Free said:
sk0rpi0n said:
"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
- John 17:3
Why is God referred to as 'one' and Jesus mentioned seperately as someone sent BY the one true God. This is one of the many verses that make it absolutely clear that God is one and He sent Jesus.
I really dont see any room for ambiguity there...so just how can anyone read that to say "God is triune" and "Jesus is not only sent by the triune God, but also happens to be one of the trinity"?
I know there are other verses that some people like to use to establish their premise of a "trinue" God, but what are we supposed to do with verses that make it explicitly clear that God is one, both in the OT and the NT.
Isnt this a contradiction to the doctrine of "trinity"?
Looking forward to read your opinions on this matter.
Warm Regards.
No, this isn't a contradiction of the Trinity. It might initially appear that it is but only because it is taken out of the greater context of what the NT says about Jesus. Look even at the immediate context, for starters:
John 17:1-5, "1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now,
Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed."
There are several key points that need to be made here:
1. One cannot ignore that eternal life is connected with knowing
both the Father and the Son.
2. The Son shared in the glory of the Father prior to the existence of the world. Contrast this to Isaiah 48:11, "For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another."
3. The phrase "only true God" is a statement of monothesim, nothing more. It is a confession of the deity of the Father
and this in no way is a denial of the deity of Jesus himself.
If one tries to get around a trinitarian understanding of this passage, it will actually lead to a whole lot of trouble.
Jesus understood and taught that God is:-
Mark 12:29
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is
one Lord:
AS Jesus was teaching Jews from the OT & Jews did and do not except the trinity as it is not found in the OT Jesus did not teach it from hear:-
Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is
one LORD:
one of the most important teaching texts in The Bible.
The above demonstrates that the God to the Jews was 'One' and not a three part Godhead like that of Christiandom which is also confirmed in the verse its self as the Hebrew word "echad" (one) is in the "absolute" sence, but what does this mean?
For the answer to this we will consider versus scholastic comments on the theology and Hebrew grammar of Deut 6:4 etc.
a) "The Cardinal Numbers are:
With the Masculine
Absloute - $(UÈ . . . The numeral 'one' is considered an adjective ; it follows its noun and agrees with it in gender : 'one man' $(UÈ ;*Æ..."-A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew by J. Weingreen, M.A., Ph.D. pp.242-243
b) "The greatest affirmation of belief in one God is expressed in the shema, the first words a Jewish child should learn and the last a Jew should utter as he passes from this life to the world to come:
'Hear o Israel, the Lord our God is one.
And you shall love the Lord thy God with all they heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.'"-'Six Religions in the Twentieth Century' by W. Owen Cole p.64
c) "His [Isaiah's] most important contribution to Israel's faith is the reiteration of absolute monotheism. The God of Israel is not merely Yahweh, a local god among other deities, but He is the One God, creator and ruler of the world."*
" ... the whole Bible is to a large extent the record of a long drawn-out, but ultimatly successful, struggle for the allegiance of the Jewish people to the purest monotheism and their utter rejection of polytheism with its attendant idolatry."**-'The Jewish People' by David J. Goldberg & John D. Rayner *p.52, **p.235
d) "monotheism n. doctrine that there is only one god. monotheist n. monotheistic adj."-Oxford Dictorary
e) "Judaism rests on two basic doctrines : (1) the belief in the One and Only God; (2) the election of Israel to be the bearers of this belief. Two doctrines, which, which are so inextricably bound together as to from one, receive their classic formulation in the great Deuteronomic utterance, known as the Shema ('Hear!') - from the first word with which it begins, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one' (6. 4) - an utterance which has become Israel's ages-long primal confession of faith.
There is no assertion here of the unity of God in the metaphysical sense. The idea of God as pure, simple being, belongs to the realm of philosophy rather than of religion. Nor is there any claim made that one God is only Israel's God and of no other people; this would be contrary to the universalism inherent in Judaism. What is here affirmed is (i) that there is but one God, with none other beside Him; and (ii) that the one and only God is the One whom Israel confesses and worships. The negations are as emphatic and insistent as the affirmations. They negate all embodiments and notions of the Deity which, however refined and sublimated, veil the one and only God of Israel more than reveal Him. Thus are excluded, not only all dualistic no less than polytheistic creeds, but also the 'Trinity in Unity' of Christianity which, however much it may be explained away so as to make it compatible with the one God in the metaphysical sense, remains a direct denial of the only God who, from the beginning, had chosen Israel in His service."-Judaism by Isidore Epstein p134
e.a.) What is the Shema?
"God Is One Simply put, Judaism is the religion of a people. Therefore, a convert becomes part of the Jewish people as well as the Jewish religion. It is a monotheistic religion in the strictest sense and holds that God intervenes in human history, especially in relation to the Jews. Jewish worship involves several annual festivals and various customs. (See box, pages 230-1.) Although there are no creeds or dogmas accepted by all Jews, the confession of the oneness of God as expressed in the Shema, a prayer based on Deuteronomy 6:4 (JP), forms a central part of synagogue worship: “HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.â€Â
This belief in one God was passed on to Christianity and Islam. According to Dr. J. H. Hertz, a rabbi: “This sublime pronouncement of absolute monotheism was a declaration of war against all polytheism . . . In the same way, the Shema excludes the trinity of the Christian creed as a violation of the Unity of God.â€Â"-'Mankinds Search For God' by the W.T.B.S. p.218-9
f) "$(UÈ %&(* v.supra-num. (25) one Yahweh."-'Anaylitcal Key to the O.T.' by John J. Ownes p782
In the above material "One" is numerically one in the absolute, so in the context of scripture and Jewish theology God is one even though "Elohim" is in the plural form or to requote "God. The Hebrew has the plural form, the plural of majesty; but no idea of plurality is to be read into the word, because the verb, created is in the singular (E. [Abraham Ibn Ezra])."-The Soncino Chumash Ed. by The Rev. Dr. A. Cohen M.A., Ph.D., D.H.L. page 1" leaving no room for any form of trinity or the like.
Jesus as a Jew reiterated the correctness of the "Shema" is at Mark 12:29-30:-
"Jesus answered: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one3 Jehovah, and you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.’"
3Strong's No. 1520 heis {hice} (including the neuter etc. hen); TDNT - 2:434,214; numeral. AV - one 229, a 9, other 6, some 6, not tr 4, misc 18; 272
1) one
it-2 511 Number ... One. This number, when used figuratively, conveys the thought of singleness, uniqueness, as well as unity and agreement in purpose and action. “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah,†said Moses. (Deut 6:4) He alone is Sovereign. He is unique. He does not share his glory with another, as is the case with pagan trinitarian gods. (Acts 4:24; Rev 6:10; Isa 42:8) There is oneness in purpose and activity between Jehovah and Jesus Christ (Joh 10:30) and there should be complete unity of Christ’s disciples with God, with his Son, and with one another. (Joh 17:21; Gal 3:28) Such oneness is illustrated in the marriage arrangement.â€â€Gen 2:24; Mtt 19:6; Eph 5:28-32.
This as a faithful Jew Jesus Christ would never have taught the trinity as it is not to be found in the OT about "the true God" of John 17:3.
