Trinity: Jewish & Gentile Views
- James Collazo
- Apr 10, 2022
- 11 min read
Updated: Jul 14
Introduction
"Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be." This traditional doxology praises the eternal nature of the triune God. Time moves from past to present to future, but only God lives fully in all three. The Hebrew name Yahweh (H3068) shows this timeless reality. It comes from the phrase "I AM WHO I AM" (Hebrew: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, H1961 / H834), the answer that Moses recieved when he asked for God's name (Exod. 3:14). The name Yeshua (H3442, "Joshua")—translated as Iēsous (G2424) in Greek and Jesus in Latin—means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation." When the eternal, only-begotten Son of God became human as Jesus of Nazareth, he carried this divine name to show that he came to save the world (John 1:1–18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9).
The English word "trinity" comes from the Latin trinitas, meaning "triad," which comes from trinus, meaning "threefold." Tertullian was the first known Christian theologian to use this word to explain the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Adv. Prax. 2). "Trinity" means "three in one," describing one God who exists as three distinct but united and coequal persons. The Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381) affirmed that the Son and the Holy Spirit are fully divine and taught that the Son is of one substance with the Father. Building on this foundation, the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) explained the hypostatic union, teaching that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, fully divine and fully human. Together, these councils protected and clarified the early church's teaching about the identity of Christ (see "Confessions of Faith").
Messianic Jewish Views of the Trinity
For Jews, any talk about God's nature begins and ends with the Shema (H8085, "hear" or "listen"), the central confession of faith given through Moses: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deut. 6:4; Hebrew: Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad). Jesus quoted this verse when a scribe asked him about the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28–30). The word Eloheinu ("our God") derives from Elohim (H430, "God" or "gods"), a grammatically plural term that some Jewish and Christian interpreters have understood as hinting at the mystery of a single yet multifaceted God. For example, when Moses wrote, "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness'" (Gen. 1:26), he used the term Elohim. Some Messianic Jewish interpreters argue that if Moses had wished to emphasize absolute singleness, he could have used yachid (H3173, "only") rather than echad (H259, "one"), which, in certain contexts, can denote a compound unity. This understanding is not a later Christian invention to defend the Trinity. Some Messianic Jewish interpreters note that certain ancient Greek traditions associated with the Septuagint render Genesis 1:26 with singular language ("let me make") rather than the plural Hebrew ("let us make"). They see this as evidence that the verse's plural wording prompted interpretive difficulties long before the rise of Christianity. Other scholars offer different explanations for these textual variations.
The apostle Paul roots his teaching in the Shema when he writes, "[Yet] for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live" (1 Cor. 8:6). He returned to this theme when describing the unity of the church: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph. 4:4–6). These words echo the command, "the LORD our God, the LORD is one," now illuminated through Christ. When Jesus boldly declared, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), the religious leaders in Judea immediately understood the weight of his claim: he was identifying himself as God in the very meaning of the Shema. Their response was fierce—they even tried to stone him, seeing his words as blasphemy (John 10:31).
Bible scholars who support the Documentary Hypothesis think the Pentateuch (i.e., first five books of the Old Testament) shows two different writers—one who favors the name Elohim and another who prefers Yahweh—and they question whether Moses wrote it (see "Moses' Authorship & Editors"). However, Jewish readers have long understood that Moses chose these names intentionally, using Elohim to convey God's power and transcendence over creation, and Yahweh to reveal God's nearness and personal care. That is why the name Yeshua—"Yahweh saves"—matters so much, and why Jesus claimed it when he said, "Before Abraham was born, I Am!" (John 8:58). The writer of Hebrews drives the point home: Jesus is close enough to feel our struggles, "a high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin" (Heb. 4:15). God rules from heaven yet walks beside us on earth.
Judaism teaches that God reveals himself through patterns in Scripture and nature, so Messianic Jews identify the Trinity in the many threes throughout the Hebrew Bible, itself divided into three parts: Torah (H8451, "Law"), Nevi'im (H5030, "Prophets"), and Ketuvim (H3789, "Writings"). Jesus pointed to this when he said, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law from Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44). Today, Jews call it the TaNaK, an acronym from this threefold tradition. These patterns appear in Miriam, Moses, and Aaron mediating Israel before God during the exodus (Num. 12:4; Mic. 6:4), in the triune society of priests, Levites, and Israelites (1 Chron. 9:2 NIV; 1 Esd. 9:37 NRSVA) descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exod. 3:15). In the shocking parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus replaces a Jewish neighbor with a despised foreigner, drawing on Israel's triune society of priests, Levites, and Israelites (Luke 10:31–33). Scripture also teaches that we exist as a trichotomy of body, soul, and spirit (Job 7:11; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 4:12).
Greco-Roman Views of the Trinity
Before the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, the early church fathers drew on both Scripture and philosophy in their debates. However, most were more familiar with Greek ideas than with Jewish teachings. The New Testament writers sometimes used Greek words with philosophical meanings. For example, the author of Hebrews used hupostasis (G5287, "underlying reality or substance") when he wrote, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Heb. 11:1).
Early church leaders used the word hupostasis to describe the "hypostatic union," which holds that Jesus has both a fully divine and a fully human nature united in one person. This term does not describe the Trinity. To explain the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, theologians taught that the three persons are three hypostases who share the same divine essence. Latin-speaking teachers also developed the communicatio idiomatum (Latin for "communication of attributes") to show how the qualities of Christ's two natures belong to his one person. In Jesus, both natures remain complete and real, without separation or mixture. The Latin word persona ("person") and the Greek word prosōpon (G4383, meaning "face" or "appearance") once referred to theater masks, which shows that early Christians used everyday images to explain divine truths. God does not play different roles; he truly exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three hypostases who share one divine essence.
At first, these Greek and Roman ideas, based on metaphysics—abstract concepts that transcend the natural world—might seem far removed from first-century faith. All early Christians agreed on the "what": Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God, fully divine and fully human. Even secular Roman writers attest that his followers worshiped him as a god and that his life and death left a lasting mark on the empire (see "Historicity of Jesus"). By the second and third centuries, church leaders realized they had little agreement on the "how," and several false teachings arose that denied Jesus' eternal divinity. Adoptionism claimed the Father only adopted the Son as his heir, either before creation or during his earthly life. Monarchianism taught that the Son and Holy Spirit were merely representatives of the Father in a hierarchical structure. Subordinationism argued that the Son and Holy Spirit submitted to the Father in perfect obedience. All of these ideas treated the Son as a created being instead of recognizing him as eternally uncreated and entirely in the exact image of God.
The Council of Nicaea clarified whether Jesus is "of one being" (Greek: hōmoousios, G3676 / G3776) or "of similar being" (Greek: hōmoiousios, G3664) with the Father. Though the debate came down to a single Greek letter, it concerned Christ's very identity (see "Christology: Titles of Jesus"), a question that remains central to salvation for all Christians. The Latin term consubstantial means "of the same substance." At Nicaea, church leaders heard two opposing theologians from Alexandria, a city famous for its library and thinkers. Alexander argued that Jesus is the eternally uncreated Son who shares one essence with the Father, while Arius claimed, "There was a time when the Son was not." The council affirmed that Christ shares the Father's essence, showing that he is entirely God in human form from eternity. The author of Hebrews had already testified, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word" (Heb. 1:3). Athanasius, Alexander's successor as bishop, defended this high christology. In the first century, the apostle Thomas expressed no doubt when he cried, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).
Scientific Views of the Trinity
At its triple point, H₂O exists as liquid, solid, and vapor at the same time. Many churchgoers use this analogy to explain the Trinity, but it does not work. It is a heresy (Greek: hairesis, G139), a personal opinion that causes division, because it treats the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as separate states. Peter warns, "No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation" (2 Pet. 1:20). Water can appear in three forms at once, but we can still divide it, which makes the example modalistic. God does not exist in modes. All three hypostases of the Trinity exist fully and eternally, and each plays a distinct role. Unlike H₂O, God forms an absolute Trinity: three inseparable expressions of one divine nature. Even though water is not a perfect example, nature still shows true trinities, such as the three spatial dimensions—length, width, and height—which must coexist for space to exist at all.
The universe shows this same pattern. It contains space, time, and matter, three realities that depend on each other. Each one also has a three-part structure: space includes length, width, and height; time moves as past, present, and future; and atoms contain protons, neutrons, and electrons. Some Christian thinkers have seen a reflection of this pattern in the created order: God created the cosmos as an absolute trinity composed of three connected trinities. He also formed three heavens, each with its own purpose and clear boundaries (Gen. 1:6; Ps. 19:1; 150:1; 2 Cor. 12:2).
How do complex metaphysics and cosmology connect to the Trinity? Some biblical scholars struggle to reconcile the "historical Jesus," a simple Galilean craftsman and rabbi, with the cosmic "Christ of faith," a term applied to the loftier passages of the New Testament. Yet the evangelist John presents Jesus as the divine Logos (G3056, "Word" or "logical definition of absolute universal truth"; see John 1:1; Gen. 1), a title that carries rich theological and philosophical meaning drawn from both Jewish and Greek thought. The classics scholar Gregory Hays noted:
Of the doctrines central to the Stoic worldview, perhaps the most important is the unwavering conviction that the world is organized rationally and coherently organized. More specifically, it is controlled and directed by an all-pervading force that the Stoics designated by the term logos. The term (from which English "logic" and the suffix "-logy" derive) has a semantic range so broad as to be almost untranslatable. At a basic level, it designates rational, connected thought—whether envisioned as a characteristic (rationality, the ability to reason) or as the product of that characteristic (an intelligible utterance or a connected discourse). Logos operates both in individuals and in the universe as a whole. In individuals, it is the faculty of reason. On a cosmic level, it is the rational principle that governs the organization of the universe. In this sense, it is synonymous with "nature," "Providence," or "God." (When the author of John's gospel tells us that "the Word"—Logos—was with God and is to be identified with God, he is borrowing Stoic terminology.) All events are determined by the logos and follow in an unbreakable chain of cause and effect (Introduction to Meditations, xx).
The evangelists and apostles who wrote about Jesus understood his divinity and humanity as a dynamic tension. Today, quantum cosmologists observe that the universe appears finely tuned for human life, a phenomenon known as the "anthropic principle." Combining the theological and philosophical meaning of Logos with this scientific insight reveals an important truth: the "historical Jesus Christ of faith" is God's absolute truth and the reason for our existence. The New Testament affirms this reality:
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 all humankind (John 1:1–4).
The Son 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 have been created through him and for him (Col. 1:15–16).
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