Jews on the Trinity



The Defense of an Essential

a believer’s handbook for defending the trinity

[pic]

By: Nick Norelli

Excerpted from:

The Defense of an Essential: A Believer’s Handbook for Defending the Trinity

Copyright © 2006

Nick Norelli

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Jews on the Trinity

By: Nick Norelli

It is commonplace among opponents of Trinitarianism to assert that the Jews have never believed in a Trinity. This is actually a couple of logical fallacies rolled into one. It is firstly an appeal to belief and/or popularity. Simply because many people believe the Trinity to be false does not mean that the Trinity is false. Simply because the majority of Jews reject the Trinity does not mean that belief in the Trinity should be rejected. Aside from that, the loaded question is often asked if the Trinity were true, then why didn’t God just tell the Jews, why is it not found in the Hebrew scriptures, and why don’t Jews believe in it? A question like this assumes much more than one should be willing to accept. This kind of question presupposes all of the things asked to be true. This question assumes that:

1. God has always fully revealed himself to man.

2. No Jew including the writers of scripture understood the Triune nature of God at all.

3. Jewish believers in Jesus do not believe in or understand the Trinity.

There are many more assumptions that can be made from this statement of Jews never believing in a Triune God, but these are sufficient as to cover the main points of the implication.

Firstly this claim assumes that God has always fully revealed himself to the people whom he has been dealing with. In other words, if God was Triune then of course this would be known by his chosen people the Jews. But the Bible reveals a different story altogether.

Progressive Revelation

God spoke to Moses, and He said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob with [the name] Almighty God, but [with] My name YHWH, I did not become known to them. (Ex. 6:2-3, jpct)

We can see that God appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai) but was not known to them by His true and proper name Yahweh. This shows that there is a revelatory process in which God makes Himself known unto His people. If we observe the biblical text then we see that even after His name was made known to the Israelites that He continued to reveal different attributes of His being, hence He was designated with additional names such as: 

•         Yahweh-Roph’ekha (Ex. 15:26)

•         Yahweh-Nissi (Ex. 17:15)

•         Yahweh-Mekaddishkhem (Ex. 31:13)

•         Yahweh-Shalom (Jud. 6:24)

•         Yahweh-Tzidkenu (Jer. 23:6)

Secondly, the statement that the Jews knew of no Trinity assumes that the biblical writers did not understand the implications of their writings. For example, Moses would have had no idea that while writing Genesis 18, that Yahweh visiting Abraham on earth and then later raining down fire and brimstone from Yahweh out of heaven (Gen. 19:24) would indicate plurality of persons within the Godhead. This also assumes that the writer of Job had no clue that saying the Spirit of God garnishing (making serene - JPS) the heavens (Job 26:13) showed the Spirit to be God himself in that creation is attributed to God alone (Is. 44:24). In addition to this, we must assume ignorance on the part of the inspired writers in their use of the plural noun elohim (more on this later). Even if it could be conclusively shown that no writer of scripture understood the nature and persons of God, it would then have to be proven that they must have understood it in order for it to be true. In the New Testament we witness Jesus appearing to his disciples after his resurrection and opening their understanding to the scriptures. The text reads,

“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day…” (Lk. 24:44-46)

We also see Phillip in Acts 8 explaining to the Ethiopian eunuch that Jesus was the one spoken of in the book of Isaiah. The point is that much like there is a progressive revelation with coming to know God, there is also a progressive revelation in understanding His Word.

Thirdly, the early Church was predominantly Jewish as we don’t see Gentiles receiving the gospel prior to Acts 10. The case for Trinitarianism can be made from the New Testament (especially the gospels) which proves that 1st century Jews did in fact accept belief in a Triune God. And presently we can state without a doubt that there are some Jews who do in fact believe in the Trinity as is seen from the Jews for Jesus statement of faith:

“We believe in one sovereign God, existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, unbounded in power and measureless in love; that God is the source of all creation and that through the immediate exercise of His power all things came into being.”[i]

The charge that no Jew has ever believed in the Trinity is refuted in the above statement although some will argue that Jews for Jesus are simply Christians. The truth is that they are Jewish believers in the Jewish Messiah. Now the claim can certainly be made that no unbelieving Jew has ever believed in the Trinity, and it would be equally true to say that no unbelieving Gentile has either. To be a believer in God is to believe in the Trinity.

One cannot rightly claim that no Jew in scripture has believed in the Trinity either. The scripture is simply silent on this. Silence proves silence and nothing more. Lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. At best we can say that the Trinity is not explicitly taught in the Hebrew Tanakh, and I don’t know many Trinitarians who would disagree with such an assertion—but we can say unabashedly that the doctrine is implied all throughout only to be brought to the forefront in the New Testament after the incarnation of the Son.

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[i] Jews for Jesus. Statement of Faith, hÖZ%hÖZ%CJOJQJ^JaJ*hÖZ%hÖZ%0J5?CJOJQJ\?^JaJ%hÖZ%5?B*[pic]CJ$OJQJ\?aJ$ph"h»{hÖZ%:?CJ OJQJ\?aJ -h»{hÖZ%:?CJ,OJQJ\?h#s4hÖZ%5?:?CJ,"jh#s4hÖZ%5?6?:?CJ0U[pic]h#s4hÖZ%5?6?:?CJ0

h#s4hÖZ%!h»{hÖZ%9?:?CJ,OJQJ\?%h»{hÖZ%9NK "" [pic] (Par. 3)

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