Trinity
(Ibid., Bk. VII, ch. VI, sec. XII)
For God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and a little after it is said, So God created man in the image of God. Certainly, in that it is
of the plural number, the word our would not be rightly used if man were made in the image of one person, whether of the Father, or of the Son, or of the
Holy Spirit; but because he was made in the image of the Trinity, on that account it is said, After our image. But again, lest we should think that three Gods

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were to be believed in the Trinity, whereas the same Trinity is one God, it is said, So God created man in the image of God, instead of saying, in His own
image.( Ibid., Bk. XII, ch. VI, sec. VI)
Later on there will be ample opportunity to treat more thoroughly of the nature of man. For the present, in concluding our investigation into the works of the
six days, I must briefly point out the importance of the fact that in the case of the other works it is written, God said, Let there be . . . , whereas here it is
written, God said, Let Us make mankind to Our image and likeness. Scripture would indicate by this the plurality of Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. But the sacred writer immediately admonishes us to hold to the unity of the Godhead when he says, And God made man to the image of God. He does
not say that the Father made man to the image of the Son, or the Son made him to the image of the Father; otherwise the expression to Our image would not
be correct if man were made to the image of the Father alone or the Son alone. But Scripture says, God made man to the image of God, meaning that God
made man to His own image. The fact that here Holy Scripture says to the image of God, whereas above it says to Our image, shows us that the plurality of
Persons must not lead us into saying, believing, or understanding that there are many gods, but rather that we must accept the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as
one God. Because of the three Persons, it is said to Our image; because of the one God, it is said to the image of God. (The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Bk.
3, as found in the Ancient Christian Writers series, Vol. 41 (New York: Newman Press, 1982), p. 95)
Eusebius of Caeserea (260/265 Died 339/340): This, too, the great Moses teaches, when, as the most ancient of all the prophets, he describes under the
influence of the divine Spirit the creation and arrangement of the universe. He declares that the maker of the world and the creator of all things yielded to
Christ himself, and to none other than his own clearly divine and first-born Word, the making of inferior things, and communed with him respecting the
creation of man. Says he: "For God said, Let us make man in our image and in our likeness."( Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 1, ch. 2, sec. 4)
Socrates Scholasticus 500 AD: But we know him to be not simply the word of God by utterance or mental conception, but God the living Word subsisting
of himself; and Son of God and Christ; and who did, not by presence only, co-exist and was conversant with his Father before the ages, and ministered to
him at the creation of all things, whether visible or invisible, but was the substantial Word of the Father, and God of God: for this is he to whom the Father
said, Let us make man in our image, and according to our likeness: who in his own person appeared to the fathers, gave the law, and spake by the
prophets; and being at last made man, he manifested his Father to all men, and reigns to endless ages.( Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 2, ch. 19)
Gregory of Nyssa (335 after 394 AD): But what, I would ask, becomes of the heresy of the Anomoeans? What will they say to this utterance? How will
they defend the vanity of their dogma in view of the words cited? Will they say that it is possible that one image should be made like to different forms? If
the Son is in nature unlike the Father, how comes it that the likeness He forms of the different natures is one? For He Who said, Let us make after our
image, and by the plural signification revealed the Holy Trinity, would not, if the archetypes were unlike one another, have mentioned the image in the
singular: for it would be impossible that there should be one likeness displayed of things which do not agree with one another: if the natures were different
he would assuredly have begun their images also differently, making the appropriate image for each: but since the image is one, while the archetype is not
one, who is so far beyond the range of understanding as not to know that the things which are like the same thing, surely resemble one another? Therefore
He says (the word, it may be, cutting short this wickedness at the very formation of human life), Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (On the
Making of Man, ch. VI, Sec. 3). We must, then, take up once more the Holy Scripture itself, if we may perhaps find some guidance in the question by
means of what is written. After saying, Let us make man in our image, and for what purposes it was said Let us make him, it adds this saying: and
God created man; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. We have already said in what precedes, that this saying was
uttered for the destruction of heretical impiety, in order that being instructed that the Only-begotten God made man in the image of God, we should in no
wise distinguish the Godhead of the Father and the Son, since Holy Scripture gives to each equally the name of God, to Him Who made man, and to Him
in Whose image he was made. (Ibid, Ch. XVI, sec. 5)
Basil the Great (330379 AD): And God said Let us make man. Does not the light of theology shine, in these words, as through windows; and does not
the second Person show Himself in a mystical way, without yet manifesting Himself until the great day? Where is the Jew who resisted the truth and
pretended that God was speaking to Himself? It is He who spoke, it is said, and it is He who made. Let there be light and there was light. But then their
words contain a manifest absurdity. Where is the smith, the carpenter, the shoemaker, who, without help and alone before the instruments of his trade, would
say to himself; let us make the sword, let us put together the plough, let us make the boot? Does he not perform the work of his craft in silence? Strange folly
to say that any one has seated himself to command himself, to watch over himself, to constrain himself, to hurry himself, with tones of a master! But the
unhappy creatures are not afraid to calumniate the Lord Himself. What will they not say with a tongue so well practiced in lying? Here, however, words stop
their mouth; And God said let us make man. Tell me; is there then only one Person? It is not written Let man be made but, Let us make man. O enemy
of Christ, hear God speaking to His Co-operator, to Him by Whom also He made the worlds, Who upholds all things by the word of His power. But He does
not leave the voice of true religion without answer. Thus the Jews, race hostile to truth, when they find themselves pressed, act like beasts enraged against
man, who roar at the bars of their cage and show the cruelty and the ferocity of their nature, without being able to assuage their fury. God, they say,
addresses Himself to several persons; it is to the angels before Him that He says, Let us make man. Jewish fiction! A fable whose frivolity shows whence
it has come. To reject one person, they admit many. To reject the Son, they raise servants to the dignity of counselors; they make of our fellow slaves the
agents in our creation. The perfect man attains the dignity of an angel; but what creature can be like the Creator? Listen to the continuation, In our image.
What have you to reply? Is there one image of God and the angels? Father and Son have by absolute necessity the same form, but the form is here

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understood as becomes the divine, not in bodily shape, but in the proper qualities of Godhead. Hear also, you who belong to the new concision, and who,
under the appearance of Christianity, strengthen the error of the Jews. To Whom does He say, in our image, to whom if it is not to Him who is the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, the image of the invisible God? It is then to His living image, to Him Who has said I and
my Father are one, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, that God says Let us make man in our image. Where is the unlikeness in these Beings
who have only one image? So God created man, it is not They made. Here Scripture avoids the plurality of the Persons. After having enlightened the
Jew, it dissipates the error of the Gentiles in putting itself under the shelter of unity, to make you understand the Son is with the Father, and guarding you
from the danger of polytheism. He created him in the image of God. God still shows us His co-operator, because He does not say, in His image, but in the
image of God. (The Hexameron, Homily IX, S. 6.)
Hilary of Potiers (300 368 AD): You hear again, The Father in Me, and I in the Father. That this is true of Father and of Son is demonstrated by the
Sons works. Our science cannot envelope body in body, or pour one into another, as water into wine; but we confess that in Both is equivalence of power
and fullness of the Godhead. For the Son has received all things from the Father; He is the Likeness of God, the Image of His substance. The words, Image
of His substance, discriminate between Christ and Him from Whom He is, but only to establish Their distinct existence, not to teach a difference of nature;
and the meaning of Father in Son and Son in Father is that there is the perfect fullness of the Godhead in Both. The Father is not impaired by the Sons
existence, nor is the Son a mutilated fragment of the Father. An image implies its original; likeness is a relative term. Now nothing can be like God unless it
have its source in Him; a perfect likeness can be reflected only from that which it represents; an accurate resemblance forbids the assumption of any element
of difference. Disturb not this likeness; make no separation where truth shews no variance, for He Who said, Let us make man after our image and likeness,
by those words Our likeness revealed the existence of Beings, Each like the Other. Touch not, handle not, pervert not. Hold fast the Names which teach the
truth, hold fast the Sons declaration of Himself. (On the Trinity, Bk. III, sec. 23)
When the world was complete and its inhabitant was to be created, the words spoken concerning him were, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness.
I ask you, Do you suppose that God spoke those words to Himself? Is it not obvious that He was addressing not Himself, but Another? If you reply that He
was alone, then out of His own mouth He confutes you, for He says, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness. God has spoken to us through the
Lawgiver in the way which is intelligible to us; that is, He makes us acquainted with His action by means of language, the faculty with which He has been
pleased to endow us. There is indeed, an indication of the Son of God, through Whom all things were made, in the words, And God said, Let there be a
firmament, and in, And God made the firmament, which follows: but lest we should think these words of God were wasted and meaningless, supposing that
He issued to Himself the command of creation, and Himself obeyed it, for what notion could be further from the thought of a solitary God than that of
giving a verbal order to Himself, when nothing was necessary except an exertion of His will? He determined to give us a more perfect assurance that these
words refer to Another beside Himself. When He said, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness, His indication of a Partner demolishes the theory of
His isolation. For an isolated being cannot be partner to himself; and again, the words, Let Us make, are inconsistent with solitude, while Our cannot be used
except to a companion. Both words, Us and Our, are inconsistent with the notion of a solitary God speaking to Himself, and equally inconsistent with that of
the address being made to a stranger who has nothing in common with the Speaker. If you interpret the passage to mean that He is isolated, I ask you
whether you suppose that He was speaking with Himself? If you do not understand that He was speaking with Himself, how can you assume that He was
isolated? If He were isolated, we should find Him described as isolated; if He had a companion, then as not isolated. I and Mine would describe the former
state; the latter is indicated by Us and Our. Thus, when we read, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness, these two words Us and Our reveal that
there is neither one isolated God, nor yet one God in two dissimilar Persons; and our confession must be framed in harmony with the second as well as with
the first truth. For the words our image not our images prove that there is one nature possessed by Both. But an argument from words is an insufficient
proof, unless its result be confirmed by the evidence of facts; and accordingly it is written, And God made man; after the image of God made He him. If the
words He spoke, I ask, were the soliloquy of an isolated God, what meaning shall we assign to this last statement? For in it I see a triple allusion, to the
Maker, to the being made, and to the image. The being made is man; God made him, and made him in the image of God. If Genesis were speaking of an
isolated God, it would certainly have been And made him after His own image. But since the book was foreshowing the Mystery of the Gospel, it spoke not
of two Gods, but of God and God, for it speaks of man made through God in the image of God. Thus we find that God wrought man after an image and
likeness common to Himself and to God; that the mention of an Agent forbids us to assume that He was isolated; and that the work, done after an image and
likeness which was that of Both, proves that there is no difference in kind between the Godhead of the One and of the Other.( Ibid, Bk. IV, sec. 17-18)
Cyril of Alexandria (378444 AD): The divine and consubstantial Trinity is beyond all form and corporeal presentation, but we are to believe that the
Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father and one who has seen the Son has seen the Father. Now the Son is seen in the consubstantial Spirit, for it is
written The Lord is the Spirit. Where there is total identity of substance there can and must be no variation. Whatever you conceive the Father to be, the
Son is too, apart only from being Father; and whatever you take the Son to be, the Spirit is too apart only from being Son. Each of those named has his own
personal being and truly is what he is said to be, but the utter similarity of the holy Trinity is invariable. Therefore if man was made in the Sons image he is
by that token in Gods image. For the marks of the whole consubstantial Trinity shine out in him, inasmuch as there is a single natural Godhead in Father,
Son and Holy Ghost. Inspired Moses writes indeed, And God said Let us make man in our image and likeness. The word our, though, does not mean
one person, because the fullness of the divine and ineffable nature exists in three hypostases. It is surely useless, therefore, to make the too subtle

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qualification that we are not images of God or of the archetype, so much as images of the image of God. It is enough to believe with simplicity that we are
made in the divine image by receiving a natural formation in relation to God. One might also make the convincing point, that we who were destined to be
called sons of God had to be created in the Sons image so that the mark of sonship should be evident in us. (Cyril of Alexandria: Select Letters (Oxford
University Press, 1983), p. 197-199)
Clement of Alexandria (200-300 AD): For the image of God is His Word, the genuine Son of Mind, the Divine Word, the archetypal light of light; and the
image of the Word is the true man, the mind which is in man, who is therefore said to have been made in the image and likeness of God, assimilated to the
Divine Word in the affections of the soul, and therefore rational (Exhortation to the Heathen, ch. X)
Novatian (200-250 AD): "For who does not acknowledge that the person of the Son is second after the Father, when he reads that it was said by the Father,
consequently to the Son, "Let us make man in our image and our likeness; " and that after this it was related, "And God made man, in the image of God
made He him? "Or when he holds in his hands: "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord from heaven? " (A Treatise
of Novatian Concerning the Trinity, Chapter XXVI. Argument.Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that the Father is One, the Son Another)
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 250 AD: "the divine Scripture testifies that God said to Christ, His only-begotten, "Let us make man after our image,
and after our likeness. And God made man: after the image of God made He him; male and female made He them."(Constitutions of the Holy Apostles,
Book V., VII)
The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 250 AD: Thou art blessed, O Lord, the king of ages, who by Christ hast made the whole world,And at the
conclusion of the creation Thou gavest direction to Thy Wisdom, and formedst a reasonable creature as the citizen of the world, saying, Let us make man
after our image, and after our likeness; (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Bk. VII, ch. XXXIV)
And Thou hast not only created the world itself, but hast also made man for a citizen of the world, exhibiting him as the ornament of the world; for Thou
didst say to Thy Wisdom: Let us make man according to our image, and according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowls of the heaven. (Ibid, bk. VIII, ch. XII)
The Council of Sirmium was held in AD 351 to deal with a number of heresies that were beginning to plague the Church. This council established a creed
as a clear statement of the teaching of the Church regarding the Trinity. In one of its comments on this subject we find the following words: "If any one say
that the Father did not speak the words, 'Let us make man,' to His Son, but that he spoke them to Himself, let him be anathema."6 The declaration "Let him
be anathema" means "Let him be accursed or cut off from the Church." This statement shows how strongly the Trinity was held to be an essential doctrine of
the faith by the early Church.

B) Five Royal We Biblical Proof Texts refuted:

The "plural of Majesty" (royal we) is never used in the Bible. Arians (Jehovah's Witnesses, Anti-Trinitarians (Christadelphians), Unitarians and Modalists
(UPCI United Pentecostal church international), will appeal to the following Bible texts as proof of "plural of Majesty". These texts clearly are not examples
of "the royal we" being used in the Bible.
B1) The document which you sent to us has been translated and read before me." (Ezra 4:18). The letter was addressed, not to the king alone, but many
others as well, so this certainly is not an example of the "Royal We": "To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and now
"Ezra 4:11. So the word US used here is in reference to King along with his council not to himself as plural Majesty. Here is the full statement:
"Then sent the king an answer unto Rehum the commander, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto
the rest beyond the River: 'Peace, and now the letter which ye sent unto US hath been plainly read BEFORE ME. And I decreed, and search hath been made,
and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. There have been
mighty kings also over Jerusalem, who have ruled over all the country beyond the River; and tribute, impost, and toll, was paid unto them. Make ye now a
decree to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until a decree shall be made by me. And take heed that ye be not slack herein; why
should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? Ezra 4:17-22. The context is clear enough to demonstrate that the use of "US" refers to the king and his royal
court. This is also seen from the king's use of "BEFORE ME" with the implication being that the letter was read aloud before the king's men.
B2) The following is another passage that is used to support the plural of majesty: This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. Daniel
2:36: Here Daniel supposedly refers to himself in the plural, since in the context he is the only one who interprets the king's dream, even though he is a
singular person. However, if we actually do read this in context we discover that the "we" refers to both God and the prophet since they are the ones who
explain the dream to the king: The astrologers answered the king, There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and
mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except
the gods, and they do not live among men. This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the
decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. When Arioch, the commander of
the king's guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king's officer, "Why did the
king issue such a harsh decree?" Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret
the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead
for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
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During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: Praise be to the name of God for ever and
ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the
discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You
have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king. Then Daniel
went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to
the king, and I will interpret his dream for him. Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can
tell the king what his dream means. The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?
Daniel replied, No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who
reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you
lay on your bed are these: As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to
happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the
interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind." Daniel 2:10-30. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the
future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that
an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries,
for you were able to reveal this mystery." Daniel 2:45-47. Hence, Daniel's "we" refers to the fact that it is God who revealed both the dream that the king
saw and its interpretation through his inspired spokesperson. It may even include Daniel's friends since they too sought God to reveal the dream and its
interpretation for the purpose of saving themselves from the fate decreed on the rest of the wise men (cf. 2:18). In light of this all four would have known the
dream and its interpretation so that all four could be saved. It can be further inferred from 2:49 that his three companions were present. All of these factors
strongly suggest that Daniel also spoke on behalf of his three friends and as such the plural does not refer to Daniel alone. Otherwise, we would have to
assume that Daniel withheld such vitally pertinent information from his friends which would affect whether they lived or died!
B3) 1 King 12:6-9: And king Rehoboam took counsel with THE OLD MEN, that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying: 'What
counsel give ye me to return answer to this people?' And they spoke unto him, saying: 'If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve
them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.' But he forsook the counsel of THE OLD MEN which they
had given him, and took counsel with THE YOUNG MEN that were grown up with him, that stood before him. And he said unto them: 'What counsel give
YE, that WE may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying: Make the yoke that thy father did put upon us lighter?'"
2 Chronicles 10:6-9: And king Rehoboam took counsel with THE OLD MEN, that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying: 'What
counsel give ye me to return answer to this people?' And they spoke unto him, saying: 'If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words
to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.' But he forsook the counsel of THE OLD MEN which they had given him, and took counsel with THE
YOUNG MEN that were grown up with him, that stood before him. And he said unto them: 'What counsel gives YE, that WE may return answer to this
people, who have spoken to me, saying: Make the yoke that thy father did put upon us lighter? It is clear from the context of these verses that the "WE"
refers to the king and his men, to the royal court. The king is not speaking of himself only.
This is substantiated by the following passages: 2 Chronicles 29:30: Moreover Hezekiah the king AND THE PRINCES COMMANDED the Levites to
sing praises unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and prostrated
themselves
2 Chronicles 30:6, 12: So the posts went with the letters from the king AND HIS PRINCES throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the
commandment of the king, saying: 'Ye children of Israel, turn back unto the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that He may return to the remnant
that are escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria Also in Judah was the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the
king AND OF THE PRINCES by the word of the Lord"
We note here that King Hezekiah along with his officials pass on decrees to the people. This adds support to my claim that Rehoboam's "we" statement
didn't solely refer to himself, but included his advisors as well. The obvious and natural meaning of "we may answer this people" is the King and his
buddies, who collectively would formulate an answer together. No reason this is the "Royal We" here.
B4) Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. (John 3:11)
1) The "we" refers to Jesus and the Father, as seen in many other passages: "I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do
the things which you heard from your father." (John 8:38); "I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the
Father has told Me." (John 12:50); "If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true." (John 5:31)
2) Jesus' use of the plural WE (Jesus and Father) is also in response to Nicodemus' use of WE (John 3:2: Nicodemus and the other leaders). Jesus
emphasizes the "us vs. them" challenge of authority between human and divine.
B5) "Just as he is Christ's, so also are we. For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for
destroying you, I will not be put to shame" 2 Corinthians 10:7-8
1) The use of WE and OUR refer to Paul and Timothy, who sent the letter (2 Cor 1:1).
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2) It may also refer to Paul and the other apostles, since the whole context is Paul defending his apostleship.
3) To suggest that Paul uses the "Royal We" here, is as wrong as it is unwarranted.
B6) "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" Galatians 1:8
1) The use of WE refers to the collectivity of the apostles and all those who taught the brethren in the Galatian region. This would include, Timothy,
Titus, Barnabas and Silas. No "Royal We" here.
B7) Jehovah's Witnesses and other Unitarians argue that Elohim (Gods) and Adonai (Lords) are and example of "plural of unity" or "plural of
majesty/intensity".
1) "Plural of majesty" did not begin to be used until after the Old Testament was written, at about 200 AD and is never used in scripture.
2) It is wrong to take modern day poetic devices and read them back into a period of history when they did not exist.
3) It is wrong for Jehovah's witnesses to read, "blood transfusions" back into the Bible's prohibition against eating blood, when such a medical practice
did not exist. (Of course just as drunkenness is condemned, except when you are getting your leg amputated for medical reasons, so too are blood
transfusions exempt from all prohibitions on blood, on the basis of medical necessity.)
The evidence that Let US make man in OUR image (Gen 1:26) refers to the Trinity is irrefutable.

C) Other texts of OT where God used Plural pronoun:

Plural nouns and pronouns with singular verbs:
1) The easiest way to dismiss the argument that the plural pronouns applied to God can be explained as "Plural of Majesty" is to observe that the Hebrew
has many examples of plural pronouns also being applied to single human individuals. But Plural of Majesty fails because we find plural references to
both God and individual men.

2) If the Holy Spirit intended to use these plural references of God as "singular of intensity", then why does He intensify both creator and creation alike?
3) Obviously the, "Plural of Majesty" does not explain these plural references.
Text

Plural noun

Singular verbs

Gen 1:1

Elohim (God)

created

Genesis 46:7

Sons, grandsons, daughters, granddaughters, descendants

brought

Judges 12:7

cities

Buried

Nehemiah 3:8

goldsmiths

Repaired

If the Holy Spirit intended to use these plural references of God as "singular of intensity", then why does He intensify both creator and creation alike?
Adonai is plural used both for God and men? If God really wanted to stress his singularity or plurality he should always used to himself and not to men!

Plural nouns for "lord/master" (Adonai) that refer to single individuals:

Plural noun

Who

Genesis 24:9,10,51

Adonai

Abraham master of servant

Genesis 39:2,3,7,
8,16,19,20

Adonai

Potiphar is Joseph's master

Genesis 40:7

Adonai

captain of a guard is master

Genesis 42:30,33; 44:8

Adonai

Joseph, the master of Egypt

Mal 1:6 and throughout

the Old Testament

Adonai

Yahweh, God. The second most common term applied to God is

"Lord" and it is almost always plural.

Shema of Israel: Deut 6:4 Hear O Israel the LORD our God (Eleinu) is one (echad) LORD. The suffix inu in Eleinu is an indication of more than
one person in Godhead. Examples of inu to indicate plurality is used in Number 20:15 (abthinu) translated as our Fathers, Isaiah 53:5 (aunthinu)
translated as our iniquities, 1 Sam12:19 (chtathinu) translated as our sins. All this indicates that Eleinu used for God is plural and not solitary one as Unitarian
thought. Another example of more than one person within the Godhead is from Deut 10:17 For the LORD your God is God (Elohe-plural) of gods (ha-elohim).
Ps 29:1 ascribe to the LORD, O sons of God (Elim-plural). Elim is the plural of El (singular). The Hebrew used of Elohe (plural) for true God and false gods is
also plenty; 1Chrncle 16:26, Gen 35:2, Jos 6:10 etc etc used elohe for false deites. Elohim is also name for gods (plural). Many Unitarains including Oneness

believed that the One used in Deu 6:4 is solitary one, in fact it is never used for soliraty Oneness but compound unity, eg.. This same word is used in Genesis
2:24 therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one (Echad) flesh. Adam and Eve are two
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distinct persons yet they are called one flesh, not that Adam become Eve and vice-versa. But why will we assume they are as one? This is because God says
that they are one flesh sharing a specific unity as one. Another example is from Exodus 24:3 states All the people answered with one (Echad) voice, and
said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. God used the same word (echad) to describe the evening and the morning being one (echad) day"
(Gen.1:5). In Genesis 41:25-26: Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dreams of Pharaoh are one (echad); God has revealed to PharaohThe seven good
cows are seven years; the dreams are one (echad). Similarly, Ezra 3:1...the people gathered together as one (echad) man to Jerusalem. In Gen 34:16 the
men of Shechem suggest intermarriage with Jacob's children in order to become "one (echad) people Example can be seen everywhere. Deu 6:4 is not
talking about the person of God but a statement of faith that the God of Israel is the true God. Unlike other pagan deites having their own dominion, the God
of Israel is perfectly and completely one in essence but three in persons. This is further stated by vs 14: Deu 6:14 you shall not go after other gods, the
gods of the people who are all around you. Deu 6:4 is not a doctrine of Unitarain or Oneness in the person of God but rather it is a distinction of the God of
Israel as the one true God, the rest of other nations being are flase deities.

Plural and singular nouns applied to God: "God, Lord"

Singular

Plural

God: El, Elohim

"El" Gen. 33:20, Num 23:19

Elohim: (used 4000 times)

Lord: Adonai

Examples?
(Almost always plural)

Adonai: Gen 18:30; Ex 34:23; Deut 10:17;

Joshua 3:11,13; Ps 45:11; 114:7; 135:5; Mal
1:6

The two most frequently used words (God and Lord) that refer to God in the Old Testament are almost always plural!
Singular nouns are quite rarely used: El:
a. God (el - singular) is not a man, that He should lie (Numbers 23:19)
b. Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel [God, the God of Israel] (Gen. 33:20).
We don't know of any examples of "Lord" applied to God in the singular
And if I am a master [Adonim-plural form of Adon], where is My respect? says the Lord of hosts" Mal 1:6, God is called Adonim in Malachi 1:6:
Adonim is the plural form of Adon, it is not a grammartical valid for God to used the plural form if he is not really plural in his person.
There are four passages where God speaks for Himself and uses plural pronouns: Gen 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa 6:8. (Us, Our)
1) "Then God [plural elohim] said, "Let Us [plural pronoun] make man in Our [plural pronoun] image, according to Our [plural pronoun] likeness"
Genesis 1:26
2) "Then Yahweh God [plural elohim] said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us [plural pronoun], knowing good and evil" Genesis 3:22
3) "Come, let Us [plural pronoun] go down and there confuse [plural form of balal] their language, so that they will not understand one another's
speech." Genesis 11:7
4) "Then I heard the voice of the Lord [plural elohim], saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us [plural pronoun]?"" Isaiah 6:8
5) Plural and singular verbs applied to God: "create, make, wander, revealed, judges"
Singular

Plural

Creator: Bara

Isaiah 40:28

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Maker: Asah

Genesis 1:7

Gen 1:26; Ps 149:2; Job 35:10; Isa 54:5

Husband: Baal

Isa 54:5

wander

Genesis 20:13

revealed

Genesis 35:7

judges

Psalm 58:11

Creators:
With the foregoing in perspective this helps us to appreciate why certain OT authors refer to Yahweh as their Creators and Makers, plural!
Bara God is called Creator (singular of bara, bovre-) Isaiah 40:28
Where is God my Makers (osay), who gives songs in the night, Job 35:10
"Let Israel rejoice in their Makers (bosay); let the people of Zion be glad in their Kings. Psalm 149: 2
For your Husbands are your Makers (boalayika osayika) Yahweh of hosts is his name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called
the Gods of all the earth (Elohey kal-haarets). Isaiah 54:5

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Remember also thy Creators (boraeyka) in days of thy youth, while that the evil days come not, Nor the years have arrived, that thou sayest, I have
no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1
Maker: Asah
a. "Let Us [plural pronoun] make (na'asha plural of asah] man in Our [plural pronoun] image [singular], according to Our [plural pronoun] likeness
[singular]" Genesis 1:26 b.
Genesis 20:13: "God [plural, elohim] caused me to wander [hitau, plural form of taau] from my father's house"
Genesis 35:7: "He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God [plural, elohim] had revealed (niglu)-plural form of gla]
Himself to him when he fled from his brother."
Psalm 58:11: "Surely there is a God [plural, elohim] who judges (shaphatim plural form of shaphat) on earth!"
Plural adjectives that describe God: "holy"
Joshua 24:19: You will not be able to serve Yahweh, for He is a holy (qadoshim- plural form of qadosh) God [plural, elohim]."
Proverbs 9:10: "And the knowledge of the Holy (qadoshim plural form of qadosh) One is understanding."
Proverbs 30:3: "Nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy (qadoshim -plural form of qadosh) One

Plural adjective of Most High

In Hebrew the Most High is Elyon (Singular), and in Aramaic is Illayah. The plural form is Ilyonin in Aramaic. Before the Son of Man (Messiah) come
into scene, the Most high is used in singular form (Dan 3:26, 4:2, 17, 24 etc). However, after the Son of Man shine up, the Most High is given in plural form
Ilyonin in Dan 7:18, 22, 25b, 27, denoting the Son of Man as a divine being as well, sharing the same glory as the Ancient of Day (the Father and the Holy
Ghost).
Ps 43:4-5:.., and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God;
for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. In the above passages, my salvation (yeshuohth), my God (Elohai), "O God, my God" (Elohim
Elohai) are plural and literally read, my salvations and my Gods, and O Gods, my Gods.
2 Sam 7:23 and who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went (haal kuw Elohim) to redeem to be his peopleThe words God
went is plural and literally says, Gods, they went to redeem to interprete literally.
Exo 33:14-15 The LORD replied, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.Then Moses said to him, "If your face does not go with us, do not
send us up from here. The words, yeeleekuw and holakiym, are plural of yalak, and literally say, my faces or my presences (plural) not face or presence
(singular), they will go and not will go (singular).
God is called the Living Gods (with its plural formhayyim) literally reads Living Gods in Jer 10:10, 23:36, 1 sam 17:26, Deu 5:26. The singular form of
Living God is Hay used in many places; Isa 37:4, 17, 2 King 19:4 etc. Therefore, from the OT itself we can see something which is beyond the scope of our
understanding. All the above texts indicate the plurality of God
1 Samuel 4:8: Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? These are the Gods that struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in
the wildernesses The fascinating thing here is, the verb, pronoun, and adjective are all plural. The Tannak translated it as Mighty God (singular). The
Philistines understood the God of Israel as one true God in unity.
Plural form of EL
One of the most frequent names for God is El (singular), i.e. El Shaddai, and often forms part of a persons name such as Immanu-El, Isra-El etc. In at least
two places the plural form (Elim-Gods) is used in reference to true God of Israel: Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of God (Elim), Ascribe to the LORD glory
and strength. Psalm 29:1. Similar passage is seen in Psalm 89:6 for who in the skies is comparable to the LORD? Who among the sons of God (Elim) is like
the LORD, in both the case literal reading is Sons of Gods (ben Elim) which is true God of the Bible. It is translated as sons of God or as angels, but the word
God rendered here is plural Elim.

Ha-Elohim (all the Gods)

The Hebrew word ha is a definite article meaning all the which is sometime untranslated in English. This is a plural definite article used for false gods and
true God. Example, hayam (all the people) literally means ha-all the yam- people. Exodus 18:11 9 all the gods (ha-elohim), Judge 10:14 cry out to [all] the
gods (ha-elohim), Exo21:6 all judges (ha-elohim).The used of ha (all the) for the false gods is a huge figure. The true God of Israel is also designated as
ha-Elohim, 336 times literally means [all] the Gods (Gen 5:22, 24, 6:2, Deu 4:35, 33:1, Jer 23:23 etc..) Again the Hebrew word cowl is all, when it is
used before elohim as cowl elohim it strictly speaks of idols and gods (Ps 97:7,exo 12:12, 18:11etc etc). Used of Ha-Elohim literally translated as all the
Gods instead of singular form as El or Eloah for the true God is a proof of Triune nature of God. Ha-Elohim (all of the Gods) and Khayyim Elohim
(Livings Gods) are used within the same context in Deu 4:35, 39 (Ha-elohim) and Deu 5:26 (living Gods) for the true God of the bible.
YOU-HE (Atah-Hu)
Interesting fact is Atah-hu in Neh 9:6 and in many places which literally means You-He indicating two persons translated as you or you even you in
English. This type of combination of Hebrew word is used for God alone. It is used nine times in OT in relation to plurality of God ha-Elohim.a) 2 Samuel
7:28 LORD you (atah-hu) are the God (ha Elohim), b) 2 king 19:15, LORD God of Israel who dwell between the Cherubim, you (atah-hu) are the God (ha21

Elohim). c) 1Chroncl 17:26 Now LORD you (atah-hu) are the God (ha Elohim), d) 2 Chroncl 20:6 LORD God of our Father, you (atah-hu) are not God of
heaven? Isa 37:16 LORD of hosts God of Israel...you (atah-hu) are the God (ha- Elohim). The Hebrew word Atah is used thousands times for the word
You and Hu is Hebrew word for He or Him used thousand times. In Semitic language atah-hu (you-he) used for God is plural indicating two persons to
be translated as singular with the context demanding plural in meaning. Sometime atah-hu is simply translated as You to conserve the doctrine of
monotheism but literal translation will be You and Him (Attah-Hu) are the true Gods.

Yabarek: Genesis 48:15-16 He blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my
shepherd all my life to this day. The Angel (Malak) who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless (yabarek) the lads. The verb bless is Yaberek which is
singular form. The writers of Genesis fused the God and the Malak (the Angel) as one God although they are different person. The Angel in Hebrew is
Malak and this particular Messenger or Angel (Malak) is not a created angel. He is divine being. This particular Angel of the LORD (Malak Yahweh) is
called God of Bethel according to Gen 35:1, Gen 31:13. Hosea 12:3-5 says this Messenger or Malak is the LORD God of Hosts. This type of fusion of two
persons as one being using a singular verb is also seen in NT. 1 Theso 3:11 now may the God and the Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our
way to you. The verb direct is singular in Greek. Similarly, 2 Theso 2:16 now may the Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and the Father who has
loved (singular verb-agapesos) us. Also see this type of combination in Rev 22:3 the throne (singular) of God and of the Lamb...His servant shall serve
Him

Single verses that contain both singular and plural references to the same being
Text

Who

Singular refers to class of being

Plural refers to individuals within that class

Isaiah
6:8

God

Whom shall I send (Divine spokesman

representing all)

for Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)

Gen
1:27

Man

"created him" (mankind)

"created them" (male and female)

Mark
5:9

Demon

"My name is Legion" (demonic spokesman

representing all) and we are many

"we are many" (A full Roman legion had 6,826 men. They were cast into
2000 swine. Perhaps multiple demons can inhabit both man and pig.)

D) Ancient Jews believed in Plurality within the Godhead

1. The teaching of the Trinity is found in Jewish Targums (O.T. in Armaic) and commentaries such as the Zohar. These Jewish sages taught that God
appears in the form of three persons of the Godhead, three manifestations or three emanations.
This fact indicates that the Jews rejection of Christianity up until the second century was not because of the teaching of the Trinity. They understood that the
Messiah would be the Son of God. That is why so many Jews did accept him. It was not until the rebellion against Rome in AD 135 that this changed.
During the three years of battle for Jewish independence led by the general Simeon Bar Kochba, many of his followers (including the famous Rabbi Akiba)
declared that Bar Kochba was Israels true messiah. This forced Jewish Christians to withdraw from the Jewish forces fighting against Rome since they
could only follow and give allegiance to the true Messiah: Jesus. Jewish Christians who took this stand were considered treasonous and therefore no longer
welcome in the synagogues. This division between Jews and Christians has lasted for 2,000 years.
Why First Century Jews Accepted Jesus as God
Jewish Targums, read in the synagogues, gave an understanding of the triune nature of God. God was taught as "Three in One" by Rabbis Simon ben Jochai
and Eliezer. This led Rabbi Eliezer Hakkalir to exclaim: There are 'Three', but each exists by Himself."( Rabbi Eliezer Hakkalir, The Book of Creation, p.
89)
The Zohar
The Zohar is a book that was written by Rabbi Simon ben Jochai and his son Rabbi Eliezer in the years following the Roman armys destruction of the
Temple in Jerusalem in A. D. 70. In the Zohar the following statements about God are made: "How can they (the three) be One? Are they verily One,
because we call them One?" "How Three can be One, can only be known through the revelation of the Holy Spirit." (Zohar, vol. ii. p. 43, versa., 22). Rabbi
Simeon ben Jochai instructed his son as follows: "Come and see the mystery of the word hw: hoy, Yehovah: there are three steps, each existing by itself;
nevertheless they are One, and so united that one cannot be separated from the other (Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, The Propositions of the Zohar, cap. 38,
Amsterdam edition 113). He later indicated in another passage that these three steps as revealed in Elohim !yhiloa> (God) are three substantive beings or
three divine persons united in one. In another book written by Rabbi Simeon, known as The Propositions of the Zohar, records the mystery of the Shechinah
glory of God in these words. "... the exalted Shechinah comprehends the Three highest Sephiroth; of Him (God) it is said, (Ps. 62:11), "God hath spoken
once; twice have I heard this." Once and twice means the Three exalted Sephiroth, of whom it is said: Once, once, and once; that is, Three united in One.
This is the mystery." (Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, The Propositions of the Zohar, cap. 38, Amsterdam edition. 113).
We find from the early first century Zohar written by Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai and his son Rabbi Eliezar saying: "Come and see the mystery of the word
YHVH: there are three steps, each existing by itself: nevertheless they are One, and so united that one cannot be separated from the other. The Ancient Holy
22

One is revealed with three heads, which are united into one, and that head is three exalted. The Ancient One is described as being three: because the other
lights emanating from him are included in the three. But how can three names be one? Are they really one because we call them one? How three can be one
can only be known through the revelation of the Holy Spirit (Zohar,Vol. III, p. 134, Soncino Press ed)
Another extraordinary reference to the Trinity is found in the Zohar: "Here is the secret of two names combined which are completed by a third and
become one again. And God said Let us make Man. It is written, The secret of the Lord is to them that fear him (Psalm 25:14). That most reverend Elder
opened an exposition of this verse by saying Simeon Simeon, who is it that said: "Let us make man?" Who is this Elohim? With these words the most
reverend Elder vanished before anyone saw him ... Truly now is the time to expound this mystery, because certainly there is here a mystery which hitherto it
was not permitted to divulge, but now we perceive that permission is given. He then proceeded: We must picture a king who wanted several buildings to be
erected, and who had an architect in his service who did nothing save with his consent. The king is the supernal wisdom above, the Central Column being
the king below: Elohim is the architect above ... and Elohim is also the architect below, being as such the Divine Presence (Shekinah) of the lower
world."(Zohar, vol. 1, Soncino Press edition. 9091).
Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai wrote a fascinating passage recorded in the Zohar that is as clear a discussion of the mystery of the Trinity as you could find in any
Christian theology text. Rabbi Simeon comments on the text found in Deuteronomy 32:39: "See now that I, I am he, and Elohim is not with me. (Rabbi
Simeon ben Jochai, Zohar).

Other Rabbis
Rabbi Eliezar Hakkalir, AD 70, taught the doctrine of three distinct beings revealed in the Godhead in his commentary on Genesis 1:1. He wrote: "When
God created the world, He created it through the Three Sephiroth, namely, through Sepher, Sapher and Vesaphur, by which the Three twywh (Beings) are
meant . . . The Rabbi, my Lord Teacher of blessed memory, explained Sepher, Sapher, and Sippur, to be synonymous to Ya, Yehovah, and Elohim meaning
to say, that the world was created by these three names." (Rabbi Eliezer Hakkalir, The Book of Creation. 2829).
Rabbi Bechai, in his commentary on Genesis 1:1 (p. 1, col. 2) explained that the word Elohim !yhiloa> is compounded of two words, !h and la, that is,
"These are God." The plural is expressed by the letter yod ( y ).
Another famous sage, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, wrote about this mysterious Angel of the Lord, the great Lawgiver that appeared to Moses in the flames
of the burning bush. Rabbi Nachman points out that the Bible refers to this appearance of God to Moses as the Angel of the Lord in Exodus 3:2: "And the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." However, only two verses later Moses declared that it was the Lord God
who was speaking to him from the burning bush: "And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and
said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I" (Exodus 3:4). Rabbi Nachman also commented as follows: It is said: "An Angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a flame of fire," and (Elohim) Myhla, "God called unto him." This is all one, namely, whether he saith "The Angel, or (Elohim ) Myhla, "God spake
to him out of the midst of the bush". . . Therefore be not astonished that Moses hid his face before this Angel; because this Angel mentioned here is the
Angel, the Redeemer, concerning whom it is written; "I am the God of Bethel;" and here, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob." It is the same of whom it is said, "My name is in Him (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman).
In the so-called Jerusalem Targum, written by Jonathon ben Uziel, we find a commentary on the passage in Genesis that describes God's destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah: "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24). The
Targum describes the Lord (YHWH) in this passage as "the Word of the Lord," which is a title for Jehovah suggesting the second person of the Trinity that
appears often throughout these paraphrases: "And the Word of the Lord caused to descend upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire
from the Lord from heaven."(Jonathon ben Uziel, Jerusalem Targum).

The Shema: "Hear, O Israel! Yehovah our-Elohim, Yehovah is one!" Deuteronomy 6:4)
In this passage Moses first uses the singular name of God, hw:hoy Yehovah, then the plural name, !yhiloa> God, and then again the singular name,
hw:hoy Yehovah, and concluded with Hebrew dja meaning: One. This biblical statement declares that there is only one God which both Jews and
Christians agree on. The term included Elohim indicates the nature of God as three in one. Jewish books written during the captivity in Babylon in 536 B.C.
to the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70 taught the mystery of the Trinity based on this very passage in Deuteronomy 6:4. The Zohar teaches:
"We have said in many places, that this daily form of prayer is one of those passages concerning the Unity, which is taught in the Scriptures. In Deut. 6:4, we
read first h/:hy Yehovah, then, !yhiloa our God, and again, h/:hy Yehovah, which together make one Unity. But how can three Names [three beings] be
one? Are they verily one, because we call them one? How three can be one can only be known through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and, in fact, with
closed eyes. This is also the mystery of the voice. The voice is heard only as one sound, yet it consists of three substances, fire, wind, and water, but all three
are one, as indicated through the mystery of the voice. Thus are (Deut. 6:4) Yehovah our-Elohim, Yehovah is one!, but One Unity, three Substantive
Beings which are One; and this is indicated by the voice which are One; and this is indicated by the voice which a person uses in reading the words, Hear, O
Israel, thereby comprehending with the understanding the most perfect Unity of Him who is infinite; because all three (Jehovah, Elohim, Jehovah) are read
with one voice, which indicates a Trinity." (Rabbi Menachem, Commentary on the Pentateuch, Venice edition. 267).
Another Rabbi Menachem of Recanati wrote in his Commentary on the Pentateuch about the mystery of the Trinity. He wrote: "These are secrets which
are revealed only to those who are reaping upon the holy field, as it is written the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him" (Psalms 25:14). On
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Deuteronomy 6:4 he wrote concerning the Trinity: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. This verse is the root of our faith, therefore Moses
records it after the ten commandments. The reason (that there is said hw:hoy, Lord, !yhiloa, our God, and hw:hoy, Lord) is, because the word [mv does
not here signify Hear; but to gather together, to unite, as in 1 Samuel 15:4, Saul gathered together the people. The meaning implied is The InherentOnes are so united together, one in the other without end, they being the exalted God. He mentions the three names mystically to indicate the three exalted
original Ones." (Rabbi Menachem, Commentary on the Pentateuch, Venice edition. 267).
Let Us Make Man in Our Image
Zohar, vol.1, Soncino Press edition 9091: In Genesis 1:26 God said, "Let Us make man in Our image." Then in Genesis 1:27 Moses records "And Elohim
created man in His image, in the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them," thus making it plain that the Us in verse 26 is clearly
referring to God, not to angels as some people speculate. God makes plain in verse 26 that He is the Three in One. Moses wrote in Genesis 11:5, "And
Yehovah came down to see the city," using the singular noun. Yet in verse 7 is used the plural noun which is Yehovah again indicating the plurality of His
nature when He said, "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech." Another passage in the
Zohar indicates clearly that the Jewish sages understood the Trinity nature of God: "The fourth precept is to acknowledge that the Lord is God, as we read:
Know this day, and lay it to thy heart that Yehovah [h/;hy]], he is Elohim [!yhiloa] (Deuteronomy 4:39); namely, to combine the name Elohim "God" with
the name Jehovah "Lord" in the consciousness that they form an indivisible unity." (Zohar, vol. 1, Soncino Press edition). All those supernal lights exist in
their image below some of them in their image below upon the earth; but in themselves they are all suspended in the firmament of the heaven. Here is the
secret of two names combined which are completed by a third and become one again. And God said, Let us make Man ....Psalm 2:7: "You are My
Son, today I have begotten You
Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai commenting on the Zohar: There is a perfect Man, who is an Angel. This Angel is Metatron, the Keeper of Israel; He is a man
in the image of the Holy One, blessed be He, who is an Emanation from Him; yea, He is Jehovah; of Him cannot be said, He is created, formed or made; but
He is the Emanation from God. This agrees exactly with what is written, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Of jmx dwd, David's Branch, that though He shall be a perfect
man, yet He is The LORD our Righteousness.(Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, The Propositions of the Zohar). The ancient Jewish sages understood the divine
nature of the Son of God without question.

The Angel of Yehovah And the Angel of the Covenant (Ancient Jews believed the Angel of the LORD as divine but didtinct
from the Father
Genesis 22:11 "But the Angel-of-Yehovah appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with
fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up. When Yehovah saw
that he turned aside to look, Elohim called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here I am." Moses in this passage
clearly indicates that the Angel of Yehovah is Yehovah. Rabbi Moses ben Nachman pointed out this fact: It is said: An Angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a flame of fire, and (Elohim) !yhiloa, God called unto him. This is all one, namely, whether he saith The Angel, or (Elohim) !yhiloa, God spake to
him out of the midst of the bush. . . Therefore be not astonished that Moses hid his face before this Angel; because this Angel mentioned here is the Angel,
the Redeemer, concerning whom it is written; I am the God of Bethel; and here, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob. It is the same of whom it is said, My name is in Him. (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman)

E) Memra of the LORD (Yahweh)

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 after
many centuries later. The shift in their opinion, 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 with the Church; i.e., the abandonment of Scriptura Sola
coupled with the desire to defend the Pharasaic tradition.
The Targumims:
These are the translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Chaldee (or Aramaic or Syriac), and these, when
compared with the Hebrew, give us 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, thus verifying what has See [J. W. Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel ...; A.
Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendices II, IX]. Frequently in the following references, the Hebrew reading is converted to the Chaldee
reading by replacing Yahweh by Memra of the LORD, and in such a way as to teach the personal Deity of the Word; and any passage teaching the Deity of

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the Memra of Jehovah teaches that the Memra is a Person of Deity distinct from the Person denominated Jehovah. Finally, Memra is the Chaldee equivalent
of the Greek Logos.
But there is a strong possibility that Johns choice of the word Logos was not sourced solely from Philos writings. Even within Hebrew thought, there is a
correspondence to the concept of the Logos used by both Philo and John. In the Palestinian Targums (which were Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Old
Testament), the Aramaic word Memra (or the Word) is frequently used as a substitute for the name of God yet distinct from God himself. Kauffman
Kohler explains: In the Targum the Memra figures constantly as the manifestation of the divine power, or as Gods messenger in place of God Himself,
wherever the predicate is not in conformity with the dignity or the spirituality of the Deity. (Kaufmann Kohler, Jewish Encyclopedia). Increasingly within
Jewish thinking, God was seen as so holy and separate from mankind that he used personified attributes as his intermediaries when dealing with man. Thus it
was the Memra (the Word of God) who created the world and it was the Memra (the Word) who communicated with fallen man. The Memra was seen
as the same as God, yet also distinct from God an divine agency. These ties back to John writing about the Word Of God/Memra or Logos who was the
person of the second divine figure: Jesus is called the Word of God in Rev 19:13(I saw heaven open and behold the White, He that sat was called the
Faithfuland his name was the Word of God), He is the Word and the Word was God John 1:1 (the Word was God). In Jewish concept the Word of God is
God in second person of the divine being. The ancient Jews understood the Memra (the Word) to be divine yet distinct from the Father.
Thus in Genesis 1:16-17 Targum Neofiti reads (Aramaic version of OT Hebrew), The Word [Memra] of the Lord created the two large luminaries ... and
the Glory of the Lord set them in the firmament and in Genesis 2:2-3 it reads, On the seventh day the Word [Memra], of the Lord completed the work which
he had created ... .(Bruce M. Metzger's article, "Important Early Translations of the Bible,). Victor Christensen shows how interestingly the Targums of the
Ancient Jews reflected our own deep seated sentiment of ancient Jewish thought of God as triune God:
We read in Genesis 1:1 that in the beginning, God (Elohiym) created the heavens and the earth. Targum Neofiti on Genesis 1:1 says; From the
beginning, with wisdom, the Memra of Yahweh created and perfected the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:16 says; And God made the two great lights. Targum Neofiti on Genesis 1:16 says; And the Memra of Yahweh created the two great lights.
Genesis 15:6 says; And he (Abraham) believed God, and He counted it to him as righteousness. Targum Onkelos on Genesis 15:6 says; Abraham
trusted in the Memra of Yahweh, and He counted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 28:21 says; Yahweh shall be my God. Targum of Onkelos on Genesis 28:21 says; the Memra of Yahweh should be my God.
Genesis 1:27 says, God ('elohiym) created man in His own image. The Jerusalem Targum has, And the Memra of the Lord created man in His likeness.
In Genesis 9:17 God says, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth. Targum Onkelos says,
This is the sign which I established between My Memra and between all fleshes which are on the earth.
In Genesis 17:7 God says, I will establish My covenant between Me and you. Targum Onkelos says, I will establish My covenant between My Memra
and you. Similar caution is evident, however, where God says that he will meet with the Israelites at the Tabernacle on stated occasions.
Exod. 25: 22., Onkelos, 'I will cause my word (memri, oracle) to meet thee there, and I will speak with thee from above the place of atonement (kapporeth),
from between the two cherubs,' etc
Exo 3:2: The Angel of the LORD appear to him in a flame of fire Targum; The Memra of Yahweh appear to Him..vs 4: When the LORD saw that he
turned aside to look God Spoke to Him from the midest of the Bush, Targum; When the Memra of the LORD saw that he turned aside the Memra of the call
Him from the midst of the Bush..The Memra of the LORD said I AM the God of your father
Exodus 3:14: And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Jerusalem Targum reads: And the Word [Memra] of the LORD said unto Moses: "I am He who said unto the world, Be! And it was; and who in the
future shall say to it, Be! And it shall be." And He said: "Thus thou shalt say to the children of Israel.
Exodus 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his
servant Moses. Targum reads And Israel saw the great strong hand of God, what He did to the Egyptians. They feared God and believed in His Word
[Memra] and in His servant Moses. Targum differentiates two persons sharing the same name yet applies the term Memra for the second person.
Ex 33:16-21. ... and by Thy speaking by the Holy Spirit to me and to Thy people that we may be distinguished from all the peoples on the face of the earth?
And Jehovah said to Mosheh, This thing will ... I also do ... And he said, Show now unto me Thy glory: but He said, Behold, I will make all the measure of
My goodness pass before thee, and I will give utterance in the Name of the Memra of Jehovah (the LORD) before thee; and I will have compassion And He
said, Thou canst not see the visage of My face; for no one can see Me and abide alive. And Jehovah said, Behold a place is prepared before Me, and thou
shalt stand upon the rock. And it shall be that when the glory of My Shekhinah passeth before thee, I will put thee in the cavern of the rock, and will
overshadow thee with My Memra (my Hand) until I have passed by (Targum of Palestine)
Ex 34:5. And Jehovah revealed Himself in the cloud of the glory of His Shekhinah, and Mosheh stood with Him there; and Mosheh called upon the Name
of the Memra of Jehovah (the Heb-The LORD).
Exodus 20:1: And the LORD spoke all these words. Targum: And the Word (Memra) of the LORD spoke all these words.
Lev 1:1. ... and the Memra of Jehovah (THE LORD) spake with him from the tabernacle of ordinance (Targum of Palestine)
Num 23:20. Behold, from the mouth of the Holy Memra (the LORD) I have received this benediction. (Targum of Palestine)

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Deut 1:10. The Memra of Jehovah (the LORD) our Elohim hath multiplied you; and behold .. (Targum of Palestine)
In the Targums paraphrase of Isaiah 48:13, it is the Memra who laid the foundation of the earth.
Isaiah 63:7-10. There, where the Hebrew text speaks of Yahweh (LORD) being their Savior, the Targum reads, the Word (Memra) was their savior in vs.
8. While this personalizing of the Word was being expressed in Palestine in the Targums of Jesus' day, Philo, an Egyptian Jew and contemporary of Jesus,
was expressing similar thoughts in even more distinct words. In his essay "On the Creation," Philo states that man was not made in the image of some
creature, but in the image of God's own uncreated Word. He wrote: for the Creator, we know, employed for its making no pattern taken from among created
things, but solely, as I have said, His own Word. Philo continues: Man was made a likeness and imitation of the Word, when the Divine Breath was
breathed into his face. ("On the Creation," XLVIII: 139, Loeb Edition I, pp. 110-111). The truth is that by the time of Christ, the first century A.D., the Jews
themselves, on the basis of the Old Testament, were coming to an understanding of the complexity of Yahweh (the LORD). The equivalent term employed
for Aramaic Targum for Memra was Logos in Greek. The Jews understood the Logos (Memra) to be special name of God beside the name Yahweh. The
writer of John although used the term Logos for second person, he however corrected the false doctrine of Philo in some sense and Greek philosophers. His
writings were to counteract the false philosophy of his time, probably it was the last gospel written. The only apostle to use the concept of Memra (Logos)
that ties the same doctrine of Targum to his audience was John the apostle

LXX (Septuagint) views of Memra (LOGOS-Greek)

This is the translation by the seventy-two rabbis in Alexandria of the Hebrew Scriptures and Apocrypha into Greek; this work was carried from
approximately 250 B.C.E. to 100 B.C.E. Here the word for the Second Person used by these rabbis is Logos (just as in the N. T.).
Book of Wisdom 18:14-6. For while all things were in quiet silence, and that night [of the first Passover] was in the midst of her swift course, Thine
Almighty Logos leaped from heaven out of Thy Royal Throne, as a fierce Man of War into a land of destruction, and brought Thine unfeigned commandment
as a sharp sword, and standing up filled all things with death, Septuagints view the Logos (Memra) as the divine person distinct from God the Father.
The relevance of the Septuagint on this matter is seen on a number of levels, a couple of which will be mentioned. In the first place, some have suggested that
the Hebrew text is improperly translated by plural pronouns. Although this is by no means a common argument, and although it is easily dispelled on the
basis of Hebrew Grammar itself, the Septuagint confirms the standard reading, thereby reflecting how it was translated and read by Jews prior to the advent
of the Messiah.
Genesis 1:26 (LXX): And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth.
Genesis 3:22 (LXX): And God said, Behold, Adam is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now lest at any time he stretch forth his hand, and
take of the tree of life and eat, and so he shall live forever.
Genesis 11:7 (LXX): Come, and having gone down let us there confound their tongue, that they may not understand each the voice of his neighbor.
Secondly, the fact that some have, contrary to the facts, said that the Septuagint prone as the translators were to tone down all anthropomorphisms or
anything apt to mislead the uninstructed drops the plural pronouns, is an unwitting indication that such texts vex non-Trinitarians. The fact is, not only does
the Septuagint not alter these passages of Genesis, as some wistfully hold, but it even goes out of its way and throws in another like them for good measure,
one that does not appear in any extant Hebrew manuscript.
In Genesis 2:18, the Septuagintal reading is:And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, let us make for him a help suitable to him.
Note: Even apart from the use of the plural pronoun in the LXX version of Genesis 2:18, it is of interest that God declared that His image bearer was not
good apart from another to complete him, apparently indicating that man, as Gods image bearer, requires a society of persons in which to find fulfillment.
Philo of Judaeus Alexandria: Born circa 25 B.C.E. and died circa 50 C.E., this Hellenistic Jewish rabbi took the concept of the Logos from Platonic
philosophy, and refashioned it along the lines of the traditional Jewish understanding. Philo's concept of the Logos may be viewed then as another indication
of the Trinitarian views of the most ancient rabbis. We give a sampling of descriptions from Philo. (See [J. W. Etheridge, op. cit., Volume I, 20-23] for full
quotes; see also [H. A. Wolfson, Philo, Volume I, 200-94] for a thorough discussion, apparently written on the assumption that the most ancient Judaism was
unitarian, which runs counter to modern Unitarains views. Philo describes the Logos in the following terms: "the Eternal Logos of the Everlasting God is
the strongest and steadfast support of the universe", "Image of God", "Creator", man is "His copied image", "His [God's] Angel" who sits over the
Cherubim, "the Father begat Him [Logos], "His [God's] First-Begotten Son", "Second God", "advocate the Son" for the high priest before the Father,
"holds and directs the universe", "Mediator" Who "should determine between the creature and Creator", "receives the charge of the sacred flock",
we should "regard the Image of God, Who is His Angel, the Logos, as God Himself" and "pledge our faith by the Begotten [Logos] and ... invoke the
Divine Logos to witness", etc., etc., etc.
Philo, in his interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, views the Logos as the Person of Deity Who called to Adam in the garden, spoke to Hagar, wrestled
with Jacob, and spoke to Moses in the bush; and he thereby identifies the Logos with Jehovah, Angel Jehovah, Memra of Jehovah, and the Man. We can
further say that almost every distinctive phrase used of Christ in the NT is not historically original with the NT, but can be found, usually lock-stock-andbarrel, in the writings of Philo. Many scholars view Philo's Logos is much more than the impersonal sum or totality of God's ideas; and Philo confirms that
the most ancient Jewish community was Trinitarian and looked to the Second Person for salvation.
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The Midrashim: These were compiled generally long after the rabbinical desertion of Scriptura Sola. Nonetheless, a few glimpses of truth can be seen.
Gen. 1:1. "In the Beginning God created, Beginning referring to Torah, as in the verse, The Lord POSSES me in the beginning of His way (Prov. 8:22)" [Midrashim, Genesis I, 1]. By connecting Beginning with the Prov. 8 passage, we see the glimmer of the truth that Wisdom as a Person of Deity is the
Beginning One by means of which God created.
Gen. 1:2. "The Spirit of God hovered: this alludes to the Spirit of Messiah" [Midrashim, Genesis I, 17]. There is a dim glimmer of the truth that the Father
through His divine Logos spirates out the Spirit.
Gen. 4:25. "And she called his name Seth: For God hath appointed me another seed, etc. R. Tankhuma said in the name of Samuel Kozith: that seed
which would arise from another source, King Messiah"- [Midrashim, Genesis I, 196]. This is a faint echo of the virgin birth (concerning the proof of which
from the Hebrew Scripture see our outline)
Talmud (Gemara). The Talmuds were compiled by the Unitarian descendants of the Pharisees. Nonetheless, there is the tacit admission, when the rabbis
were not rebutting the "min" (heretics) concerning Gen. 1:26-7 (see LA), that elohim indicates three persons.
Berakoth 24 (Folio 6a). ... And how do you know that if three are sitting as a court of judges the Divine Presence is with them? For it is said: In the midst of
elohim He judges [Ps. 82:1]. This clearly shows that apart from debate against Christians, the Unitarians understood elohim as indicating three authorities;
hence their courts consisted of three judges. This is further confirmed by the next passage.Yebamoth 307 (Folio 46b). ... R. Khiyya b. Abba stated in the
name of R. Jokhanan: The initiation of a proselyte requires the presence of three men; for law has been written in his case

Metatron:
In Ancient Kabbalistic Studies we see a figure who acted for God as God. Metatron was seen as a divine being/ Angel of the highest orderwho was a
mediator or intercessor before God. George Foot Moore in the Harvard University Journal writes: The oldest occurrence of the word is in Sifre on Deut. 32,
49 (? 338), that is, in a Palestinian work the final redaction of which falls early in the third century, but which in this part is a Midrash of the school of
Ishmael three quarters of a century earlier. Moses is bidden to ascend Mount Nebo in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, 'and see the land of Canaan, which I
am going to give the Israelites as a possession.' On this R. Eliezer comments: 'With his finger he (God) was a Metatron to Moses and showed him the whole
land of Israel; so far the boundaries of Ephraim; so far the boundaries of Manasseh. According to R. Joshua, Moses saw it for himself; God gave him such
powerful eyesight that he saw from one end of the world to the other. The word metatron was explained by R. Moses ben Nahman and Eshtori Parhi as 'one
who shows the way,' a guide, and a corresponding gloss has found its way into the text of Sifre. Another occurrence in a Palestinian Midrash is in Bereshith
Rabbah 5, 4 (on Gen. 1, 9): 'R. Levi said, Some interpreters interpret with Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, that the voice of God was made a metatron over the
waters, according to the words, 'The voice of the Lord was over the waters' (Psalm 29, 3). The question, as appears from the preceding context, was how the
waters found their way into the ocean when God gathered them together in one place; the answer, the voice of the Lord guided them. The interpretation of
Ben Azzai is cited (independently of Bereshith Rabbah) by R. Berechiah in Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 93, 3 (? 5, end); 'The voice of God was a metator
before them.' The Aruk quotes from Midrash Yelammedenu on Deut. 2, 31 (Behold I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land before thee): 'If that gives thee
concern, I am thy metator. Do not wonder at these words; am I not hereafter going to be made a metator before an uncircumcised man, Cyrus, as it is written,
'I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight,' etc. (Isa. 45, 2); I am going to go before a woman, before Deborah and Barak, as it is said, 'Is not
the Lord gone out before thee' (Judges 4, 14). Besides this passage, which is not preserved in our recensions of the Midrash Tanhuma, the Aruk cites in this
sense, from the same source at the end of the Parashah Ki Tissa (on Exod. 34, 27), where, in answer to the intercession of Moses for the people after the sin of
the golden calf, God recounts his ill-requited goodness to Israel: 'And not only that, but in the desert I go before them as metator-'The Lord goeth before them
by day' (Exod. 13, 21) -levelling down for them the heights and levelling up the depressions' (cf. Isa. 40: 3). In the same sense, and with the same Scripture
reference, we find in a later Midrash on Exod. 23, 20, 'Behold, I send an angel,' etc.: xl 'God said to Israel, When you were worthy of it, I myself was made a
messenger (shalih) for you, as I did for you in the desert, as it is said,the Lord went before them by day (Exod. 13, 21); but now that ye are not worthy, I turn
you over to a messenger (shalih), as it is said, Behold, I send an angel,' etc. (Exod. 23, 20.). At the plea of Moses (Exod. 33: 12), however, the captain (Josh.
5:4, and below, p. 65) did not actually assume authority over them till the death of Moses. Here God going before Israel in the desert is called shalih,
precisely as in the passage first quoted from the Tanhuma (Yelammedenu) he is called metator; the two words are equivalent in sense. A third example given
in the Aruk, also from Yelammedenu, is from the Parashah Balak (on Num. 22, 36: Balak heard that Balaam was come), 'Showing that they had sent
metatorin (plur.) before him.' From these passages R. Nathan gathers that the idea in metator is, 'preceding, going on before.' The substitution in our texts of
the Tanhuma on Num. 1. c. of sheluhim (lit., persons sent on a mission or with a message, the Hebrew word represented in the New Testament a correct
interpretation from the context. In all the passages thus far cited metatron or metator - the forms interchange in parallels and variants - is an appellative; and
except in the last it is God himself (or his finger or his voice) that is the metatron or metator. In all the contexts requires some such general sense as 'one who
leads or shows the way, one who goes in advance.' In the Babylonian Talmud Metatron is an angel but divine person. The passages in which he appears are
few, and it will not take us too far to examine them all. In the first of these (Sanhedrin 38b) R. Nahman (ben Isaac) narrates a controversy between R. Idi
(probably a Palestinian teacher of that name in the latter part of the fourth century) and a heretic (min), as an example of the right way to answer such cavils.
The heretic quoted Exod. 24:1 'And to Moses he said, Ascend unto the Lord,' etc. Why not, Ascend unto Me? The Rabbi replied: It means Metatron, whose
name is like the name of his master," as the Scripture says, 'for My name is in him.' 'If that is so, you should worship him.' 'It is written, Do not exchange
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me for him.' 'What does it mean then by the words, 'He will not pardon your transgression?' 'In solemn truth! we did not accept him even as a precursor, for it
is written, 'And he (Moses) said to Him, If Thy presence (17~) go not (with us), lead us not up hence' (Exod. 33, 15). Metatron is here identified with the
angel whom God proposed to send before the Israelites to watch over and protect them in the desert and lead them to the place God had prepared for them
(Exod. 23, 1-4; 32, 34), but whose offices Moses declined - unless God personally accompanied the expedition, he was unwilling to set out on it. That Moses
did thus refuse to set out under the conduct of an angel is deduced in the Tanh.uma from the same texts. The same angel was later sent to Joshua (Josh. 5, 13
); he announces himself as the captain of the Lord's host (ibid. vs. 14), and says: 'Twice have I come to bring Israel into its inheritance. It was I who came in
the days of Moses thy master, and he rejected me, and was not willing that I should go; now I am come again.'(Tanhuma, Mishpatim, ? 18 init.; ed. Buber ?
10). Substantially the same is repeated in later compilations;" see also Bereshith Rabbah 97, 3 (http://archive.org/stream/jstor-1507936/1507936_djvu.txt)
The above quotation is from the Jewish book, the Zohar, in its comment on Genesis 1:1, which introduces Metatron as being present in this very first verse of
the Torah. The writer, Simeon ben Yochai, continues his comment, stating that Metatron is the very first [kadmoni], as well as the highest. He also states that
Metatron is eternal. He [Metraton] is the very first. Nobody can understand anything higher than this. Why? Because it is closed for the mind. Gods
mind is a closed mystery from above. The mind of man can be connected with things, but no one can connect Gods mind from above, the more His thoughts.
He is without end. The Zohar gives the above definition, but the origin of the name Metatron remains a mystery. According to Jewish scholars statements, it
could come from the Hebrew matara, which means "keeper of the watch;" from the Hebrew cabalistic term
metator, which means "guide or messenger" or from two Greek words, meta thronos, which mean "one who
serves behind the throne." The Jewish sages do not present a unified opinion regarding the etymology of the
name Metatron.
Rabbi Bechai Writes: Another of the ancient sages writing in the Zohar, Rabbi Bechai, relates the letters Hay
and Yod, which are also found in the name of God, to Metatron. Exodus 24:1, upon which Rabbi Bechai writes
his comment, refers to Gods summoning Moses to the top of the mount and reads as follows: And he said
unto Moses, come up unto the LORD, thou and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu [Aarons sons] and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar of
Rabbi Bechai comments as follows:
This is Metatron, the Lords messenger, Israels helper [Psalm 121:4]. God told Moses to go down, thy people sinned [Exodus 32:7]. Then Moses prayed
with the letter Hay and with the letter Yod Noah did not pray for the sinners so he went down with them Gods name,
Jehovah, is composed of the Hebrew letters Yod, Hay, Wav, Hay [JHVH]. The Jewish people consider this name of God
too holy to pronounce, so when they read it aloud, they say Adonai [my Lord] instead.
Talmudic References:
Some writers in the Talmud also deal with this subject, for example, in their discussion of Ecclesiastes 5:5, which
Scripture reads as follows: Better it is that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.The
Talmud, in Hagiga 15a, while stating that breaking a pledge is a sin, relates this verse to Metatron: Do not give your mouth to make your flesh to sin.
What did he see? He saw Metatron, to whom was given permission to sit down and write the merits of Israel Another Talmudic passage, Yebamoth 16b,
also refers to Psalm 37:25, "I was young and was old," as Simeon ben Yochai does in his comment on Genesis 24:2 previously quoted, and comes to the same
conclusion that the person mentioned is Metatron. Some believe that Metatron is Enoch, but Yebamoth 16b refutes this conclusion: Who said it? If God said
it, can old age be applied to God? But David said it. Was he so old? But from this we learn that the prince of the world said it. [Tosefos said this prince is
young. He is Metatron, the glorified and the fearful. Metatron is the prince of the world. He is called "the youth."] In the poem Yesod Tokeh, [Strong
Foundation], Metatron is a prince turned to fire from the flesh. In this poem it seems to mean that Enoch is Metatron, but he cannot be. He cannot be the
prince of the world because in [the Talmudic book] Chulin 60:1 it says that in the first six days the prince of the world [Metatron] said, "God is rejoicing in
his work," and Enoch was not yet born[Tosefos Yebamoth 16b.]
The Early Judaic understanding of Yahweh
Richard Bauckham affirms extreme monotheism became a facet of Jewish monotheism only later. (Pg159: Jesus and the God of Israel). Their culture/
theology/language/history showed serious contentions surrounding this. We clearly read that Scholar of Rabbinics Jewish Scholar Jacob Neusner wrote the
system laid out in the Mishnah takes up and disposes of those critical issues of teleology worked out through messianic eschatology in other, earlier versions
of Judaism. These earlier systems resorted to the myth of the Messiah as Saviour and Redeemer of Israel, a supernatural figure engaged in political historical
tasks as king of the Jews, even a God-man facing the crucial historical questions of Israel's life and resolving them: the Christ as king of the world, of the
ages, of death itself (Judaism and their Messiahs at the turn of the Christian era.)
Further many Jewish the scholars like John Collins writes that "the notion of a messiah who was in some sense divine and its roots in Judaism, in the
interpretation of such passages as Psalm 2 and Daniel 7 in an apocalyptic context and the later Christian understanding of the divinity of Christ the
notion that the messiah was Son of God in a special sense was rooted in Judaism, and so there was continuity between Judaism and Christianity in this
respect..." (The sceptre and the Star). We see the early Church understanding the culture/language and history as Trinitarian and always opposing to a strict
Unitarian understanding of the Godhead. They were clear in their understanding of the uniqueness of God and clearly understood Him to be sole Ruler and

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sole Creator The one who have eternally existed (John 17:5, 13:3, Matt23:37-39, Heb1:2, Rev 1:8). This leads theologian N.T.Wright to affirm: about the
nature and variety of early Jewish monotheism we have very few examples of pure monotheism anywhere, including in the Hebrew Bible from the
Maccabaean revolt to Bar-Kochba there is no suggestion that monotheism, or praying the Shema, had anything to do with the numerical analysis of the
inner being of Israels god Himself we find strong evidence during this period of Jewish groups and individuals who, speculating on the meaning of some
difficult passages of Scripture (Dan7; Gen 1) suggested that the Divine being might encompass a pluralitybut none of these show any awareness that they
are transgressing normal Jewish monotheism. He affirms that later with the rise of Christianity [and the influence of] Hellenizing Philosophy], that Jews
in the second and subsequent centuries reinterpreted monotheism as the numerical oneness of the Divine Being (The New Testament and the people of
God: Pg.258-259). I am really not sure how more explicit the NT. can be when we see statements like his own Disciples like my Lord and my God (John
20:28), the word was God (John1:1), prepare the way of the LORD (Luke3:4), God with us (Mat 1:23), YHWH pouring out His Spirit (Acts
2:18&33), the Messiah who is God over all (Rom 9:5), One God and One Lord (1 Cor 8:6), Jesus who existed in the form of God, did not consider
equality with God (Phil2:5-6), our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13), your throne OGod is forever and ever (Heb 1:8), Our God and
Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:1), Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life (1 Joh 5:20), I am the One who was, is and is to come, the Almighty.
(Rev1:8). Now how more explicit can you get? I am not sure how more explicit regarding the Divinity of Christ? Not even going to implicit Scriptures
Now how do we understand these texts just in its normal reading? Not applying philosophical constructs or intellectual vagaries. Trinitarians believe that
Christ presented God on earth but that He was also God as clearly described in Scripture. You say that If Jesus was not the Father and the Father was alone
God, then Jesus is not God. This again is only a problem if you are a Unitarian? Bauckham also notes that no intermediary figures (angels or exalted
patriarchs) is portrayed as participating in the work of creationGods Wisdom and Word, on the other hand, are regularly portrayed as participants in
creation the other so-called intermediary figures have much more limited roles. Further in the Memra of the Targums, the Word (Logos) was
recognized, so to speak, in his own name and character; the Skekinah was sometimes taken for the Second Person of the Trinity, sometimes for the Third;
after cabalistic studies came into vogue, the mysterious Metatron joined the ranks of the intermediaries. According Jeremiah 23:6 Jesus is the Old Testament
God Yahweh; This is His name by which He [Jesus] will be called, Yahweh our righteouness. When the Greek New Testament is translated into Hebrew
Jesus New Testament title is unequivocally Yahweh. It is important to take note that when the Old Testament speaks of deity it employs a threefold formula:

Triune formula from the OT

1) Genesis 19:24: Then the LORD (1st person) rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD (2nd person) out of the heavens
2) Gen 35:1 Then God (Elohim) said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God (El), who appeared to you when you were
fleeing from your brother Esau. Do you catch that? God is saying to Jacob to build an altar to another God who appeared to him; He did not say to Jacob that
it was He who appeared to him (Jacob) at Bethel. The second person who appeared to Jacob is God (El singular form of God) while the person talking to
him is Elohim (plural-Father and the Holy Spirit). We know that at Bethel Jacob saw God: Gen 28:13 there above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the
LORD, the God of your father Abraham. Again, the same God who appeared to him at Bethel appeared one more time and said in Gen 31:13 I am the God
of Bethel. The God of Bethel appeared to him and wrestled with him in Gen 32:29-30 (Jacob named the place Paniel for I have seen God face to face yet
my life was spared). Finally, He appeared at Bethel again and confirmed his blessing that he had already bestowed to him in his previous encountered by
wrestilng: Exo 35:10-11 your name is Jacob; your name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel. God said to him I am God Almighty (El Shaddai) be
fruitful and multiply. Hence, we see the God of Bethel is also God Almighty. We also know for sure that it was the LORD himself who gave the name Israel
to Jacob in 2 King 17:34 (which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob whom he name Israel), 1King 18:31. Lastly, prophet Hosea validates that the
man whom Jacob wrestled was God in Hosea 12:3-4; In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he struggled with God 4 Yes, he
wrestled with the Angel and prevailed. He wept and sought His favor. He found Him at Bethel and there He spoke with us, 5 this is the LORD, the God of
hosts, the LORD is His name.
3) Exodus 24:1 Now He said to Moses come up to the LORD....And Moses alone shall come near the LORD. He referred here is the LORD who spoke
in previous verse. He did not say come up to me which clearly indicates He is the different from another LORD. Obviously the person speaking is the
Father and yet referred another person as LORD. We can be sure that the Speaker is God the Father because in verse 11, these seventy elders of Israel saw
God of Israel and they ate and drank with Him. God the Father cannot be seen but what they saw was the Son: 12: they saw God of Israel. And there was
under His feet as it were a paved work of Sapphire stone it was like very clear heaven.
4) Isaiah 6:1-9 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 3. And
they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. 5...my eyes has seen the King, the LORD of
hosts 8.Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for US?" 9. He said, "Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but
never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. In NT John states that whom Isaiah saw was Jesus the Son, the LORD of hosts. John 12:41
Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. In Acts 28:25-26 The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through
Isaiah the prophet: Go to this people and say, You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. The Divine
person who sent prophet Isaiah (Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving) was the Holy
Spirit as inspired Paul tells us. All the three divine person were involved that day that is why the creature shouted three fold Holy..Holy Holy Holy..!!!
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5) Isaiah 9:6 a child is given to us, a Son is given, whose name is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
6) Isaiah 10:16-21 therefore shall the Lord, the LORD of hosts (1st person), send among his fat ones leanness; ...be for a fire, and his Holy One (2nd
person) for a flame...And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean
upon him (Israels enemies) that struck them; but shall lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel (2nd person), in truth. The remnant shall return, even the
remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
7) Isaiah 40:3: a voice of one crying in the desert crying prepared ye the way of the LORD quoted in Matthew 3:1 for this he (John the Baptist) who was
spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying: the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepared the way of the LORD
8) Isaiah 43:10 You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me (1st person) and
understand that I am He (2nd person). Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
9) Isaiah 48: Isaiah 48:16-17 The LORD said (1st person) Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the
time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD (2nd person), and his Spirit (3rd person), hath sent me. Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy
One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. The speaker the 1st person is the
the First and the Last in vs 12, and He is the creator whose own hand laid the foundation of the earth in vs 13.
10) Isa. 63:10-14: But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit (2nd person) therefore He (1st person) turned Himself to become their enemythe
Israelites rebelledWhere is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of MosesAs the cattle
which go down in the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.
11) Isa. 65:9-14: In all their afflictions He (1st person) was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence [lit. the Messenger of His Face-2rd person)] saved
themBut they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit (3rd person)Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, who caused His glorious arm
to go at the right hand of MosesThe Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So you led Your people, to make for Yourself a glorious name.
12) Isa. 42:2: Behold, My Servant (2rd person), whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit (3nd peson) upon Him; He
will bring forth justice to the nations;
13) Isa 44:6: Thus says the LORD (first person), the King of Israel And His (second Person) Redeemer (wlw), the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first
and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me.
14) Ezekiel 43:3-6: the God of Israel came...His voice like many waters... the Spirit lifted me... the glory of LORD filled the temple. I heard Him speaking
to me from the temple, while a Man stood beside me...The Man (God the Son) said this is my throne and the place of soles of my feet.
15) Jeremiah 23:5-6: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I (1st person) will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name (2nd person)
whereby he shall be called, (2nd person) THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNES (Yahweh i-q-n)
16) Zechariah 2: 8-11 for thus says the LORD of host (1st person): He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you
touches the apple of His eye. For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the
LORD of Hosts (2rd person) has sent Me. Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD.Many nations
will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD of host (2nd person) has sent
me to you
17) Zech 10:12: And I (1st person) shall strengthen them in the LORD, And in His name (ubis-mow-2nd person)) they will walk," declares The LORD.
18) Zechariah 12:10 And I will (1st person) pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.They will
look on me (1st person), the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him (2nd person) as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as
one grieves for a firstborn son.
19) Zech.13:7: Awake, O sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow (amiti), says the LORD of hosts. The Hebrew word for fellow
is amiti means equal, so it reads against the man who is my equal (Deity). This Hebrew word amiti is used for same being in Lev 25:17 (one anotherrefer to same being) and in Lev 19:11 translated as one another or neighbour. Obviously, the context is referring to same nature, same being within mans
society. Hence, when God says his fellow, his shepherd, it points to Messiah who is also Deity (God).
20) Zechariah 11:13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a princely price that I was valued at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of
silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. In the NT it was Jesus who was valued with thirty pieces of silver.
21) Zec 12:8 thus says the LORD in that Day the LORD (not I will) will defend the inhibitant of Jerusalem, the one feeble will be like... of David. ...like
God, like the Angel of the LORD
22) Hosea 1:7: But I (first person) will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God (second person), and will not
deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.
23) Amos 4:10-11: I (first person) sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses,
And I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me, declares the Lord I overthrew you as God ( elohim-second

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person in plural) overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze; Yet you have not returned to Me, declares the
LORD.
24) Psalms 136:1-3 he said, O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his
mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever. Why would the Psalmist give thanks three times if God is one
Person?
25) Malachi 3:1: Behold, I (1st person) send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord (ha-Adown-2nd person), whom you seek,
will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, Says the LORD of hosts (2nd person)
26) Isaiah 41:14: Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you," declares the LORD, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel."
27) Isaiah 54:5: For your Maker is your husband (Baalti); the LORD of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the
God of the whole earth
28) Micah 5:2: But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be
Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting

In the NT, this type of triune form is used by Jesus himself and NT authors
Likewise, when Jesus spoke of deity He employed the same threefold formula found in the Law and the Prophets.
John 14:16: I (Jesus) will ask the (2) Father, and He will give you (3) another Counsellor the Spirit of truth. Since the Spirit comes as another
Counsellor to replace Jesus the Spirits role is to represent Jesus on earth when Jesus is absent.
John 14:26.But the comforter (parakletos), which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to you.
John 15:26 But when the Helper (parakletos) comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will
testify of Me.".
John 16:7: I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Matt 28:19: baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
1 John 5:7 states For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.Who is the Word refered
here? The Word is Jesus Christ according to Rev 19:13 His name was the Word of God.
2 Corthn 13:14: the grace of our Lord Jesus the love of the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Jude 20-21, But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting
anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
I Peter 1:2; Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ.
I Corithn 12:4-6 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of
effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
I Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Rev 1:4-5; John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come (the Father);
and from the seven Spirits (the Holy Spirit) who are before his throneand from JesusChrist.
2 Theso 2:13 ...are bound to give thanks to God ...brethern beloved by the Lord because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through
sanctification by the Spirit.

Trinity (Three divine persons) at the Baptism

There ARE scriptures that show the manifestation of ALL 3 persons at a single place and
time, such as: Matt 3:16-17 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out
of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Similar scene is reported by Luke 3:2123, so does Mark 1:10-11. Here we see ALL 3 persons of the Godhead simultenously
present at the Baptism. A passages like 2 Peter 1:17 says: For he received from God the
Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The divine person who spoke from
the heaven is always the Father not the Son in disguised or the Holy Spirit.

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Many ancient Rabbis understood Messiah to be second divine figure

"As I looked, THRONES were placed and one that was Ancient of Days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure
wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened." Daniel 7:9-10
Daniel speaks of thrones in the plural, one of which God sat on who is described here as the Ancient of the Days. According to certain rabbis themselves the
other throne was for the Davidic Messiah, called David in the rabbinic literature. Yet other rabbis could see the problem this created for their position since
this meant that the Messiah sat enthroned alongside God in heaven, and was therefore a second Power or Divinity besides God.
"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented
before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should worship (pelach) him; his dominion is
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." Daniel 7:13-14. The word Worship is Pelach which
is the highest form of religious worship and service which is given only to true God.In the NT this is translated as Latreo used for Father and the Son alone.
This, therefore, proves that one of the thrones was set in place for the Son of Man to sit on as he reigns over the entire creation. And according to the
testimony of Jesus himself, he is that very Son of Man that Daniel saw: "Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And
Jesus said, I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. Mark 14:61-62

Trinity or plurality of God, Proof Texts: Gen 19:24

Genesis chapters 18-19 is a powerful proof text for Trinitarians for these reasons:
1) First, is clearly shows Yahweh walking around on the earth in human form with two angels. They are called "three men". If Jehovah's Witnesses argue
that they are called men, the fact remains that just as angels are not men, neither is God a man. Yahweh and the two angels are called men, because they
appeared as men.
2) Second: God taking human appearance on earth is called a "Theophanies". There are several other examples of Theophanies in scripture.
3) Third, we have Genesis 19:24 that has two distinct Yahweh's: One on earth and one in heaven. "Then Yahweh [on earth in human form] rained on
Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh [in spirit form in heaven] out of heaven. Genesis 19:24. Although the unanimous opinion of the
apostolic Fathers was that this was Jesus talking to Abraham, such is a guess and not specifically known by scripture.
4) The unanimous opinion of the apostolic Fathers was that this was Jesus talking to Abraham, in Genesis 18. In this story, Abraham meets God (Jesus) and
the two angels.
5) Jesus came right out and said He was the one who talked to Abraham. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My
day, and he saw it and was glad." (John 8:56) God appearing to Abraham is an example of a Theophanies. Isaiah is also said to have seen Jesus in
heaven in Isa 6 + John 12:41. Jesus appearing to Isaiah is not be an example of a "Theophanies" because Jesus was seen in heaven.
6) For Unitarians (anti-Trinitarain), Gen 19:24 + Amos 4:11 is a like getting struck by lightening twice in the same place! Amazingly, Amos 4:10-11 has
two Yahweh's just like Gen 19:24 when talking about the exact same event!: "Yet you have not returned to Me, [Father]" declares Yahweh [Father]. "I
[Father] overthrew you, as God [Son] overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze; Yet you have not returned
to Me [Father]" declares Yahweh [Father]." (Amos 4:10-11)

The context irrefutably proves that Yahweh was walking around on the earth, in human form, with two angels
We begin with an expository examination of the texts with commentary to prove that Yahweh was walking on the earth in person in human form.

Commentary

Text

three men: Yahweh + 2 angels appear to

Abraham

"Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the
heat of the day. When Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing
opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to
the earth" Genesis 18:1-2

It was God who was standing before

Abraham in human form.

"And the LORD (Yahweh) said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I indeed bear a
child, when I am so old?' " Genesis 18:13

Three men intend on visiting Sodom.

"Then the [three] men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was
walking with them to send them off. The LORD (Yahweh) said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I
am about to do, " Genesis 18:16-17

God, in human form says this directly

to Abraham

"Yahweh said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do" Genesis 18:17

God, in human form says this directly

to Abraham. This verse shows that
Yahweh would go personally to Sodom
and see for Himself.

"And Yahweh said, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is
exceedingly grave. I [Yahweh] will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to
its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know." Genesis 18:20

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The two angels, called men, depart,

leaving Yahweh behind to talk to
Abraham.

"Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing
before Yahweh" Genesis 18:22

Abraham replies to the man and calls

him Lord. Notice the Lord (the man)
intended on destroying it.

"Then he said, "Oh may the Lord [adonai] not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose
ten are found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it on account of the ten." " Genesis 18:32

Yahweh, in human form, left Abraham

and went to Sodom to join the two
angels who left earlier.

"As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham, Yahweh departed, and Abraham returned to his
place." Genesis 18:33

Two angels visit Lot. During this time,

these two are never called Yahweh,
neither are they addressed by Lot as
Yahweh.

"Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When
Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. " Genesis 19:1

Lot addresses these two angels, as

Adonai, not Yahweh.

And he said, "Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house"" Genesis 19:2

Notice the angels say that Yahweh sent

them. Yahweh is not present with Lot
the way he was with Abraham. The
change is powerful proof of our major
premise.

"for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before Yahweh
that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it." " Genesis 19:13

Yahweh, the man who was talking to

Abraham, was to destroy Sodom.

"Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, "Up, get out
of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city."" Genesis 19:14

Again the two are called angels, never

Yahweh.

"When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up, take your wife and your two daughters
who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." " Genesis 19:15

There are two Yahweh's present in this

verse and the context. The man talking
to Abraham, called Yahweh, was
standing on the earth and commanded
the city destroyed. Yahweh in heaven
then sent the fire out of heaven.

"Then Yahweh [on earth in human form] rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from
Yahweh [in spirit form in heaven] out of heaven." Genesis 19:24

There are two Yahweh's in Gen 19:24: "Then Yahweh [on earth in human form] rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from
Yahweh [in spirit form in heaven] out of heaven." Genesis 19:24

1) "Three men" (Gen 18:2) visit Abraham.

2) One of them is identified as Yahweh (18:13) talks to Abraham about the birth of Isaac and the destruction of Sodom.
3) Yahweh says he will go down in person to Sodom (18:20).
4) The two angels leave and Yahweh continues talking to Abraham. (18:22)
5) From this point on the two angels are never called Yahweh, only lord (adonai). The two angels are almost assaulted by the homosexuals and they
leave the city with Lot (19:15)

6) Then same Yahweh who talked to Abraham in human form, commands that Sodom be destroyed while standing on earth and the second Yahweh in
heaven sends fire and brimstone. (Genesis 19:24)

The unanimous opinion of the apostolic Fathers was that this was Jesus talking to Abraham, while the Father
remained in heaven:
The unanimous opinion of the apostolic Fathers was that this was Jesus talking to Abraham, in Genesis 18. In this story, Abraham meets God and the
two angels. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." (John 8:56)
What the apostolic Fathers said about Genesis 19:24:
1) 150 AD Justin Martyr: In this text, Justin the Christian is trying to convince Trypho the Jew that Jesus is God, by showing one of the three men who
appeared to Abraham, was Yahweh himself: " I [Justin] inquired. And Trypho said, "Certainly; but you have not proved from this that there is another
God besides Him who appeared to Abraham, and who also appeared to the other patriarchs and prophets. You have proved, however, that we [the Jews]
were wrong in believing that the three who were in the tent with Abraham were all angels." I [Justin] replied again, "If I could not have proved to you
from the Scriptures that one of those three is God, because, as I already said, He brings messages to those to whom God the Maker of all things wishes
[messages to be brought], then in regard to Him who appeared to Abraham on earth in human form in like manner as the two angels who came with
Him, and who was God even before the creation of the world, it were reasonable for you to entertain the same belief as is entertained by the whole of
your nation." "Assuredly," he said, "for up to this moment this has been our [the Jews] belief." ... "And now have you not perceived, my friends, that one
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of the three, who is both God and Lord, and ministers to Him who is in the heavens, is Lord of the two angels? For when [the angels] proceeded to
Sodom, He remained behind, and communed with Abraham in the words recorded by Moses; and when He departed after the conversation, Abraham
went back to his place. And when he came [to Sodom], the two angels no longer conversed with Lot, but Himself, as the Scripture makes evident; and
He is the Lord who received commission from the Lord who [remains] in the heavens, i.e., the Maker of all things, to inflict upon Sodom and Gomorrah
the [judgments] which the Scripture describes in these terms: 'The Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord out of
heaven.' "(Dialogue of Justin Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew, Chapter LVI.God Who Appeared to Moses is Distinguished from God the Father.)
2) 180 AD Irenaeus "Therefore neither would the Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the apostles, have ever named as God, definitely and absolutely, him
who was not God, unless he were truly God; nor would they have named any one in his own person Lord, except God the Father ruling over all, and His
Son who has received dominion from His Father over all creation, as this passage has it: "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand,
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." Here the [Scripture] represents to us the Father addressing the Son; He who gave Him the inheritance of the
heathen, and subjected to Him all His enemies. Since, therefore, the Father is truly Lord, and the Son truly Lord, the Holy Spirit has fitly designated
them by the title of Lord. And again, referring to the destruction of the Sodomites, the Scripture says, "Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon
Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the LORD out of heaven." For it here points out that the Son, who had also been talking with Abraham, had
received power to judge the Sodomites for their wickedness. And this [text following] does declare the same truth: "Thy throne, O God; is for ever and
ever; the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee." For
the Spirit designates both [of them] by the name, of God both Him who is anointed as Son, and Him who does anoint, that is, the Father." (Irenaeus,
Book 3, ch 6)
3) 200 AD Tertullian: That is a still grander statement [of Christ's deity] which you will find expressly made in the Gospel: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There was One "who was," and there was another "with whom" He was. But I find in
Scripture the name Lord also applied to them Both: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand." And Isaiah says this: "Lord, who hath
believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? " Now he would most certainly have said Thine Arm, if he had not wished us to
understand that the Father is Lord, and the Son also is Lord. A much more ancient testimony [of Christ's deity] we have also in Genesis: "Then the Lord
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." Now, either deny that this is Scripture; or else (let me ask)
what sort of man you are, that you do not think words ought to be taken and understood in the sense in which they are written, especially when they are
not expressed in allegories and parables, but in determinate and simple declarations?" (Tertullian, Against Praxeas, [In which he defends, in all essential
points, the doctrine of the holy trinity.] Chapter XIII.The Force of Sundry Passages of Scripture Illustrated in Relation to the Plurality of Persons and
Unity of Substance. There is No Polytheism Here, Since the Unity is Insisted on as a Remedy Against Polytheism.)
4) 250 AD Ignatius: "For Moses, the faithful servant of God, when he said, "The Lord thy God is one Lord," and thus proclaimed that there was only
one God, did yet forthwith confess also our Lord [Jesus] when he said, "The Lord [Jesus] rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the
Lord." And again [he confessed a second time our Lord Jesus by saying], "And God said, Let Us make man after our image: and so God made man,
after the image of God made He him."" (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians, Chapter II.The True Doctrine Respecting God and Christ.)
5) 253 AD Cyprian: "In the Gospel according to John: "The Father judgeth nothing, but hath given all judgment unto the Son, that all may honour the
Son as they honour the Father. He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father who hath sent Him." Also in the seventy-first Psalm: "O God,
give the king Thy judgment, and Thy righteousness to the king's son, to judge Thy people in righteousness." Also in Genesis: "And the Lord rained upon
Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur, and fire from heaven from the Lord."" (The Treatises of Cyprian, Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the
Jews. Third Book., Testimonies., 33. That the Father judgeth nothing, but the Son; and that the Father is not glorified by him by whom the Son is not
glorified.)
6) Novatian 200-250: For who does not acknowledge that the person of the Son is second after the Father, when he reads that it was said by the Father,
consequently to the Son, "Let us make man in our image and our likeness; " and that after this it was related, "And God made man, in the image of God
made He him? "Or when he holds in his hands: "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord from heaven? " (A
Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity, Chapter XXVI. Argument.Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that the Father is One, the Son
Another.)
7) Novatian "Therefore the Lord overturned Sodom, that is, God overturned Sodom; but in the overturning of Sodom, the Lord rained fire from the
Lord. And this Lord was the God seen by Abraham; and this God was the guest of Abraham, certainly seen because He was also touched. But although
the Father, being invisible, was assuredly not at that time seen, He who was accustomed to be touched and seen was seen and received to hospitality.
But this the Son of God, "The Lord rained from the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire." And this is the Word of God. And the Word
of God was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and this is Christ. It was not the Father, then, who was a guest with Abraham, but Christ. Nor was it the
Father who was seen then, but the Son; and Christ was seen. Rightly, therefore, Christ is both Lord and God, who was not otherwise seen by Abraham,
except that as God the Word He was begotten of God the Father before Abraham himself." (A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity, Chapter

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XVIII. Argument.Moreover Also, from the Fact that He Who Was Seen of Abraham is Called God; Which Cannot Be Understood of the Father,
Whom No Man Hath Seen at Any Time; But of the Son in the Likeness of an Angel.)
8) Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (200 AD): "To Him did Moses bear witness, and said: "The Lord received fire from the Lord, and rained it
down." Him did Jacob see as a man, and said: "I have seen God face to face, and my soul is preserved." Him did Abraham entertain, and acknowledge
to be the Judge, and his Lord." (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book V. XX. A Prophetic Prediction Concerning Christ Jesus.)

Anti-Trinitarians try to dismiss this most devastating text with three different arguments:
Anti-Trinitarians create a false dilemma by misusing John 1:18: "No man has seen God at any time". They then go on to argue that Yahweh could not be
actually talking to Abraham in person. But this, as we will see, is indeed is not the case.
1) Isaiah saw God "For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts in Isaiah 6:1-6." Moses saw the "form of Yahweh" Numbers 12:6-8: "Hear now
My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, Yahweh, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. "Not so, with
My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he [Moses] beholds
the form of Yahweh. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?"
2) To utterly silence all Jehovah's Witnesses and anti-trinitarian on this point, merely quote 1 Timothy 6:16, "who alone possesses immortality and
dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see." While this passage talks about the Father not the Son.

Anti-Trinitarians claim this is a case of God speaking in the third person for Gen 19:24 (Then Yahweh [on earth in human
form] rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh [in spirit form in heaven] out of heaven. They points toward these few example
Jonathan speaks in the third person:
"Then Jonathan said to David, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, be witness! When I [first person] have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or
the third day, behold, if there is good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and make it known to you? "If it please my father to do you
harm, may Yahweh do so to Jonathan [third person] and more also, if I [first person] do not make it known to you and send you away, that you may go
in safety. And may Yahweh be with you as He has been with my father. " 1 Samuel 20:12-13
Jesus speaks in the third person:
"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My [first person] words, the Son of Man [third person] will be ashamed of him when He comes [third person] in
His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Luke 9:26
But saying Gen 19:24 as God speaking in third person is absolutely false because it is Moses who is speaking not God, so it cannot be an example of
speaking in the third person. Genesis 19:24 is narrated by Moses, not God himself, so this cannot be an example of God speaking in the third party!
This is not God speaking in the third person, but Moses (or whoever wrote Genesis) speaking: "Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah
brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven." (Genesis 19:24). But even if these Unitarians could find similar examples of Genesis 19:24 in the Bible, it
still would not make any difference. This is because the context irrefutably proves beyond question that Yahweh (or Jehovah if you adopt the spelling of
that famous 13th century Roman Catholic monk.) was walking around on the earth with two angels.

Anti-Trinitarains refuted
The Creation of Man as an illustration of Divine Plurality
There is another line of evidence which further supports the view that the God who created man is a plurality of Divine Persons and the plural pronouns
of Genesis 1:26 should therefore be understood as the Godhead speaking that being the creation of Adam. According to Genesis the one man is made up
of both male and female who are collectively called Adam!
"Then God said, Let us make (man) Adam in our image, after our likeness; and let THEM have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of
the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created Adam in his own image, in the
image of God he created HIM (singular); male and female he created THEM (plural) Genesis 1:26-27
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created Adam, he made him (singular) in the likeness of God. Male and female he created
them, and he blessed them and named THEM Adam [Adam (singular)] when they were created. Genesis 5:1-2
It is not a coincidence that it is only at this point in the narrative where God refers to himself in the plural. It is apparent that the creation of Adam as male
and female who together make up one flesh (cf. Gen. 2:21-24) is intended to be a reflection of the fact that God himself exists as a community of Divine
Persons. The very humanity that is said, on a finite level, to mirror God, to be created in His image or likeness, is at once a single entity, and yet a society
of persons. As one commentary explains: Many attempts have been made to explain the plural forms: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness:
e.g., (1) the plural is a reference to the Trinity; (2) the plural is a reference to God and his heavenly court of angels; (3) the plural is an attempt to avoid the
idea of an immediate resemblance of humans to God; (4) the plural is an expression of deliberation on Gods part as he sets out to create the human race.
The singulars in v.27 (in his own image and in the image of God; cf. 5:1) rule out explanation 2, since in the immediate context the creation of man and
woman is said to be in his image, with no mention of them in the image of the angels. Explanations 3 and 4 are both possible, but neither explanation is
specifically supported by the context. Verse 27 twice states that man was created in Gods image and a third time that man was created male and female
The same pattern is found in Genesis 5:1-2a. The singular man is created as a plurality, male and female. In a similar way the one God (And God said)
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created humankind through an expression of his plurality (Let us make man in our image). Following this clue the divine plurality expressed in v.26 is
seen as an anticipation of the human plurality of the man and woman, thus casting human relationship between man and woman as a reflection of Gods
own personal relationship with himself. (Zondervan NIV Study Bible Commentary: Volume 1: Old Testament An Abridgement of the Expositors Bible
Commentary, Kenneth L. Barker & John R. Kohlenberger III consulting editors [Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 1994], p. 6)

F) The term The Word of the LORD from the scripture

I King 18:31: Elijah took 12 stones each for 12 tribes to whom the Word of the LORD come saying your name shall be Israel. Here are some texts that
precisely says that the Word (Memra) of the LORD is is another title for 2nd divine person yet fully God and LORD. 1) 2 King 17:34: they don not fear the
LORD, they donot follow the statues and the law that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob whom he name Israel. 2) Gen 32:28: the He said your
name shall be call no more Jacob but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.. 3) Gen 35:10; God said to him your name
shall be no more call Jacob but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. Obviously, the Word of the LORD is God and Yahweh himself yet
distinct from the Father, it is another name for the God of Israel. The NT tells us that the Word of God is another name for the Son. Rev 19:13(I saw heaven
open and behold the White, He that sat was called the Faithfuland his name was the Word of God)

The Word of Yahweh (Memra) as Agent of Creation

According to the prophetic Scriptures there was another entity whom God used to create, that being his Word: By the Word (Memra) of the LORD
the heavens were made, and all their host by the Breath/Spirit (ruacha) of his mouth. Psalm 33:6
It is important to note that, in certain contexts, the Word is not simply God's command or revelation but a living, personal, conscious Agent who reveals
God to his prophets and servants:
1 Samuel 3:6-7, 19-21: And the LORD called again, 'Samuel!' And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said,
'I did not call, my son; lie down again.' Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the Word (Memra) of the LORD had not yet been revealed to
him... And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that
Samuel was established as a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by
the Word (Memra) of the LORD.
There are also many instances where the text refers to the Word coming to a prophet and speaking:
Genesis 15:1-6: After these things the Word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very
great. But Abram said, O Lord GOD, what wilt you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram
said, Behold, you hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir. And behold, the Word (Memra) of the LORD came to
him, This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven, and number the
stars, if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as
righteousness. And he said to him, I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.
Zechariah 4:8-14: Moreover the Word (Memra) of the LORD came to me, SAYING, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this
house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent ME to you
Here, the Word informs the prophet that when his words come to pass he will know that Yahweh sent the Word to him!
On another occasion the Word expressly claims to be the Creator:
Jeremiah 1:4-14: Now the Word (Memra) of the LORD came to me SAYING, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you
were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am
only a youth. But the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am only a youth; for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you
you shall speak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD. Then the LORD put forth his hand and touched my
mouth; and the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck
up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. And the Word of the LORD came to me, SAYING, Jeremiah, what do you
see? And I said, I see a rod of almond. Then the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it. The Word
(Memra) of the LORD came to me a second time, SAYING, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north. Then
the LORD said to me, Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
The Word informs Jeremiah that he formed him and appointed him to be a prophet! It is also interesting to see how the text shifts from the Word
speaking to Yahweh speaking. The reason seems obvious, namely the Word of Yahweh is Yahweh speaking!
There are many other similar passages we could quote but these must suffice for now.

G) Why the Creator is plural?

The NT picks up on this theme of the Word of God (Memra) and runs with it: Rev 19:13(I saw heaven open and behold the White, He that sat was
called the Faithfuland his name was the Word of God), He is the Word and the Word was God John 1:1 (the Word was God). Jesus the Son was the
Word of God because he revealed andmanifested the Father

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The Word (Memra) of God, the Son is the creator in the NT

John 1:1-5, 9-10, 14, 18: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the
world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth No one has ever seen God; the only Son,
who is God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.. John is not alone in speaking of Christ as Creator. There are other inspired
NT writers who also proclaim that Jesus is Gods Divine Agent that created and sustains the entire creation: Pauls affirms the plurality of creators within
the one being of God Colossians 1:13-17: For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For IN HIM all things were
created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created THROUGH
HIM and FOR him. He IS before all things, and IN HIM all things hold together.
Hebrews 1:1-3, 8-12: In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and
the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty in heaven... vs 8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy
kingdom. 11: He [the Father] also says, 'In the beginning, you Lord [the Son], you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work
of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be
changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.
1 Corthn 8:6: But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we
by him. It is through the Son that the world was made..
Ephe 3:9: And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all
things by Jesus Christ:
The Father is the creator in the NT
Roman 11:36: For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen
Revelation 4:11: You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created
and have their being."
Acts 17:24: God who made the world and everthings in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth
Acts 4:24; Lord you are our God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them

The Father is the creator in the OT

Neh 9:6 You, even you, are LORD alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the
seas, and all that is therein, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worships you.
Exodus 20:11 for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. e) Genesis 1:1 in the
beginning God made heavens and the earth.
Isaiah 40:22-28: It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And
spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been
planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries
them away like stubble. To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high And see who has
created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the
strength of His power, Not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due
me escapes the notice of my God? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not
become weary or tired His understanding is inscrutable.
Isaiah 42:5: Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath
to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,
Isaiah 45:12, 18: It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host For
thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but
formed it to be inhabited), I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isaiah 44:24: Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I, the LORD, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,

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Jeremiah 27:5 I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and
I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight

The Son is the creator in the OT

Isaiah 48:16-17 The LORD said Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am
I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me. Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which
teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. The speaker who is being sent by another LORD of hosts and His Sprit is
the creator himself: Vs 12 I am God, the First and the Last, the only God, My hand made the Earths foundation and spread the heaven out I summoned
the earth and heaven and the earth they come at once and present themselves.

The Holy Spirit is the creator in the OT

Job 26:13: By His Spirit (ruacho) the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
Job 33:4: The Spirit of God (ruacha el) has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Psalm 104:29-30: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their spirit (ruachum), they die and return to their dust. When you
send forth your Spirit (ruachaka), they are created; and you renew the face of the earth."
Genesis 1:1-2: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the
deep; and the Spirit of God (ruacha elohim) was moving over the face of the waters.
Isaiah 40:13-14: Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him
understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding?

H) Plurality of creators
With the foregoing in perspective this helps us to appreciate why certain OT authors refer to Yahweh as their Creators and Makers, plural!
Job 35:10: But none says, Where is God my Makers (osay plural form of Asah), who gives songs in the night,
Psalm 149: 2: "Let Israel rejoice in their Makers (bosay-pl form of Asah); let the people of Zion be glad in their Kings.
Isaiah 54:5: For your Husbands are your Makers (boalayika osayika) Yahweh of hosts is his name the Holy One of Israel is your
Redeemer; he is called the Gods of all the earth (Elohey kal-haarets).
Ecclesiastes 12:1: Remember also thy Creators (boraeyka-plural of bara) in days of thy youth, While that the evil days come not, Nor the years
have arrived, that thou sayest, I have no pleasure in them.
That is the reason why the bible is so clear of multi-personal within the one Godhead and each of the three divine persons are the one creator LORD:
1 Chron. 16:25-27, 31: For Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are
idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and joy are in His placeThe LORD reigns. Jesus the Son and
Holy Spirit has to fall within the true creator or the false God that are idols.

I) Trinity from early church Father

The doctrine of the Trinity is encapsulated in Matthew 28:19, where Jesus instructs the apostles: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The parallelism of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is not unique to
Matthews Gospel, but appears elsewhere in the New Testament (e.g., 2 Cor. 13:14, Heb. 9:14), as well as in the writings of the earliest Christians, who
clearly understood them in the sense that we do todaythat the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three divine persons who are one divine being (God).
1) The Didache 70 AD: "After the foregoing instructions, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living [running]
water. . . . If you have neither, pour water three times on the head, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Didache 7:1 [A.D.
70]).
2) Clement bishop of Rome (c. A.D. 96): Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes,
and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out
upon us? (emphasis added; ibid., 46).
3) Clement I (58 AD): For, as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost live
4) Barnabas, companion of Paul (c. 70-130AD):He is Lord of all the world, to whom God said at the foundation of the world, Let us make man after
our image, and after our likeness.
5) Huleatt (50 AD): She poured it [the perfume] over his [Jesus'] hair when he sat at the table. But, when the disciples saw it, they were indignant. God,
aware of this, said to them: 'Why do you trouble this woman? She has done [a beautiful thing for me.] . . . Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas
Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, 'What will you give me for my work?' (Matthew. 26:7-15) in Huleatt fragments 1-3.
6) Ignatius of Antioch (70 AD): He was the disciple of John the apostle; according to the ancient oral tradition he was the child that Jesus took him in
his own arm when he blessed the children. Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the Church at Ephesus in Asia . . . predestined from eternity

for a

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glory that is lasting and unchanging, united and chosen through true suffering by the will of the Father in Jesus Christ our God (Epistle to the
Ephesians 1).
His Epistle to the Ephesians: For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God's plan: of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the
Holy Spirit
His Epistle to Romans: To the Church beloved and enlightened after the love of Jesus Christ, our God, by the will of him that has willed everything
which is
His Epistle to Philippians: There are not then either three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete.
Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to "baptize in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost," not unto one person having three names, nor into three persons who became incarnate, but into three possessed of equal
honour.
His Epistle to Philippians: there is but One that became incarnate, and that neither the Father nor the Paraclete, but the Son only
His Epistle to Magnesians: according to God. Be ye subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the
apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit
We have also as a Physician the Lord our God Jesus the Christ the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also
man, of Mary the virgin. For the Word was made flesh. Being incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassible, He was in a passable body; being
immortal, He was in a mortal body; being life, He became subject to corruption, that He might free our souls from death and corruption, and heal them, and
might restore them to health, when they were diseased with ungodliness and wicked lusts (The ante-Nicene Fathers, GrandRapids: Eerdmans, Vol. 1, p. 52)
there is one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and not born, who is God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first able to
suffer and then unable to suffer, Jesus Christ our Lord."((Vol. 1, p. 52, Ephesians 7)
Ignatius, writing in his various epistles before his martyrdom in AD 107, gives us the phrases:
The blood of God, "The only true God,"
"The only-begotten Son and Word, before time began,"
"Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ,"
"God being manifested as a man, and man displaying power as God,"
"Our God, Jesus Christ (several repetitions and variations),"
"One God," "His eternal Word, "Jesus Christ His Son, who is His Word, not spoken but essential. For He is not the voice of an articulate utterance, but a
substance begotten by divine power," God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, with the co- operation of the Spirit," "God the Word," and "God
incarnate."
As being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ,
which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up
to God (emphasis added; ibid., 9).
Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. . . . He, being begotten by the Father before the
beginning of time, was God the Word, the only-begotten Son, and remains the same for ever. . . . (emphasis added; Letter to the Magnesians, 6)
For our God, Jesus Christ, now that He is with the Father, is all the more revealed [in His glory]. Christianity is not a thing of silence only, but also of
[manifest] greatness (Letter to the Romans, 3).
Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus [God-inspired], to the Church which has obtained mercy, through the majesty of the Most High Father, and
Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son; the Church which is beloved and enlightened by the will of Him that willeth all things which are according to the
love of Jesus Christ our God, which also presides in the place of the report of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honour . . . and which presides
over love, is named from Christ, and from the Father, which I also salute in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. . . .
7) Polycarp bishop of Smyrna (c. A.D. 130-150): Bishop of Smyrna, disciple of John the Apostle wrote. O Lord God Almighty, the Father of thy
beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of Thee . . . I give Thee thanks that Thou hast counted me, worthy of
this day and this hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and
body, through the incorruption [imparted] by the Holy Ghost. . . . Wherefore also I praise Thee for all things, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, along with the
everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee, and the Holy Spirit, be glory both now and to all coming ages. Amen
(emphasis added; Martyrdom of Polycarp, 14).
Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal High Priest Himself, the God Jesus Christ, build you up in the faith..."( The Epistle
of Polycarp to the Church at Philippi, 12).
O Lord God almighty...I bless you and glorify you through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be glory to
you, with Him and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever.

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Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth . . .,
and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.
(Polycarp, Philippians, 12:2. Holmes, AF, 295)
8) Mathetes (130 AD): [The Father] sent the Word that he might be manifested to the world . . . This is he who was from the beginning, who appeared as if
new, and was found old . . . This is he who, being from everlasting, is today called the Son" (Letter to Diognetus 11). Mathetes is not a proper name it simply
means disciple; many scholars consider this to be John the apostles, His letter was to Diognetus who was the name of a tutor of the emperor Marcus
Aurelius.
9) Aristides (140 AD): [Christians] are they who, above every people of the earth, have found the truth, for they acknowledge God, the Creator and maker
of all things, in the only-begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit Apology 16.
Against Heresies 1:10:1 [AD 189]:For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the
apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them; and in one Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit,. in order that to Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Savior and
King, in accord with the approval of the invisible Father, every knee shall bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth..
10) Epistle to Diognetus (125 AD): speaking of God the Father, he says: Diognetus 7:2 "he sent the Designer and Maker of the universe himself, by whom
he created the heavens and confined the sea within its own bounds" ( 125 AD). Diognetus is probably John the apostles own writing.
11) Justin Martyr (151 AD): "We will prove that we worship him reasonably; for we have learned that he is the Son of the true God himself, that he
holds a second place, and the Spirit of prophecy a third. For this they accuse us of madness, saying that we attribute to a crucified man a place second to
the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all things; but they are ignorant of the mystery which lies therein" (First Apology 13:56 [A.D. 151]).
For Christ is King, and Priest, and God and Lord..."(Dialogue With Trypho, 34).
the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son (who came
forth from Him and taught us these things .like to Him), and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth (First
Apology" C 6).
He pre-existed as the Son of the Creator of things, being God, and that He was born a man by the Virgin." (Dialogue With Trypho, 48 ).
[In the Old Testament] Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and the Angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born...." (Dialogue with
Trypho, Ch. 34).
[In the Old Testament] Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts." (To Trypho, Ch.36)
Wherever God says, "God went up from Abraham," or, "The Lord spake to Moses," and the Lord came down to behold the tower which the sons of men
had built," or when "God shut Noah into the ark," you must not imagine that the unbegotten God Himself came down or went up from any place. ...For
neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other man, saw the Father and ineffable Lord of all, and also [Father and Lord] of Christ, but [saw] Him
who was according to His will His Son, being God, and the Angel because He ministered to His will; whom it also Pleased Him to be born man by the
Virgin; who also was fire when He conversed with Moses from the bush. (To Trypho, Ch. 127)
12) Irenaeus (120-201AD): He was the disciple of Polycarp who was then the disciple of John the Apostle: For I have shown from the Scriptures, that
no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who
ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be
seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth. Now, the Scriptures would not have testified these things of Him, if, like others, He
had been a mere man. . . . He is the holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Beautiful in appearance, and the Mighty God, coming on the clouds
as the Judge of all men; all these things did the Scriptures prophesy of Him. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.19.2.ANF, I:449)
"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples
the faith in one God, the Father Almighty . . . and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit"
(Against Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).
Irenaeus (again): He received testimony from all that He was very man, and that He was very God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from angels, from the
creation itself, from men, from apostate spirits and demons. (Ibid., 4.6.7. ANF, I:469)
Irenaeus (again): Christ Jesus [is] our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father. (Ibid., 1.10.1. ANF, I:330)
Irenaeus (again): Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the
fathers. (Ibid., 4.5.2. ANF, I:467)
He also wrote: But the Son, eternally co-existing with the Father, from of old, yea, from the beginning, always reveals the Father to Angels, Archangels,
Powers, Virtues" ("Against Heresies, Book II").
The sacred books acknowledge with regard to Christ, that as He is the Son of man, so is the same Being not a [mere] man; and as He is flesh, so is He also
Spirit, and the Word of God, and God."(In the Fragments of Page 52).

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13) Theophilus of Antioch (180 AD):God always abide perfect, being full of all power, and understanding, and wisdom, and immortality, and all
good. But the moon wanes monthly, and in a manner dies, being a type of man; then it is born again, and is crescent, for a pattern of the future
resurrection. In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom.
"And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man (To Autolycus, Book 2, C 15).
14) Athenagoras (160 AD):Who, then, would not be astonished to hear those called atheists who admit God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
and who teach their unity in power and their distinction in rank?"(Intercession on Behalf of the Saints, 10).
For Christ is the God over all".(Refutation of All Heresies 10.34)
God the Word came down from heaven...He came forth into the world and...showed Himself to be God".(Against the Heresy of a Certain Noetus, 17).
Speaking of what the church believes, they hold the Father to be God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit, and declare their union and their distinction in
order."(A plea for the Christians.10.3)
15) Melito of Sardis (AD 177): Being God and likewise perfect man, he gave positive indications of his two natures: of his deity, by the miracles during
the three years following after his baptism, of his humanity, in the thirty years which came before his baptism, during which, by reason of his condition
according to the flesh, he concealed the signs of his deity, although he was the true God existing before the ages (Fragment in Anastasius of Sinais The
Guide 13)
He also wrote (Homily on the Passover): He who hung the earth in space, is himself hanged. He who fixed the heavens in place, is himself fixed in place
(impaled). He who firmly fixed all things, is himself firmly fixed to the tree. The Lord is insulted, GOD IS MURDERED. The King of Israel is destroyed
by an Israelite hand.
16) Tatian (170 AD): We are not playing the fool, you Greeks, nor do we talk nonsense, when we report that God was born in the form of a man (Address
to the Greeks 21).
17) Clement of Alexandria (202AD): I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the
second, by whom all things were made according to the will of the Father (Stromata 5:15). "There was then, a Word importing an unbeginning eternity; as
also the Word itself, that is, the Son of God, who being, by equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreated." (Fragments, PartI)."The
Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning for he was in God and of our well-being. And now this same Word has appeared as
man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things (Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1)
18) Tertullian 210 AD: And at the same time the mystery of the oikonomia is safe guarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order,
the three are the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of
one being" (Against Praxeas, C 2)
The origins of both his substances display him as man and as God: from the one, born, and from the other, not born(The Flesh of Christ 5:6-7). He
believed the Divine nature of Christ was unborn, uncreated and eternal yet his human nature was born.
God alone is without sin. The only man who is without sin is Christ; for Christ is also God" (The Soul 41:3)

All the Scriptures give clear proof of the Trinity, and it is from these that our principle is deduced...the distinction of the Trinity is quite clearly.. (Against
Praxeas,ch 11)
That this one and only God has a Son, his Word, who proceeded from himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. Him
we believe to have been sent by the Father into the virgin, and to have been born of her- being both man and God, the Son of man, and the Son of God,
and to have been called the name of Jesus Christ;" (against Praxeas vol.3, p.598). He believed the human nature was born.
Thus the connection of the Father in the Son the Son in the Paraclete produces three coherent persons, who are yet distinct one from another. These three
are one essence, not one person, as it is said, "I and my Father are one," in respect of unity of substance, not singularity of number."(Ante-Nicene fathers
vol.3,p.621, against Praxeas.)
He also said "Yet we have never given vent to the phrases two Gods, or two Lords: not that it is untrue the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is
God, each is God." (ibid 13)
In his Apology 21, speaking of the Word, he said: He is the Son of God, and is called God from unity of substance with God. . . . Thus Christ is Spirit of
Spirit, and God of God, as light of light is kindled. . . . That which has come forth out of God is at once God and the Son of God, and the two are one. In
this way also, as He is Spirit of Spirit and God of God, He is make a second in manner of existence--in position, not in nature. . . .in His birth God and man
united. God, who made the world out of nothing through his Son, the Word, has corporeity though he is a spirit (De praescriptione, vii.; Adv. Praxeam,
vii.). He means the Word was not a concept or thought but actual person in existence with the Father.
(Adv. Prax. 23; PL 2.156-7): We define that there are two, the Father and the Son, and three with the Holy Spirit, and this number is made by the pattern

of salvation... [which] brings about unity in trinity, interrelating the three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are three, not in dignity, but in
degree, not in substance but in form, not in power but in kind. They are of one substance and power, because there is one God from whom these degrees,
forms and kinds devolve in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

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"We do indeed believe that there is only one God, but we believe that under this dispensation, or, as we say, oikonomia, there is also a Son of this one
only God, his Word, who proceeded from him and through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made. . . . We believe he was
sent down by the Father, in accord with his own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and
the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. . . . This rule of faith has been present since the beginning of the gospel, before even the earlier heretics" (Against
Praxeas 2 [A.D. 216]).
"And at the same time the mystery of the oikonomia is safeguarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order, the three are the Father, Son,
and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being, however, and one
condition and one power, because he is one God of whom degrees and forms and kinds are taken into account in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit" (ibid.).
"Keep always in mind the rule of faith which I profess and by which I bear witness that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are inseparable from each
other, and then you will understand what is meant by it. Observe now that I say the Father is other [distinct], the Son is other, and the Spirit is other.
This statement is wrongly understood by every uneducated or perversely disposed individual, as if it meant diversity and implied by that diversity a
separation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (ibid., 9).
"Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent persons, who are yet distinct one from another.
These three are, one essence, not one person, as it is said, I and my Father are one [John 10:30], in respect of unity of being not singularity of number"
(ibid., 25).
19) Origen: "For we do not hold that which the heretics imagine: that some part of the being of God was converted into the Son, or that the Son was
procreated by the Father from non-existent substances, that is, from a being outside himself, so that there was a time when he [the Son] did not exist"
(The Fundamental Doctrines 4:4:1 [A.D. 225]).
"No, rejecting every suggestion of corporeality, we hold that the Word and the Wisdom was begotten out of the invisible and incorporeal God, without
anything corporal being acted upon . . . the expression which we employ, however that there was never a time when he did not exist is to be taken with a
certain allowance. For these very words when and never are terms of temporal significance, while whatever is said of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, is to be understood as transcending all time, all ages" (ibid.).
"For it is the Trinity alone which exceeds every sense in which not only temporal but even eternal may be understood. It is all other things, indeed,
which are outside the Trinity, which are to be measured by time and ages" (ibid.).
20) Caius (180217 AD) [in response to those who would question the deity of Christ]: Perhaps what they allege might be credible, did not the Holy
Scriptures, in the first place, contradict them. And then, besides, there are writings of certain brethren older than the times of Victor, which they wrote
against the heathen in defense of the truth, and against the heresies of their time: I mean Justin and Miltiades, and Tatian and Clement, and many others, in
all which divinity is ascribed to Christ. For who is ignorant of the books42 of Irenaeus and Melito, and the rest, which declare Christ to be God and
man? All the psalms, too, and hymns of brethren, which have been written from the beginning by the faithful, celebrate Christ the Word of God, ascribing
divinity to Him. (Caius, Fragments, 2.1. ANF, V:601)
21) Hippolytus: Hippolytus, Leading Presbyter at the Church in Rome (c. 205AD):Although He endured the cross, yet as God He returned to life,
having trampled upon death.
Hippolytus (220 AD): Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt 28:19) And by
this he showed that whosoever omitted any one of these, failed in glorifying God perfectly. For it is through the Trinity that the Father is glorified." (Against
Noetus", C 14)
For Christ is the God over all, who has arranged to wash away sin from mankind, rendering the old man new" (Refutation of all Heresies 10)
The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God. (Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies,
10.29.ANF, V:151)
God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world....Beside Him there was nothing; but He, while
existing alone, yet existed in plurality....And thus there appeared another beside Himself. But when I say another, I do not mean that there are two
Gods....Thus, then, these too, though they wish it not, fall in with the truth, and admit thatone God made all things....For Christ is the God above all.....He
who is over all is God; for thus He speaks boldly, 'All things are delivered unto me of my Father.' He who is over all, God blessed, has been born; and
having been made man, He is (yet) God for ever....And well has he named Christ the Almighty. "(Hippolytus " The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, pp. 227,
153, 225)
"The Word alone of this God is from God himself, wherefore also the Word is God, being the being of God. Now the world was made from nothing,
wherefore it is not God" (Refutation of All Heresies 10:29 [A.D. 228]).
The Father's Word, therefore, knowing the economy and the will of the Father, to wit, that the Father seeks to be worshipped in none other way than
this, gave this charge to the disciples after he rose from the dead: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt 28:19)

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22) Ignatius (250 AD): "To the Church beloved and enlightened after the love of Jesus Christ, Our God" (Letter to the Romans 1)
We have also a Physician the Lord our God, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of
Mary the virgin.(Letter to the Ephesians.)
23) Thammaturgus (250 AD): There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing
either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was
introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity
abides forever" ("Declaration of Faith)"
24) Athanasius (290 -370 AD) [The Trinity] is a Trinity not merely in name or in a figurative manner of speaking; rather, it is a Trinity in truth and in
actual existence. Just as the Father is he that is, so also his Word is one that is and is God over all. And neither is the Holy Spirit nonexistent but actually
exists and has true being. (Letters to Serapion 1:28).
the keen defender of New Testament teaching against the early Arian heresy, which taught that Jesus Christ was not God, declared of Jesus, "He always
was and is God and Son" and "He who is eternally God also became man for our sake."(Athanasius, Against the Arians, III, para. 29, 31)
[The Trinity] is a Trinity not merely in name or in a figurative manner of speaking; rather, it is a Trinity in truth and in actual existence. Just as the Father
is he that is, so also his Word is one that is and is God over all. And neither is the Holy Spirit nonexistent but actually exists and has true being. Less than
these the Catholic Church does not hold, lest she sink to the level of the Jews of the present time, imitators of Caiaphas, or to the level of Sabellius" (Letters
to Serapion 1:28)
They [the Father and the Son] are one, not as one thing now divided into two, but really constituting only one, nor as one thing twice named, so that the
same becomes at one time the Father and at another his own Son. This latter is what Sabellius held, and he was judged a heretic. On the contrary, they are
two, because the Father is Father and is not his own Son, and the Son is Son and not his own Father" (Discourses Against the Arians 3:4).
25) Methodius (305 AD): For the kingdom of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is one, even as their substance is one and their dominion one.
Whence also, with one and the same adoration, we worship the one Deity in three Persons, subsisting without beginning, uncreated, without end, and to
which there is no successor. For nothing of the Trinity will suffer diminution, either in respect of eternity, or of communion, or of sovereignty" (Oration
on the Psalms 5).
26) Arnobius (305 AD):Well, then, some raging, angry, and excited man will say, is that Christ your God? God indeed, we shall answer, and God of
the hidden powers" (Against the Pagans 1:42).
27) Lactantius (AD. 307): "He was made both Son of God in the spirit and Son of man in the flesh, that is, both God and man" (Divine Institutes 4:13:5).
"We, on the other hand, are [truly] religious, who make our supplications to the one true God. Someone may perhaps ask how, when we say that we worship
one God only, we nevertheless assert that there are two, God the Father and God the Sonwhich assertion has driven many into the greatest error . . .
[thinking] that we confess that there is another God, and that he is mortal. . . . [But w]hen we speak of God the Father and God the Son, we do not speak of
them as different, nor do we separate each, because the Father cannot exist without the Son, nor can the Son be separated from the Father" (ibid., 4:2829).
28) Didymus (313 A.D). I am the Father and the Son and the Paraclete. (Not in one person but in his Divine nature.(De Trinitate 3, 41:4).
29) Novatian (235 AD): it is so very clear that Christ is declared in the Scriptures to be God, many Heretics moved by the magnitude and truth of this
divinity exaggerate His honors above measure. And they have dared to declare or to think that He is not the Son, but the God the Father Himself"(De
Trinitate" C 31)
"For Scripture as much announces Christ as also God, as it announces God Himself as man. It has as much described Jesus Christ to be man, as moreover it
has also described Christ the Lord to be God." The rule of the truth demands that, first of all, we believe in GOD THE FATHER and Almighty Lord, that
is, the most perfect Maker of all things. . .' The same rule of truth teaches us to believe, after the Father, also in the SON OF GOD, CHRIST JESUS, our
Lord God, but the Son of God.... Moreover, the order of reason and the authority of faith, in due consideration of the words and Scriptures of the Lord ',
admonishes us, after this, to believe also in the HOLY GHOST, promised of old to the Church, but granted in the appointed and fitting time (Treatise on the
Trinity 11)
For Scripture as much announces Christ as also God, as it announces God Himself as man. It has as much described Jesus Christ to be man, as moreover
it has also described Christ the Lord to be God. Let them, therefore, who read that Jesus Christ the Son of man is man, read also that this same Jesus is
called also God and the Son of God (Treatise on the Trinity 11)
"For Scripture as much announces Christ as also God, as it announces God himself as man. It has as much described Jesus Christ to be man, as
moreover it has also described Christ the Lord to be God. Because it does not set forth him to be the Son of God only, but also the son of man; nor does
it only say, the son of man, but it has also been accustomed to speak of him as the Son of God. So that being of both, he is both, lest if he should be one
only, he could not be the other. For as nature itself has prescribed that he must be believed to be a man who is of man, so the same nature prescribes also
that he must be believed to be God who is of God. . . . Let them, therefore, who read that Jesus Christ the son of man is man, read also that this same
Jesus is called also God and the Son of God" (Treatise on the Trinity 11 [A.D. 235]).
30) Cyprian (253 AD): One who denies that Christ is God cannot become his temple [of the Holy Spiriti]" (Letters 73:12)

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31) Pope Dionysius (262 AD): "Next, then, I may properly turn to those who divide and cut apart and destroy the most sacred proclamation of the
Church of God, making of it [the Trinity], as it were, three powers, distinct substances, and three godheads. . . . [Some heretics] proclaim that there are
in some way three gods, when they divide the sacred unity into three substances foreign to each other and completely separate" (Letter to Dionysius of
Alexandria 1 [A.D. 262]).
Dionysius (262 AD ): Neither, then, may we divide into three Godheads the wonderful and divine unity . . . Rather, we must believe in God, the Father
almighty; and in Christ Jesus, his Son; and in the Holy Spirit; and that the Word is united to the God of the Universe. `For,' he says, 'The Father and I are
one,' and `I am in the Father, and the Father in me'" (Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria, 3)
Therefore, the divine Trinity must be gathered up and brought together in one, a summit, as it were, I mean the omnipotent God of the universe. . . . It is
blasphemy, then, and not a common one but the worst, to say that the Son is in any way a handiwork [creature]. . . . But if the Son came into being [was
created], there was a time when these attributes did not exist; and, consequently, there was a time when God was without them, which is utterly absurd"
(ibid., 12).
32) Gregory the Wonderworker: "There is one God. . . . There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor
estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was nonexistent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without
variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever" (Declaration of Faith [A.D. 265]).
Sechnall of Ireland: "Hymns, with Revelation and the Psalms of God [Patrick] sings, and does expound the same for the edifying of Gods people. This
law he holds in the Trinity of the sacred Name and teaches one being in three persons" (Hymn in Praise of St. Patrick 22 [A.D. 444]).
33) Patrick of Ireland: "I bind to myself today the strong power of an invocation of the Trinitythe faith of the Trinity in unity, the Creator of the
universe" (The Breastplate of St. Patrick 1 [A.D. 447]).
"[T]here is no other God, nor has there been heretofore, nor will there be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is
all beginning, upholding all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we likewise to confess to have always been with the Fatherbefore the
worlds beginning. . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out on us abundantly the Holy Spirit . . . whom we
confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the sacred Name" (Confession of St. Patrick 4 [A.D. 452]).
34) Augustine: "All the Catholic interpreters of the divine books of the Old and New Testaments whom I have been able to read, who wrote before me
about the Trinity, which is God, intended to teach in accord with the Scriptures that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same
substance constituting a divine unity with an inseparable equality; and therefore there are not three gods but one God, although the Father begot the Son,
and therefore he who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son,
himself, too, coequal to the Father and to the Son and belonging to the unity of the Trinity" (The Trinity1:4:7 [A.D. 408]).
Augustine (354-430 AD):"believe that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, maker and ruler of the whole creation: that Father is not Son, nor Holy
Spirit Father or Son; but a Trinity of mutually related Persons, and a unity of equal essence" and that therefore, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the
Holy Spirit God; and all together are one God." (On the Trinity, IX, para 1; XV, para 28)
35) Cyril of Alexandria (350 AD):For He remained what He was; that is, by nature God. ButHe took it on himself to be man as well" and "There is
nothing to prevent us from thinking of Christ as being the one and only Son at once both God and man, perfect in deity and perfect in humanityHe is
conceived of as God and is God,..." (Second Letter to Succensus).
Believe also in the Son of God, the one and only, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God begotten of God, who is life begotten of life, who is light begotten of
light, who is in all things like unto the begetter, and who did not come to exist in time but was before all the ages, eternally and incomprehensibly begotten
of the Father. He is the Wisdom of God" (Catechetical Lectures 4:7) [O]ur God, Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word before time began, but
who afterwards became also man, of Mary the Virgin. For 'the Word was made flesh' [John 1:14]" (Letter to the Ephesians 7).
if Christ is God, as indeed He is, but took not human nature upon Him, we are strangers to salvation. Let us then worship Him as God, but believe that He
also was made Man. For neither is there any profit in calling Him man without Godhead, nor any salvation in refusing to confess the Manhood together with
the Godhead(St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 12 no. 1
36) Basil the Great (368 AD): When I speak of one essence, do not think as two separated from one, but of a Son subsisting from the Father from the
beginning, not of Father and Son emerging from one essence. Indeed, do not speak of brothers; we confess Father and Son. There is identity of essence
because the Son is from the Father; not made by his decree, but born of his nature" (Eulogies and Sermons, 24:4).
37) Epiphanius of Salamis (374 AD): We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, begotten of God the Father, only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, light of light, true God of true God;
begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father; through whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those on earth, both visible and invisible;
who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, was made man,
that is, he received perfect man, soul and body and mind and all that man is, except sin" (The Man Well-Anchored 120)

44

38) Chrysostom (375 AD):But wherefore said He not, "Before Abraham was, I was," instead of "I Am"? As the Father useth this expression, "I Am," so

also doth Christ; for it signifieth continuous Being, irrespective of all time. (Chrysostom, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers; Volume 14: Homilies On
the Gospel of St. John, Homily 55, 375 AD).
When I speak of one essence, do not think as two separated from one, but of a Son subsisting from the Father from the beginning, not of Father and Son
emerging from one essence. Indeed, do not speak of brothers; we confess Father and Son. (Eulogies and Sermons, 24:4)
39) Gregory of Elvira (375 AD): In Genesis 49:9 the Son] is called a [lion's] whelp so as to show that it refers not to the Father, but to the Son of God. For
when both a lion and the whelp of a lion are named, both the Father and the Son are indicated. Their nature is not divided, but distinct Persons are
manifested. For just as a lion is born of a lion, so too it is said that God proceeds from God and light from light. (Homilies on the Books of Sacred
Scripture 6)
40) Ambrose of Milan (379 AD):[The Arians] think that they must posit the objection of his [Christ] having said, 'I live on account of the Father.'
Certainly if they refer the saying to his divinity, the Son lives on account of the Father, because the Son is from the Father; on account of the Father, because
he is of one substance with the Father; on account of the Father, because he is the Word given forth from the heart of the Father; because he proceeds from
the Father" (The Faith 4:10:132). The Son is fully God as well as the Father is, being they are of same substance. Jesus said I live on account of his Father
not because he is inferior but to affirms that he is of the same nature.
41) Council of Constantinople (381 AD):"We believe . . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, light
of light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father" (The Nicene Creed)
42) Sechnall of Ireland (444 AD): Hymns, with Revelation and the Psalms of God [St. Patrick] sings, and does expound the same for the edifying of God's
people. This law he holds in the Trinity of the Sacred Name and teaches one Being in three Persons" (Hymn in Praise of St. Patrick 22).
43) St. Patrick (447 AD): upholding all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we likewise to confess to have always been with the Father-before the world's beginning . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out on us abundantly the Holy Spirit . . .
whom we confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the Sacred Name" (Confession of St. Patrick 4)
44) Fulgence of Ruspe: "See, in short you have it that the Father is one, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another; in Person, each is other, but in nature
they are not other. In this regard he says: The Father and I, we are one (John 10:30). He teaches us that one refers to their nature, and we are to their
Persons. In like manner it is said: There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one (1 John 5:7). Let
Sabellius hear we are, let him hear three; and let him believe that there are three Persons. Let him not b.aspheme in his sacrilegious heart by saying that the
Father is the same in himself as the Son is the same in himself and as the Holy Sprit is the same in himself, as if in some way he could beget himself, or in
some way proceed from himself. Even in created natures it is never able to be found that something is able to beget itself. Let also Arius hear one; and let
him not say that the Son is of a different nature, if one cannot be said of that, the nature of which is different" (The Trinity 4:12 [c. A.D. 515]).
Fulgence of Ruspe (AD 523): But in the one true God and Trinity it is naturally true not only that God is one but also that he is a Trinity, for the reason
that the true God himself is a Trinity of Persons and one in nature. Through this natural unity the whole Father is in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the
whole Holy Spirit, too, is in the Father and in the Son. None of these is outside any of the others; because no one of them precedes any other of them in
eternity or exceeds any other in greatness, or is superior to any other in power" (The Rule of Faith ). So we have seen that Christian did not make up the
deity of Jesus Christ, it was God who affirmed it; the early fathers were the witnesses for Christs Deity. Also it is interesting to know all the early fathers
said Jesus as God but not one instance misunderstand him to be God the Father conserving the doctrine of Trinity. Above examples are few cited out of
hundred, many can still be quoted. Jesus is God in all essence, God of God, Lord of Lord, Yahweh and true God, God becoming man and God-man forever
but He is not God the Father
45) The Rule of Faith: "But in the one true God and Trinity it is naturally true not only that God is one but also that he is a Trinity, for the reason that
the true God himself is a Trinity of Persons and one in nature. Through this natural unity the whole Father is in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the
whole Holy Spirit, too, is in the Father and in the Son. None of these is outside any of the others; because no one of them precedes any other of them in
eternity or exceeds any other in greatness, or is superior to any other in power" (4 [c. A.D. 523
46) The Long Ignatius 350 AD: Jesus Christ . . . being begotten by the Father before the beginning of time, was God the Word, the only-begotten
Son, and remains the same forever; for 'of His kingdom there shall be no end' [Luke 1:32]" (Letter to Magnesians 6)

Trinity from Encyclopedias

1. Old Testament.-The early Fathers were persuaded that indications of the doctrine of the Trinity must exist in the Old Testament and they found
such indications in not a few passages. Many of them not merely believed that the Prophets had testified of it, they held that it had been made known
even to the Patriarchs. ... Some of these, however, admitted that a knowledge of the mystery was granted to the Prophets and Saints of the Old
Dispensation ...The matter seems to be correctly summed up by Epiphanius, when he says: "The One Godhead is above all declared by Moses, and the
twofold personality (of Father and Son) is strenuously asserted by the Prophets. The Trinity is made known by the Gospel" (The Catholic Encyclopedia,
1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)

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2. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the OT. ...In many places of the OT, however, expressions are used in which some of the Fathers of
the Church saw references or foreshadowings of the Trinity. ... The revelation of the truth of the triune life of God was first made in the NT, where the
earliest references to it are in the Pauline epistles. The doctrine is most easily seen in St. Paul's recurrent use of the terms God, Lord, and Spirit. (New
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1965, "Trinity, in the Bible", p306)
3. The early Fathers were persuaded that indications of the doctrine of the Trinity must exist in the Old Testament and they found such indications in
not a few passages. Many of them not merely believed that the Prophets had testified of it, they held that it had been made known even to the Patriarchs.
(The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
4. In many places of the OT, however, expressions are used in which some of the Fathers of the Church saw references or foreshadowings of the
Trinity. ... The revelation of the truth of the triune life of God was first made in the NT, where the earliest references to it are in the Pauline epistles. The
doctrine is most easily seen in St. Paul's recurrent use of the terms God, Lord, and Spirit. (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1965, "Trinity, in the Bible",
p306)
5. To End of 2d Century. Among the Apostolic Fathers, Clement of Rome, for instance, writing to the Church of Corinth in the final decade of the 1st
century, bears witness to God the Father, to the Son, to the Spirit, and mentions all three together ... Yet, neither Clement nor Ignatius nor any other
writer of this most ancient period raises the question that would turn out to be decisive: precisely how are Son and Spirit related to the Godhead? ...
Nevertheless, if, as Justin notes (I Apol. 13), Christians worship Christ in the second place and the Spirit in the third place, there is still no
inconsistency; for Word and Spirit are not to be separated from the unique Godhead of the Father. But why not? The Apologists at least attempted a
reply. For Justin, the Godhead was very clearly a Triad, though it was Theophilus (Ad Autol. 2.15) who first introduced this expression. ... Justin
pictures the preexistent Word as the Father's rational consciousness (I Apol. 46; 2 Apol. 13), as emerging, therefore, from the inferiority of the Godhead
while nevertheless remaining inseparable from the Godhead. ... In the last analysis, the 2d century theological achievement was limited. The Trinitarian
problem may have been clear: the relation of the Son and (at least nebulously) Spirit to the Godhead. But a Trinitarian solution was still in the future.
(New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1965, Trinity, p296)
6. The Apostolic Fathers were witnesses to the Biblical data and the traditional faith rather than theologians, but they furnished useful insights into the
lines along which the Church's unconscious theology was developing. Most of them indicated quite clearly a belief in the divinity of Christ, less clearly
a belief in the distinct personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit. They gave solid evidence of a belief in three pre-existent 'beings,' but they furnished
no trinitarian doctrine, no awareness of a trinitarian problem. ... Apostolic Fathers: Summary: ... All, except perhaps Hermas, subscribe to the divinity of
Christ. I Clement coordinates Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit in an oath. Ignatius calls Christ God 14 times. ... The Apostolic Fathers
maintained that there was only one God. They affirmed the divinity and distinct personality of Christ quite clearly and that of the Holy Spirit less
clearly. They offered no trinitarian doctrine and saw no trinitarian problem. (The Triune God, Edmund Fortman, introduction, p.xv, p43, p59-61)
7. What the Apologists had to say about the Holy Spirit was much more meagre, scarcely deserving the name of scientific theology. This is
understandable, for the problem which principally exercised them was the relation of Christ to the Godhead. Nevertheless, being loyal churchmen, they
made it their business to proclaim the Church's faith, the pattern of which was of course triadic. [ie. trinitarian] (Early Christian Doctrines, J.N.D. Kelly,
p. 101)
8. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the OT. In the NT the oldest evidence is in the Pauline epistles, especially 2 Cor 13.13, and I Cor
12.4-6. In the Gospels evidence of the Trinity is found explicitly only in the baptismal formula of Mt 28.19. In the Old Testament. The mystery of the
Holy Trinity was not revealed to the Chosen People of the OT. On account of the polytheistic religions of Israel's pagan neighbors it was necessary for
the teachers of Israel to stress the oneness of God. In many places of the OT, however, expressions are used in which some of the Fathers of the Church
saw references or foreshadowings of the Trinity(New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1965, "Trinity, in the Bible", p306)

J) Ancient Jewish belief of the pre-existence of their Messiah

We begin by quoting non-Christian Jewish sources from early sources:
2 Esdra 7.26-30: For indeed the time will come, when the signs that I have foretold to you will come to pass, that the city that now is not seen shall
appear, and the land that now is hidden shall be disclosed. Everyone who has been delivered from the evils that I have foretold shall see my wonders.
For my SON the Messiah shall be revealed with those who are with him, and those who remain shall rejoice four hundred years. After those years my
son the messiah shall die, and all who draw human breath. Then the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first
beginnings, so that no one shall be left
Second Esdra is found in the OT apocrypha writing and was in existence long before Christianity. The importance of this document is that it shows how
Jews of antiquity viewed the Messiah. From a historical perspective we find out that Christianity is much in line with Jewish thinking and that today
Jews belief is not. To the ancient Jews, the Messiah was THE SON OF GOD and would die, which are echoed in the NT. This also agrees with the
OT which shows the Messiah as being the SON OF GOD, etc. Anti-Trinitarians have used history to try and point to Christianity borrowing pagan
ideas but they never attempted to use Jewish history to see if what the NT said about the Messiah was accurate? Why? Because history and extent of
ancient Jewish writings would disprove their beliefs;
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2 Esdra 13.25: the vision--"As I kept looking the wind made something like the figure of a man come up out of the heart of the sea. And I saw that this
man flew with the clouds of heaven
2 Esdra 13.32: This is the interpretation of the vision: As for your seeing a man come up from the heart of the sea, this is he whom the Most High has
been keeping for many ages, who will himself deliver his creation.
2 Esdra 13.3 When these things take place and the signs occur that I showed you before, then my Son will be revealed, whom you saw as a man
coming up from the sea. The Most high is obviously God, which is inescapable while the Son, earlier identified as the Messiah, would deliver Gods
creation. Doesnt this sound in accordance to the NT? Yes. Didnt the OT mention about Gods son? Yes. Both the OT, NT are in agreement while the
Quran isnt.
I Enoch 46.1: At that place, I saw the One to whom belongs the time before time. And his head was white like wool, and there was with him another
individual, whose face was like that of a human being. His countenance was full of grace like that of one among the holy angels...'Who is this?'...And he
answered me and said, 'This is the Son of Man, to whom belongs righteousness, and with whom righteousness dwells.... this Son of Man whom you
have seen is the One who would remove the kings and the mighty ones from their comfortable seats and the strong ones from their thrones... Notice
that the Messiah in ancient Judaism was WITH GOD, who is described as the one whom belongs time before time!
I Enoch 48.2-10: At that hour, that Son of Man was given a name, in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits, the Before-Time; even before the creation
of the sun and the moon, before the creation of the stars, he was given a name in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits. He will become a staff for the
righteous ones in order that they may lean on him and not fall. He is the light of the gentiles and he will become the hope of those who are sick in their
hearts. All those who dwell upon the earth shall fall and worship before him; they shall glorify, bless, and sing the name of the Lord of the Spirits. For
this purpose he became the Chosen One; he was concealed in the presence of (the Lord of the Spirits) prior to the creation of the world, and for eternity.
And he has revealed the wisdom of the Lord of the Spirits to the righteous and holy ones, for he has preserved the portion of the righteous because they
have hated and despised this world of oppression (together with) all its ways of life and its habits and it is his good pleasure that they have life. ...For
they (the wicked kings and landowners) have denied the Lord of the Spirits AND HIS MESSIAH.
In ancient Judaism, the Messiah existed before creation from everlasting to everlasting and was the Jewish hope for salvation unto Israel. He was even
to be worshipped by people on earth without any hint of polytheism in this practice according to the stern monotheism of Judaism of ancient times. Pre
and first century Judaism found no problem in equating the Messiah to being divine. Hence, it was Muhammad who invented this lie against the
Messiah and ancient Judaism. Many Unitarains and Muslim modern day Islamic apologists have no sound argument when they claim Judaism never
thought of the Messiah as the Son of God or Pre-existent, etc.

Early Church Fathers believed of Christs pre-existence as God of Genesis 1:26 and Burning Bush of Exodus 3:14
The Letter of Barnabas 74 AD: And further, my brethren, if the Lord [Jesus] endured to suffer for our soul, he being the Lord of all the world, to
whom God said at the foundation of the world, 'Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness,' understand how it was that he endured to suffer
at the hand of men" (Letter of Barnabas 5). Barnabas was the Pauls own companion.
Hermas 80 AD: "The Son of God is older than all his creation, so that he became the Father's adviser in his creation. Therefore also he is ancient" (The
Shepherd 12).
Justin Martyr 150 AD: In saying, therefore, 'as one of us, '[Moses] has declared that [there is a certain] number of persons associated with one
another, and that they are at least two. For I would not say that the dogma of that heresy which is said to be among you (The Jews had their own heresies
which supplied many things to the Christian heresies) is true, or that the teachers of it can prove that [God] spoke to angels, or that the human frame was
the workmanship of angels. But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures." (Dialogue
of Justin Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew: Chapter LXII.The Words "Let Us Make Man").
Justin Martyr 150 AD: "Then I replied, "Reverting to the Scriptures, I shall endeavor to persuade you, that He who is said to have appeared to Abraham, and to
Jacob, and to Moses, and who is called God, is distinct from Him who made all things, numerically, I mean, not [distinct] in will. For I affirm that He has never at
any time done anything which He who made the world above whom there is no other God has not wished Him both to do and to engage Himself with." (Dialog
of Justin with Trypho, a Jew, ch 56)
Justin Martyr 150 AD: From the writings of Moses also this will be manifest; for thus it is written in them, "And the Angel of God spake to Moses, in a

flame of fire out of the bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of thy fathers; go down into
Egypt, and bring forth My people.. proving that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God and His Apostle, being of old the Word, and appearing sometimes in
the form of fire, and sometimes in the likeness of angels; but now, by the will of God, having become man for the human race, He endured all the
sufferings which the devils instigated the senseless Jews to inflict upon Him; who, though they have it expressly affirmed in the writings of Moses,
"And the Angel of God spake to Moses in a flame of fire in a bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, And again, Jesus, as we have already shown, while He was with them, said, "No one knoweth the Father, but the Son; nor the Son but the
Father, and those to whom the Son will reveal Him." The Jews, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the universe who
spake to Moses, though He who spake to him was indeed the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of

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prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing neither the Father nor the Son... And of old He (Jesus) appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of
Angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin, according to the
counsel of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe on Him, He endured both to be set at nought and to suffer, that by dying and rising again He
might conquer death. And that which was said out of the bush to Moses, "I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, and the God of your fathers," this signified that they, even though dead, are let in existence, and are men belonging to Christ Himself. For they
were the first of all men to busy themselves in the search after God; Abraham being the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, as Moses wrote." (Justin
Martyr, First Apology, ch 63)
Mathetes 160 AD: "[The Father] sent the Word that he might be manifested to the world . . . This is he who was from the beginning, who appeared as if
new, and was found old . . . This is he who, being from everlasting, is today called the Son" (Letter to Diognetus 11).
Irenaeus 180 AD: It was not angels, therefore, who made us, nor who formed us, neither had angels power to make an image of God, nor any one else,
except the Word of the Lord, nor any Power remotely distant from the Father of all things. For God did not stand in need of these [beings], in order to
the accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done, as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him
were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also
He speaks, saying, "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness; " [Gen. 1:26]" (Against Heresies 4:20:1). Note: Irenaeus was the disciple of
Polycarp was then the disciple of John the apostle
Irenaeus 180 AD: And again when the Son speaks to Moses, He says, 'I am come down to deliver this people,' (Exodus 3:8 the LORD said I have
come down to deliver this people). For it is He who descended and ascended for the salvation of men." (Against Heresies, Book III, ch. 6, section 2)
Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spake to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers."
(Against Heresies, Book IV, ch. 5, section 2)
Irenaeus 180 AD: ...Therefore neither would the Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the apostles, have ever named as God, definitely and absolutely, him
who was not God, unless he were truly God; And again, referring to the destruction of the Sodomites, the Scripture says, "Then the LORD rained upon
Sodom and upon Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the LORD out of heaven." For it here points out that the Son, who had also been talking with
Abraham, had received power to judge the Sodomites for their wickedness. And this [text following] does declare the same truth: "Thy throne, O God;
is for ever and ever; the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter.(Book 3, ch 6)
Tertullian 200 AD: Tertullian rejects the idea that God was speaking to Angels because our head is the creator, not a creature: "Since then he is the
image of the Creator (for He, when looking on Christ His Word, who was to become man, said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our
likeness"), how can I possibly have another head but Him whose image I am? For if I am the image of the Creator there is no room in me for another
head" (Tertullian, Book V, Elucidations, Chapter VIII.Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man.)
Origen 225 AD: "it was to Him that God said regarding the creation of man, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." (Origen Against
Celsus, Book V, Chapter XXXVII)
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 250 AD: "the divine Scripture testifies that God said to Christ, His only-begotten, "Let us make man after our
image, and after our likeness. And God made man: after the image of God made He him; male and female made He them."(Constitutions of the Holy
Apostles, Book V., VII)

K) The Agel of the LORD/Malakh Yahweh or Messenger LORD

The most important figure mentioned in the OT passages is Malakh Yahweh or Malakh Jehovah which is translated as the Angel of the LORD in
English bible. KJV capitalized this particular Messenger to distinguish from other messengers who are created beings acting as some sort of messenger.
The Angel of the LORD (Malakh Yahweh) indentified himself as LORD God and at the same time acted as an Ambassador or Messenger. The authors
of the OT called Him to be God yet distinct Him from other divine person. But who was this divine figure who was called as the Angel of the LORD by
the writers of the OT? Firstly, we must understand the term Malakh (Angel in Greek) in Hebrew thought. Now it wont surprise you that in the Old
Testament, the Hebrew word translated as angel malakh simply means messenger or ambassador; indeed, it is translated that way almost half the
time it appears. (Malakh even finds its way into the name of the last known prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi.) This word is used of human
messengers in such passages as Gen 32:3 (Jacob sent messenger to his brother Esau), Joshua 6:25, (Rahab hid the messeger [spy] of Israel), 1 Samuel
6:21(Israelite sent messenger to Kirjat), and 1 Kings 19:2 (Jezebel sent messenger to Elijah). The other half of the time, the Old Testament word malakh
is translated as angel, by which is meant a heavenly messenger. While it usually means a created order of heavenly being (as in Genesis 19:12-17 and
Psalm 91:11, for example), it is also used of that uncreated Being known as the Angel (i.e., Messenger/Ambassador/Envoy) of the LORDMalakhYahweh (Divine being). Things can be confusing in todays English, when we talk of angel in modern world we tend to think of wing creature this is
because our NT translated the Greek terms angelos. But the Hebrew thought is very different. In OT when messenger is described, the writers of the OT
did not have any idea of wing creatures. Once we understand the idea behind the term Messenger (Malakh or Angel) we would easily avoid confussion
when we described the most prominent figure of the OT which is the Angel of the LORD or Angel of God (simply in Hebrew thought Malakh Yahweh).
He is distinct from God, yet spoke himself as God and convey his nature that God only possess. The Angel of the LORD is referred to with masculine
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pronouns (Genesis 16:13; Judges 6:21). It will be a lie to say that the Angel of the LORD is just a mere created angel who spoke on behalf of God. For
God of the Bible is a jealous God and He would in no way allowed his created angels (messengers) to be worshiped by others. In many cases angels
were reported to act as messenger but the contexts of the verses clearly distinguish the angels as a created being example in Daniel Chapter 10, Rev 22:
9, 19:10, John was rebuked by the angel himself when he bowed toward him. The angel instead said to him I am your servant. But the Messenger
Yahweh (Angel of the LORD) mentioned in the OT was not a created being who acted as messenger. He happened to be Messenger and at the same
time He happened to be God as exercised authority that true God alone can.
The first point to affirms that Messeger can also be applied for divine is seen in Mal 3:1 Behold, I am going to send My messenger (malak) and he
(John the Baptist) will clear the way before Me (the LORD of hosts) and the Lord Whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple and the
MESSENGER (Malakh) OF THE COVENANT) in Whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. Here we have the messeger
(malakh in Hebrew and angel in Greek) who is John and also the Messenger (Malakh) who happened to be divine being (the Messiah). Jesus affirmed
that the first messenger is John the Baptist in Luke 7:27 Jesus word this is He of whom it is written behold I will send my messenger before
you....prepare your way before you. So when we talk about the term Messenger (Malakh), or simply Angel in English, we must not be quick to draw
our conclusion with our modern day definition of angel. Prophets are also called Angelos (Malakh) in 2 Chrncle 36:15-16, Jer 25:3-7, 26: 20-23, Haggai
is spoken as Malakh (angelos) in Haggai 1:13, Mal 2:7(preists as angelos) etc. NT also contain angelos as human being Luke 7:24, James 2:25 (Rahab
received the angelso-messenger. In Matt 11:10, Mark 1:2 has Angelos but the OT refrence has Malakh both being human messengers.
Note; the Angel of the LORD and Angel of God are used interchangbly in judge 16:10, 21, 13, 9 13.
We shall see all the passage where the Angel of the LORD is involved:
1) The first appearance was His encountered with Hagar: Gen 16:7, 10, 13 the Angel of the LORD (Malakh Yahweh) found her by a spring of
water. 10. Then the Angel of the LORD said to her I will multiply your descendent exceedingly so that they sall not be counted for multitude. 13
then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her you are the God who sees. We can see here that Hagar recognisd Him as God; the writer also
has in his mind that the Angel of the LORD is LORD notice vs 13. Moreover, the Angel of the LORD spoke as God and used first person singular
pronoun I and promise her to multiply that only God can do. To Hagar He appeared again in Gen 21: 18 and promise her to fulfill His previous
promise which God only can do. Vs 13: you are the God who sees..This divine person is God himself. We can see the Agel of the LORD is God who
blessed Ishmael Gen 17;20: as for Ishmael I have blessed Him and will make him fruitful... The Angel of the LORD spoke as if he already blessed
Ishamel which echoes what he had already done in Gen 16:7, 10, 13.
2) His appearance to Abraham: Gen 22:16 the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham...and said, by myself i have sworn says the LORD because you
have done this things and not withhold your son your only son, in blessing i will bless you and in multiplying i will multiply your descendent as the
stars.... The Angel of the LORD distinguished himself from another person who is still God in vs 13 where He said i know you fear God (not me)
since you have not withhold your son from me. We have two divine persons. It is clear that it was the Angel of the LORD who commanded Abraham
for his son sacrifice and the author identifies him as God in Gen 22:1. In addition Hebrew 6:13 says When God made his promise to Abraham, since
there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself. The Angel of the LORD (Malakh Yahweh) in Gen 22:16 is also God as the book of
Hebrew substantiates.
3) His appearance at Bethel to Jacob: Genesis 28:12-14 And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to
heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the
God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants (reaffirming the Abrahamic
Covenant). Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the
south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This God who appeared to Jacob at Bethel is the Angel of God
(Malakh Yahweh) as we read in Gen 31:11-13 Then the Angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Lift up now
your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 'I am
the God of Bethel. The Angel of God (Malakh Elohim) called himself as God of Bethel. God will never allow any of His created angels (messenger)
to spell out himself as divine. We also see that this Messenger (Malak Yahweh) accepted worship which God alone deserve. It would be idolatry for the
children of God to worship any deity other than God himself.
4) Jacob with Angel of the LORD: Gen 32:24-30 Jacob wrestled with God as Jacob himself said in vs 30 (for I have seen God face to face and my life
was preserved). Hosea declares that it was the Angel (Malakh) yet God. Hos 12:3-5: In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he
struggled with God 4 Yes, he wrestled with the Angel and prevailed. He wept and sought His favor. He found Him at Bethel and there He spoke with
us, 5 this is the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is His name. Hosea the prophet enlighten us that the Angel (Messenger) whom Jacob wrestled
with was God who happened to be also Messenger (Malakh), this God who found Jacob at Bethel is called as the LORD the God of hosts as vs 5 adds.
Hosea gives His name as LORD which is a divine name, the Great Tetragrammaton.
5) The Angel of the LORD is involked in blessing: Genesis 48:15 He blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
walked. The God Who has been my shepherd all my life to this day. 16 (Jacob continues describing "God") The Angel who has redeemed me from all

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evils bless the lads. The word redeemed in Hebrew = ga'al which is a verb meaning to redeem, the first use in the OT. Ga'al {Goel} means to act as
one's kinsman-redeemer, to be a savior. The LXX translates ga'al with the Greek verb rhuomai - see also use of rhuomai to describe deliverance by
Jesus in study on 1Th 1:10-note). Jacob would never mention this Angel (Malakh=messenger) if He was just a created being of some short, he would
have surely knew it was idolatry to have a created being involked as God in blessing.
6) Encountered with Moses at Sinai in burning Bush: Exodus 3:2-6 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst
of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed...4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to
look, God called to him from the midst of the bush & said, "Moses, Moses !" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then He (the Angel of the LORD) said, "Do
not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 6 He said also, "I Am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (the Angel of the LORD).
The Angel of the LORD identifies himself as God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Author tells us that the Angel of the LORD is God himself, not just
a created being. In Vs 14 God (the Angel of the LORD) said to Moses I AM WHO I AM. He also clarifies himself as LORD in vs 15, 16. The Great
name I AM (self existing) is the divine name applied to God alone and we find Jesus used this divine title for himself in John 8:58 (before Abraham was
I AM). In fact it was the Angel of the LORD who called himself as the Great I AM know as the famous divine name YHWH (Tetragrammaton). The
presence of the Angel of the LORD makes the ground Holy. Although the Angel of the LORD appeared to Patriach, His full nature as self existing was
revealed only through Moses when He decided to delivers His people. He wanted to convey to us that He exist always and will exist and keep his
promise as a living God. In Acts 7:32, it says the Angel was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. V 35 adds the Angel was the God who appeared to
Moses in the bush. In vs 38 it says it was this Angel of the LORD who actually gave oracles to Moses thus identifying Him as God. Acts 2;38 says it
was the Angel who spoke to Moses but Exo 3:14 says it was actually LORD God which implies that this Angel is divine uncreated being who is
Yahweh himself..
Blessing by involking the name of the Angel of the LORD: Deu 33:16 And with the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and the
good will of Him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from
his brethren. Since He is God, blessing is done by involking His name.
7) As a Pillar of Fire: Ex 13:21 The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night
to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. Ex 14:19 The Angel of God, Who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and
went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. We now see that it was the Angel of God who accompanied
them by fire and He happened to be the LORD HIMSELF.Exo 14:24: the LORD look down through the Pillars of fire and he troubled the army of
Pharoah.
8) Encountered with Balaam: Number 22:22-35. The Angel of the LORD stood on the way to Balaam. He recognised the Angel of the LORD was
God and bow toward the ground. In vs 35 the Angel of the LORD told to Balaam Go with the men but only the word that I speak to you that you
should speak. In the following verse in 38 the author tells us that Balaam spoke only what God has told him to speak. Chapter 23 goes on to use God
and LORD interchangeably for the Angel of the LORD. The author and Balaam equated the Angel of the LORD as God himself.
9) Encountered with Joshua: the man whom Joshua saw declared himself as Captain of the LORDs army (Joshua 5:13-15). Joshua was commanded
to take off his shoes as the ground was declared to be Holy. He was the Angel of the LORD who is God and hence the place was Holy. This declaration
was the same for Moses at the burning bush at Sinai.
10) Judge 2:1-2 Now the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which
I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you. According to Exodus 20:1, it was the LORD God who brought out the
Israelites from the land of Egypt yet in Judge 2:1, 2 it says it was the Angel of the LORD. Logical conclusion, the Angel of the LORD is the LORD God.
11) Encountered with Gideon: Judge 6:12 the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said the LORD is with you.. Gideon did not know it was the
Angel of the LORD. The writers of the judge has in mind that this Angel of the LORD is divine being whom he also called him as LORD in vs 14 the LORD
turned to him and said Go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of Medianites. The writer goes on to say the Angel of the LORD is
the LORD himself in vs 16 and the LORD said to him surely i will be with you... In vs 22-23 When Gideon saw that he was the Angel of the LORD, he
said, "Alas, O Lord GOD ! For now I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face." 23 The LORD said to him, "Peace to you, do not fear, you shall not
die." 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace. The irony part here is when the Angel of the LORD vanished
out of Gideons sight, the writers informs to us that the LORD (another person) was still there, notice in vs 23. Also Gideon believed that to see the Angel of
the LORD was to die equating Exodus 33:20 (where God said you cannot see my face for no man shall see my face and live). Gideon understood the Angel
of the LORD to be God himself. It is true that the Angel of the LORD accepted the offering made to him which God alone can do.
12) Encountered with Manoah and his wife: Manoah and his wife encountered Him and thought Him to be a man of God. If the Angel of the LORD
was with wings like structure, Manoahs wife could have easily included His physical form to her husband. She on the contrast told her husband that she met
a man like the Angel of the LORD. From her description, the Angel of the LORD would certainly appeared like a man not as a wing created being as our
modern thought. Out of curiosity they insisted Him to accept their offering. The Angel of the LORD identified himself as the LORD because they did not
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recognize Him as the LORD. He said to Moanoah in Judge 13:16 but if you offer a burnt offering you must offer to the LORD (for Monoah did not know
He was the Angel of the LORD). The writer of the Judge has in mind that the Angel of the LORD is the LORD as he adds (for Monoah did not know He
was the Angel of the LORD) though He told them to sacrifice their offering to the LORD. Judge 13: 20-22 For it came about when the flame went up from
the altar toward heaven, that the ANGEL of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the
ground. 21 Now the ANGEL of the LORD did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the ANGEL of the LORD. 22 So
Manoah said to his wife, "We will surely die, for we have seen God. Manaoh and His wife knew well that the Angel of the LORD was also God and with
seeing Him they thought they would die as God had said no one should be alive after seeing Him (Exo 33:20). In Vs 23 his wife clearified to us that the
Angel of the LORD was not just a mere created being but God himself as she said if the LORD had desire to kill us He would not have accepted offering...)
and they did worship him in vs 21.
13) Psalm 34:7: The Angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him and rescues them. Psalmist would never credit to any created angel his
praise. This Messenger is the LORD.
14) Isaiah 63:9: In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them; And
He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. In Exo 33:14-15: God told to Moses My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." to which
Moses responds [as should we all] "If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. In other word the Angel was Gods own presence but
different person of Godhead. In Exo 23:20-23 the Father told them that My Angel will go with you, he also warned them that they should obey Him for the
Angel will not pardon their sins if they rebelled against Him. An ordinary Angel cannot forgive sins but God alone. So we have seen that the Angel is Divine
but distinct from God the Father. God specifically told them that His name was in the Angel, He is the Second person of Godhead (the eternal Word who is
the Son of God).
Blessing involving the Angel of the LORD: Zechariah 12:8: In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble
among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel ['malak'] of the LORD before them. The goodness of
the Angel is often mentioned in praise and blessing. The Angel of the LORD is equated as God.
15) Encountered with King David: 1 Chronicles 21:16: And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the
heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their
faces. David addressed the Angel of the LORD as God in vs 17 David said to the God... In vs 18 the Angel of the LORD commanded Gad what he should
said to David. Interestingly the author then states that the Angel of the LORD was the God himself in vs 19 (so David went up at the word of Gad which he
had spoken in the name of the LORD. In I chrncle 21:14-20 says the Angel of the LORD appeared to David but 2 Chrncle 3:1-2 says it is the LORD that
appears to David (now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on the Mount Moriah where the LORD had appeared to his Father
David..
16) Zechariah 3:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, the LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; is not this a
brand plucked out of the fire? we have have two person sharing the same title LORD. The speaker could have said I rebuke thee if he was the only person
sharing the divine title name LORD. Obviously, the speaker is the Angel of the LORD; the high priest Joshua and Satan were standing in the heavenly court
of the Angel of the LORD. Meaning the Angel of the LORD is God who judge between them. Interestingly, besides the Angel of the LORD being LORD
there is another LORD. We also notice that the Angel of the LORD identified himself as the LORD of hosts in vs 6. He as God can remove the iniquity in vs
4, He often used I will which is a divine statement that God alone can do in vs 4-7.

Early church Fathers writings on the Angel of the LORD as second person of Godhead
The Letter of Barnabas (74 AD): The Letter of Barnabas And further, my brethren, if the Lord [Jesus] endured to suffer for our soul, he being the Lord of
all the world, to whom God said at the foundation of the world, 'Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness,' understand how it was that he
endured to suffer at the hand of men (Letter of Barnabas 5).
Hermas (120 AD): In his Shepherd, Hermas believes that the Son of God is older than all His creation, so that he became the Fathers adviser in his
creation. Therefore, also he is ancient (III Sim. IX:12, in Holmes, 1999: 491). Hermas in one of the early disciples of Paul mentioned in the book of Roman
16:14.
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (70-150 AD): To Him did Moses bear witness, and said: The Lord received fire from the Lord, and rained it down.
Him did Jacob see as a man, and said: I have seen God face to face, and my soul is preserved." Him did Abraham entertain, and acknowledge to be the
Judge, and his Lord. (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book V. XX).
Theophilus (115-181): Bishop of Antioch (To Autolycus 2:22,160 A.D.) For the divine writing itself teaches us that Adam said that he had heard the voice
but what else is this voice but the word of God, who is also his Son.
Justin Martyr (150 AD): declared: 1) Our Christ conversed with Moses out of the bush, in the appearance of fire. And Moses received great strength from
Christ, who spake to him in the appearance of fire. In His debate with Jews Heretic Trypho, Justin wrote in Chapter LVI.God Who Appeared to Moses is
distinguished from God the Father regarding the Son.

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2) Now that Christ is Lord, and substantially God the Son of God, and in times past appeared potentially as a man and an angel, and in fiery glory as He
appeared in the bush and at the judgment of Sodom has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.
3) The Jews, who think that it was always God the Father who spoke to Moses, (whereas He who spoke to him was the Son of God, who is also called an
Angel, and an Apostle) are justly convicted both by the prophetical spirit, and by Christ himself, for knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they, who
say that the Son is the Father, are convicted of neither knowing the Father, nor of understanding that the God of the universe has a Son: who, being the firstborn Word of God, is also God.
Irenaeus wrote (180 AD): The Scripture is full of the Son of Gods appearing: sometimes to talk and eat with Abraham, at other times to instruct Noah
about the measures of the ark; at another time to seek Adam; at another time to bring down judgment upon Sodom; then again, to direct Jacob in the way; and
again, to converse with Moses out of the bush
Clement of Alexandria (190 AD) The Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning, for he was in God, and of our well-being. And
now this same Word has appeared as man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things (Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1).
Hippolytus (190 A.D): This is the order of the rule of our faith...God the Father, not made, not material, invisible; One God, the creator of all things; this is
the first point of our faith. the second point is this; the word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord who was manifested to the prophets according to the
form of their prophesying and according to the method of the fathers dispensation, through whom all things were made.
Tertullian (200 AD): stated It was the Son who judged men from the beginning, destroying that lofty tower, and confounding their languages, punishing the
whole world with a flood of waters, and raining fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord pouring it down from the Lord: for he always
descended to hold converse with men, from Adam even to the patriarchs and prophets, in visions, in dreams, in mirrors, in dark sentences, always preparing
his way from the beginning: neither was it possible, that God who conversed with men upon earth, could be any other than that Word which was to be made
flesh.
Novatian (235 AD). And this Lord was the God seen by Abraham; and this God was the guest of Abraham, certainly seen because He was also touched. But
this is the Son of God, "The Lord rained from the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire." And this is the Word of God. And the Word of God
was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and this is Christ. It was not the Father, then, who was a guest with Abraham, but Christ. Nor was it the Father who was
seen then, but the Son; and Christ was seen. Rightly, therefore, Christ is both Lord and God, who was not otherwise seen by Abraham, except that as God the
Word He was begotten of God the Father before Abraham himself. These people were the immediate successors of the apostles and must have understood
many oral teachings passed down to them directly from the apostles.

L) Holy Spirit (the Spirit of the LORD) in the OT

Isa. 63:10-14: But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned Himself to become their enemyWhere is He who put His Holy Spirit in
the midst of them, Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of MosesAs the cattle which go down in the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave
them rest.
Isa. 65:9-14: In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence [lit. the Messenger of His Face] saved themBut they rebelled and
grieved His Holy SpiritWhere is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of MosesThe
Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So You led Your people, to make for Yourself a glorious name.
Isa. 11:2: The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him
Isa. 42:1: Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the
nations

The Holy Spirit is called Lord (Jehovah)

May the Lord (Holy Spirit) makes you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts
blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints (1 Thess 3:12,13). Obviously, we have seen
that the Lord referred here is the Holy Spirit. Similarly, in 2 Thess 3:5 May the Lord (Holy Spirit) direct your hearts into the love of God and into the
patience of Christ. In both these supplications we have the Father and Lord Jesus Christ named besides the One Lord to whom the prayer is addressed; may
we not be assured that this One is especially the Blessed Spirit of love? Roman 15:30 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love
of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. The Holy Spirit can love us not an energy. Several other passages can be
demonstrated to show that the Holy Spirit is person and God.
Hebrew 3:7-12 Therefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you will hear his voice, dont harden your heartas your ancestors tested ME..10. Beware
brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing the Living God. Here the Holy Spirit was the one who spoke to Israelites in the
wilderness. By rebelling against the Holy Spirit, we rebel against the Living God. The statements above in Hebrew 3:7-12 are the actual words spoken by the
LORD God in Psalm 95:7-11 (Do not harden your heart as in your rebellionwhen your fathers tested me). It is true that they rebelled and tested the
LORD (Holy Spirit) in Exo 17:7 (They tempted the LORD). Therefore the Holy Spirit is LORD (Yahweh) of the OT as well.
Heb 10:15-17: And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the
Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them," He then says, 17. "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember
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no more. This quotation was spoken by the LORD in Jer. 31:31-32: declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant it will not be like the
covenant declares the LORD. We have seen that what Jer 31:31-32 records the word spoken by the LORD was the word actually spoken by the Holy
Spirit as Hebrew 10:15-17 verifies.
Isaiah 6:1-9; Isaiah says I saw the LORD of hosts sitting on his thronevs 9. He said, "Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving. So some part of the word spoken by the LORD of hosts was spoken by the Holy Spirit as we can see in Acts 28:25-26:
The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: Go to this people and say, You will be ever hearing but never
understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. The Holy Spirit is also the LORD of hosts of the OT. Acts 7:51: you stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. Did their fathers really resist the Holy Spirit and when? We have in
Psalm 78:17-18: but they sinned ever more against Him by rebelling against the Most High, in the wilderness. And they tested God in their heart. We have
the Holy Spirit as the Most High and directly addressed as God.

Difference between Holy Spirit and Evil Spirit

The evil spirit said to them: "I know Jesus and Paul, but who are you" in Acts 19:15. We dont have a doubt on the personhood of the evil spirit who
speaks as a person and so we must be driven by the logical conclusion that the Holy Spirit is also a person who speaks in many places. The only different is
one is Holy the other one is Evil thats all. Holy Spirit is a person and divine. Many more can be said about Jehovah witnesses but due to lack of time, our
discussion is limited. In all the cases Jehovah Witnesses including many cult who deny the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit is a false doctrine
founded by some misguided person. All their doctrine stands against the true orthodox belief and importantly it does not hold to scripture.
The Holy Spirit is LORD; he also spoke in the OT
Ezekiel 11:5 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on me, and he told me to say: "This is what the LORD says: That is what you are saying, you leaders in
Israel, but I know what is going through your mind. The Holy Spirit is called LORD.
Isaiah 40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or who gave Him His counsel..
2 Chronicles 24:20: Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, This is what God says:
'Why do you disobey the LORD's commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'"
Ezekiel 3:22-24 And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and there I will speak with youBut the
Spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet; and he spoke with me and said to me, Go, shut yourself within your house.

The Holy Spirit is not the Father Himself yet Divine

2 Samuel 23:1-3 The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me, his word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me
The Holy Spirit is called God here who spoke.
Nehemiah 9:30:You gave your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst
Many years you did bear with them, and did warn them by your Spirit through your prophets;
Ezekiel 3:22-24: But the Spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet; and he spoke with me and said to me, Go, shut yourself within your house.
Ezekiel 11:5:And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, Say, Thus says the LORD: So you think, O house of Israel; for I know the things
that come into your mind. The Holy Spirit is called here as LORD.
Micah 3:8: But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel
his sin.
Zechariah 7:12: They made their hearts like adamant lest they should hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through
the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 34:16 and his Spirit will gather them together.
Isaiah 44:2-3:I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
Isaiah 59:20-21:My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children,
or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever, says the LORD.
Psalm 51:11 do not take your Holy Spirit from me
Isa 63:11: Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people-- where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of
his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them.

Holy Spirit and his works

Acts 8: 29 .the Spirit said to Phillip go up and join the chariot. The Spirit speaks; energy cannot speak or decide. Again in Acts 13:2 the Holy Spirit
said set a part for me Paul and Barnabus. The Holy Spirit is a person, he speaks. Acts 10:19-29 the Spirit said to Him I have sent them. This was spoken by
the Holy Spirit to Peter before he met the Roman officer Cornelius. The Spirit says I have sent them. The word Iused by the Holy Spirit in many places
which is Egoin Greek refers to first person singular pronoun to indicate that the Holy Spirit is very much a person.The bible does not say the Lord speaks
but the Holy Spirit speaks. Likewise, He, the Holy Spirit has a Mind and can intercede for us in Romans 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth
what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Energy or force has no mind but the Holy Spirit
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has. In I Timothy 4:1 now the Spirit expressly says that in the later time some will depart from their faith, giving heeds to deceiving spirits. The Holy Spirit
himself speaks of false spirits of a latter day which is an expression of aperson. Again in Acts 28:25-28, Paul talks about the word spoken by Holy Spirit. Just
as Jesus as a person intercedes for us before the Father in Roman 8:34, the Holy Spirit is also intercessors between the saints and God in Roman 8:26 which
is an act of person. The Holy Speaks in Rev 14:13: Yes says the Spirit that they may rest from their labour Rev 22:17: the Spirit and the bride says come
let him who hears come let him who thirst come and whoever desires let him take the water freely

Holy Spirit is a divine person

How can a non-personal force possess these qualities? 1) John 16:13-The Spirit hears.
2)1 Corinthians 12:8 - The Spirit gives gifts. 3) Acts 15:28 - He decides or determines whether or not an act is good. 4) 1Corinthians 6:11 - He justifies.
5) Romans 15:30 He can love 6) Acts 5:9 He can be tried or tested. 7) 1 Corinthians 12:11 - He wills (power to choose). 8) Romans 8:27 - He has a mind.
9) He knows.-Acts 5:3 (10) He can be lied to-Ephesians 4:30; (11) Isaiah 63:10 - He can be grieved. 12) Gen 1:2 (The Spirit of God hovers over the water),
Psalm 104:30 (you sent forth your Spirit, they are created and you renew the fact of the earth), Job 33:4The S5pirit of God has made me, and the breath of
the Almighty gives me life- He was involved in creation. 13) The Spirit is eternal (Heb 9:14, John 14:16-17). (14) The Holy Spirit searches and "knows
the thoughts of God according to I Corthn 2: 10-11. (15) He dwells in us as God dwell within us according to I Corthn 6:19 and 3:16. (16) The Holy Spirit
was involved in Resurrection of Jesus in Roman 8:11. (17) The Holy Spirit gives us life in John 6:63. (18) He knows the future (Luke 2:20, John 16:13).
(19) He is omnipresent in Ps 139:7. (20) Blaspheming of Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven in Matt 12:32. (21) He can be insulted in Heb 10:29. (22) He
himself bears witness of other in Roman 8:16. Notice himselfautois an expression a person. 23) He speaks in Rev 22:17, 2:7. (24) In Acts 8:39 "He
caught Phillip away. 25) He has a mind to forbid in Acts 16:6. (26) He can appoint other as overseers in Acts 20:28. (27) He pours out the Love of God in
our heart Roman 5:5. If the Father and Son are living beings, surely the Spirit is just as much so. The evil spirit said to them: "I know Jesus and Paul, but
who are you" in Acts 19:15

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God or the Spirit are used interchangeably
Isa. 63:10-14: But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned Himself to become their enemyWhere is He who put His Holy Spirit in
the midst of them, Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of MosesAs the cattle which go down in the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave
them rest.
Isa. 65:9-14: In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence [lit. the Messenger of His Face] saved themBut they rebelled and
grieved His Holy SpiritWhere is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of MosesThe
Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So You led Your people, to make for Yourself a glorious name.
Luke 3:22 says the Holy Spirit descend like a dove, Matt 3:16 says the Spirit of God descend like a dove,
Matt 22:43 says David spoke by the Spirit yet Mark says David spoke by the Holy Spirit
Luke 4:1 Jesus was filled with the Holy Spiritwas lead by the Spirit
1 Corthn 2;10 says the Spirit search all things but vs 11 says the Spirit of God vs 13 says the Holy Spirit
Acts 5:3 says the Holy Spirit and in vs 9 says the Spirit
John 7:39: he Spoke concerning the Spirit for the Holy Spirit was not yet given.
John 16:13 used Spirit of truth but vs 26 says the Holy Spirit again.
Acts 2:4: the apostles were filled the Holy Spiritas the Spirit give them utterance
Roman 8;9 The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit are used interchanbably
1 Cothn 12;3-13: by the Spirit of God ..except by the Holy Spirit, vs 7 used again the Spirit
2 Corthn 1:22 says we are sealed with the Spirit but Ephe 1:13 says we are sealed by the Holy Spirit
Acts 8:29 says the Spirit said to Philip but vs 39 says the Spirit of the Lord again

M) All the three divine persons are eternally distinct from each other
The Father is eternal:
1 Timothy 6:16: who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light whom no mna has seen or van see to whom be honor and everlasting power
Amen! Roman 16:26: acording to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience in faith
Hab 1:12: are you not from everlasting o LORD my God! Psalm 102:12 You O LORD shall endure forever
Psalm 93:2: you are from everlasting. Ps 90:2 even from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Deu 33:27: the eternal God is your refuge. Gen 21:33; Abarham planted a tamrarisk tree..and called the LORD the everlasting God.

The Son is eternal

Hebrew 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrew 1:8: But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a
sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 11: They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12: And as a mantle
shall you fold them up, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail.
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Isa 9:6: For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Father of eternity, Prince of Peace.
Micah 5:2: But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in
Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting
The Holy Spirit is eternal:
Hebrew 9:14: who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God
John 14:16 (the Holy Spirit will abide with you forever)

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit existed eternally as a distinct person within the one being of God
Isaiah 43:10 before me there was no God formed nor is there after me.
Mal. 3:6 I the LORD do not change. The word change is shanak which means to transmute or change by implication. If God do not change and no other
God was formed nor will be there after Him, we must conclude that the Son was already there with the Father, so was the Holy Spirit. If the Son and Holy
Spirit became God only after the incarnation, these verses are invalid. If the Holy Spirit became God after Jesus Baptism or at anytime, this violates the
nature of God by which God is called the true God who is from everlasting. To be God He must be from everlasting to everlasting, we cannot have God that
originated at certain point of time which destroys the definition of true God by itself.

N) Each of the three divine persons are fully and completely LORD God
The Father is called God:
Ephe 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Col 1:3: We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
1 Corthn 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort
1 Peter 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. In the NT, when the term God is used in general sense it refer to the Father, Lord to the Son, this are nomal way imployed to
distinguish their perosonhood from one another. In many case the Son and the Holy Spirit are also refer to as God in the sense they are both God by nature
and essence not that they are the Father. This does not mean that the Son and Holy Spirit are not God, the bible is imploying the title to distinct them; the title
God became reserved for the Father and the title Lord became reserved for the Son and the Spirit became reserved for the Holy Spirit. However sometime the
Father and the Holy Spirit are also call Lord (Kurios) many times to indicate that the title Lord is also title of deity shared by three divine persons.

The Son is God:

John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
John 1:18: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
The word the One and only Son who himself is God is Monogenes Theos-lieterally the Unique God. Orthodox Jews bible has: No one has ever seen
Hashem [Ex 33:20]. It is Elohim the Ben Yachid (God the unique Son), it is he, the one being in the kheyk (bosom) of HaAv, this one is Hashem's definitive
midrash (exegesis).
John 20:28: Thomas answered and said to Him (Jesus) My Lord and my God
Titus 2:13-Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gives Himself for us
Heb. 1:8-9 the Father calls the Son as GOD.Your throne O God is forever and ever... Therefore, God, Thy God has anointed Thee.
2 Peter 1:1: to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing in the (singular) righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
John 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making
himself equal with God.
John 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself
God.
Philippians 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who existed in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Matthew 1:23 Jesus is called Immanuel which means God is with us.
1 John 5:20, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is
true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. He (Jesus) is the Eternal Life in I John 1:2 (the eternal life which was with the
Father).
1Timothy 3:16, And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,
Isaiah 9:6 a child is given to us whose name is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
Rom. 9:5Christ came who is overall, the eternal God blessed forever.Paul directly says Jesus is God the eternal.

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Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12 - Jesus told Satan, you shall not tempt the Lord your God in reference to Himself. Who was Satan tempting? It was Jesus yet Jesus
said to Satan thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God referring to himself.
Mark 14:61-62: The High priest asked him saying to Him, Are you the Christ the son of the Blessed One? Jesus said I am. And you will see the Son of
man sitting at the right hand of power, coming with the cloud of heaven. In response the High Priest tore his clothes and said what further need do we have of
witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. The Jews including the High priest rightly understood that Jesus was claiming to be Divine Person. Jesus was
referring himself as the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13-14: one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heavento Him was given all dominion glory
and Kingdom, that all nations, people and language should serve (Pelach) Him, His dominion is everlasting and his kingdom shall never be destroyed. Here
the Son of Man is divine person to be worship by every living being and He is coming to the Ancient of Day (the Father).
John 1:23: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the LORD. In reply to the crowd, John said he was the voice crying,
who would prepare the way for the LORD (Jesus). John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as the Yahweh of OT citing the Yahweh of Isaiah 40:3 the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the wilderness for our God and applying it to Jesus directly. Jesus is Yahweh
Revelation 22:6 The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his
servants the things that must soon take place." The Lord God is Jesus because he himself said in vs 16 I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these
things in the churches. In Revelation 1:1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it
known by sending his angel to his servant John. Obviously, the Lord God is Jesus who sent his angel.
Colossian 2:9: in Him dwells all the fullness of Godhead in bodily form. In other word Jesus was God before his incarnation and even after his incarnation,
Jesus is fully God even in his human form. He is not just half part of God or half man, he is fully God as well as fully man. The term Godhead is
Theotetos which is what God is, not just divine quality but what God is, He is as well. He remains the God-man forever.
I Corinth 8:6: and One Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. In agreement of Zechariah 14:9The LORD will be
king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name. In other word Paul is saying that the one LORD of the OT is
now Jesus Christ. In Deu 6:4 the LORD our God the LORD is one LORD. The One LORD of the OT is the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 17:5Jesus said And Now O Father, Glorify me together with yourself with the Glory which I had with you before the foundation of the world.
Jesus is commanding the Father for the full restoration of his glory that he shared with the Father. The word he had is eichon-imperfect active indicative
which means he shared with him from eternity, not just a part of time). Imperfect means without beginning at point of time, in other word from eternity. Also
Jesus gave a command not a request, doxosos (glorify is in command form) which only God can do. Know this in Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD that is my
name and I will not give my glory to anyone Isaiah 48:11 I will not yield my glory to anyone. If God said he will not share his glory to anyone, then Jesus
is not a created being but God of God, sharing the same nature as the Father. If Jesus is not God, it will be extremely blasphemous for any created being to
say such word that God alone can say.
John 13:13 "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Jesus affirms that he is the Lord (Kurios) the Greek title for Yahweh.
Yahweh (LORD) of the OT now is Jesus Christ without excluding the Father.
Rev 22:13: Jesus himself says I am the Alpha and Omega, the Begining and the End the First and the Last. In Isaiah 44:6 thus says the LORD the King of
Israel.I am the first and the Last, the only God. Isaiah 41:4 I am the LORD I am the First and I am the Last. Jesus is the LORD of OT. The title First and

the Last is a divine title, and Jesus used this title for himself which means he call himself God. Jesus the Son of man claim himself as divine eternal God in
Rev 1:17: When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last vs
18: I am the living one.
John 8:58: before Abraham was I AM. This angered the Jews who tried to stone Him. Jesus was claiming to the God of burning Bush.
Acts 20:28: God purchased us with his own blood
Hebrew 1:3: The Son is the exact substance of the Father (Upostatseos tes character=exact substance) upholding all things by the word of his power.
Whatever the Father is the Son is the same as the Father.
John 5:23: that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Fatherthe Son has to be God in order to be honored exacty as his Father, no mere created
being deserved honor as the Father.

The Holy Spirit is called God and LORD

Acts 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?..You have not lied
just to human beings but to God. By lying to the Holy Spirit, they have not lied to energy but to God. Clearly the Holy Spirit is God. Let us also cosider
some bible verses; Rom 10:19 Moses says, 'I will make you jealous which is a direct quote from Deut. 32:21. Similarly, in Rom 10:20 And Isaiah is very
bold and says, "I was found by those who sought Me not' which is a quote from Is 65:1.This two bible verses are shown to proof that the words spoken in
OT when quoted in NT implies the statement or words really spoken by that person.With this we shall see the words spoken by the Holy Sprit in the OT
which are quoted in the NT.
Hebrew 3:7-12 Therefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you will hear his voice, dont harden your heartas your ancestors tested ME..10. Beware
brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing the Living God. Here the Holy Spirit was the one who spoke to Israelites in the
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wilderness. By rebelling against the Holy Spirit, we rebel against the Living God. The statements above in Hebrew 3:7-12 are the actual words spoken by the
LORD God in Psalm 95:7-11 (Do not harden your heart as in your rebellionwhen your fathers tested me). It is true that they rebelled and tested the
LORD (Holy Spirit) in Exo 17:7 (They tempted the LORD). Therefore the Holy Spirit is LORD (Yahweh) of the OT as well.
Heb 10:15-17: And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says
the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them," He then says, 17. "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will
remember no more. This quotation was spoken by the LORD in Jer. 31:31-32: declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant it will not be
like the covenant declares the LORD. We have seen that what Jer 31:31-32 records the word spoken by the LORD was the word actually spoken by the
Holy Spirit as Hebrew 10:15-17 verifies.
Isaiah 6:1-9; Isaiah says I saw the LORD of hosts sitting on his thronevs 9. He said, "Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving. So some part of the word spoken by the LORD of hosts was spoken by the Holy Spirit as we can see in Acts 28:25-26:
The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: Go to this people and say, You will be ever hearing but never
understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. The Holy Spirit is also the LORD of hosts of the OT.
Acts 7:51: you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. Did their fathers really resist the
Holy Spirit and when? We have in Psalm 78:17-18: but they sinned ever more against Him by rebelling against the Most High, in the wilderness. And they
tested God in their heart. We have the Holy Spirit as the Most High and directly addressed as God.

O) The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each called Lord (Kurios-Yahweh)
The Father is Lord
Jesus addressed the Father as Lord of heaven and earth in Matt.11:25.
Acts 4:26: The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.'
Hebrew 9:6-7, Lord and God are used interchangeably.
Rev 11:15: the kingdom of our Lord (Father) and His Christ
Acts 17:24: God who made the world and everthings in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth
Acts 4:24; Lord you are our God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them 29 now Lord look on their threats..through the name of
your Holy Servant Jesus
Roman 14:1-12, Lord and God are used interchangeably. The same is in James 1: 5-7.
Rev 6:10, The Father is called as Lord by those souls in heaven Etc etc.
The Son is called Lord (Kurios-Yahweh) in the NT:
In fact in the NT the title Lord which is Greek word Kurios for Yahweh (YHWH) became distinct title for the Son. This title is
1 Thess 3:12, 13: the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints
Col 1:3: We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
1 Corthn 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort
1 Peter 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The term Lord (Kurios) is used several hundred times and 95% applies for the Son.
The Holy Spirit is Lord (Yahweh):
May the Lord (Holy Spirit) makes you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts
blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints (1 Thess 3:12,13). Obviously, we have seen
that the Lord referred here is the Holy Spirit. Similarly, in 2 Thess 3:5 May the Lord (Holy Spirit) direct your hearts into the love of God and into the
patience of Christ etc etc.
The term God and Lord are applied for each of the three divine persons showing they all share this titile. However, the term Father is a descriptive of the
person, Jesus is never call the Father in the NT, Nor is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is never call as the Spirit as well the Father is never called the Holy Spirit too.
The Holy Spirit is never calls as the Son or the Father. Therefore each of the divine persons has their own role in salvation and redemption. The Father sent
The Son and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought back the believers to the Father by the authority of the Son. They function differently
having their own works yet are one God of the bible. Although the Father sent the Son, the Father is not superior to the Son ontologically, as they are both of
the same essence. The Son sent the Spirit yet the Son is not superior to the Spirit by essence. The Father cannot grant salvation by himself, it is by the Son
which we can access to the Father by the works of the Holy Spirit.
What Ontological Trinity? Answer: In their discussion of the Trinity, theologians have developed a number of terms to help explain, as precisely as
possible, what God is like. When someone speaks of the ontological Trinity, it is in reference to the nature of God. Ontology is the philosophical study of
the nature of being. The ontological Trinity refers to the being or nature of each member of the Trinity. In nature, essence, and attributes, each Person of
the Trinity is equal. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share the same divine nature and thus comprise an ontological Trinity. The teaching of the ontological

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Trinity says that all three Persons of the Godhead are equal in power, glory, wisdom, etc. The ontological Trinity is sometimes called the essential Trinity
or immanent Trinity.
Economic Trinity: a term which focuses on the relationships within the Trinity and each Persons role in creation and salvation. The term ontological
Trinity focuses on who God is; the term economic Trinity focuses on what God does. The ontological Trinity is basic Christian doctrine and is
foundational to all Christian belief. John 10:30 says that Jesus and the Father are one, by which it is meant that they are of one nature. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus
tells us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, clearly equating the three Persons of the Godhead.

How is the Trinity not tritheism?

Answer: The doctrine of the Trinity is at the very center of the Christian faith. That God is triune in nature is affirmed not only in Scripture but also in the
early ecumenical creeds of the churchspecifically, Nicaea (A.D. 325) and Constantinople (A.D. 381). The doctrine is essentially that God is one in being
while existing as three co-equal, co-eternal Persons, namely, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One often-heard objection to the Trinity
is that the doctrine logically entails tri-theism (a belief in three gods). But is this criticism valid? Is Trinitarian theology at odds with the clearly taught
monotheism of the Hebrew Scriptures? Or did the early Christians get it right when they upheld the monotheism of the Old Testament while at the same time
affirming the full deity of three distinct Persons? To answer this question, we need to look over the biblical data. The Bible clearly affirms that there is but
one God (Isaiah 43:10; 1 Corinthians 8:4). In addition, the Bible teaches the deity of the Father (John 6:27; Romans 1:7; 1 Peter 1:2), the Son (John 1:1-3;
Hebrews 1:2; Titus 2:13; Colossians 1:16-17), and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 3:16). Moreover, the biblical writers go out of their way to
affirm that all three Persons are distinct from each other (Matthew 28:19; Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians 3:14). So, while it is true that the word trinity is not
found in the Bible, the concept most certainly is. Does the fact that there exist three divine Persons entail that there exist three separate gods? The answer is
no. The same Scriptures that affirm that all three Persons of the Trinity are divine also unequivocally affirm monotheism (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Timothy 2:5).
So, what are we to do with this tension between the idea of three divine Persons and monotheism? A helpful clarification involves what we mean by the word
person. Person can be defined as a center of self-consciousness. A person has a mind, emotions, and a will, can communicate with others, and is capable of
performing actions. When we speak of the concept of personhood as it relates to the Trinity, we are describing self-distinctions in God. All three Persons of
the one triune God possess the complete attributes of deity. All three Persons are truly divine, yet eternally distinct from one another. The divine Persons can
and do communicate with each other (John 17:1-26; Hebrews 1:8-9). Essentially, God has three centers of self-consciousness. Yet this one Being (the triune
God of Scripture) possesses one indivisible essence. There is only one Being that is God, and this one Being is tri-personal, with each of the three Persons
having full possession of the divine nature.
Israel was monotheistic, though not Unitarian (beleving in one single person as God). God is plural in His unity. "Let us make man in our image" (Gen.
1:26a). "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language" (Gen. 11:7a). This language is dismissed by Unitarians as a so-called "plural of majesty,"
meaning unitarian majesty. On the contrary, such language announced early and emphatically that God is plural, which is why He is majestic. The persons of
the Trinity operate as the ultimate team Gary (North, An Economic Commentary on Deuteronomy, ch. XXX. Emphasis mine).

By: Ch. Jamkhokai Mate

Scientist (ARS), ICAR
Ministry of Agriculture Govt. of India

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