Today I want to respond to a couple more of the chapter 9 discussion questions from a previous post. We will focus today on evidence for the Trinity from both the Old and New Testaments.
4. What evidence would you give from the Old Testament for the Trinity? If the evidence is there then why are Jews such strict monotheists (Unitarians) that they reject Trinitarianism? It is quite obvious that there are much more references to the Trinity in the New Testament than the Old Testament. However, if the Trinity is true then there should be at least hints to it found in the Old Testament. The video entitled "The Human Jesus" I mentioned in a previous post points out something I have seen before called the "Shema". I believe Jews particularly quote this during Passover. It is basically the verse that says "Remember Oh Israel that the Lord God is one". Jews place an extreme amount of importance to this verse and this is why they are such strict monotheists. They reject the idea of the Trinity because even though Christians still believe in one God the idea looks so much like polytheism to them. I believe the first clue to look at is in Genesis chapter 1. God is called Elohim, which is actually the plural of El. This name is used with a singular verb showing that God has some plural attributes and some singular attributes. Later it says "Let us create man in our image" again showing a plural aspect to God. Some scholars say that they have seen in ancient literature what is called the "Majestic Plural" where a king would refer to himself in the plural to emphasize his power and that Moses is just using a literary technique to show God's power here. But if the Shema is so important and Moses was such a strict monotheist you would expect him to shy away from this because of the confusion it could cause. Later in Genesis we see Abraham being visited by three men representing God but the conversation is recorded as though he were talking to one. The three seem to be unusually unified in their purpose. Isaiah actually prophesies that the Messiah would be Mighty God, and called Immanuel, which means "God with us".
5. If you believe in the Trinity then what evidence do you see in the New Testament of this or that Jesus considered himself to be God in any way? The first verses most people will refer to here is when Jesus said "I and the Father are one" and "if you have seen me you have seen the Father". Next is the famous "I am" statement which refers to God speaking to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus appears to be claiming to be the God that spoke to Moses. In Greek, "I am" is a combination of the words "ego emei". This combination is found about eight times in the Gospels. "Ego" means "I" and "emei" means "I am" so in English this would be "I, I am". I am means to exist and humans exists because they were created by God. Jesus saying that I, I am means that he was not created but that he has always existed and by saying he existed before Abraham he is claiming to be the God who created the universe and was there at the beginning. John affirms this by calling him the Logos. Greek philosophers used the word Logos to refer to the creator and sustainer of the universe. Although not a famous verse I feel that Paul in Romans 9:5 makes the most outright claim of Jesus' deity when he says "...the human genealogy of Christ who is God overall be praised". This very clearly shows both the human and divine natures of Jesus. To reject Paul means to reject possibly the second most important figure in Christian history second only to Christ himself.
I'll have to cover more later. God Bless.
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